Kino Lorber is serving up four terrific Universal Westerns in March, an announcement that gets. 2020 off to a great start.
Canyon Passage (1946)
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Starring Dana Andrews, Brian Donlevy, Susan Hayward, Patricia Roc, Ward Bond, Hoagy Carmichael, Andy Devine, Lloyd Bridges
Canyon Passage was Jacques Tourneur’s first Western and first film in color. It’s got a great cast (Ward Bond is terrific — and very scary) and incredible Technicolor photography from Edward Cronjager, who also shot Lang’s Western Union (1941). This is a very overlooked, underrated film.
Night Passage (1957)
Directed by James Neilson
Starring James Stewart, Audie Murphy, Dan Duryea, Dianne Foster, Elaine Stewart, Brandon de Wilde, Jay C. Flippen, Robert J. Wilke, Hugh Beaumont
Shot in Technirama, a high-fidelity combination of VistaVision and anamorphic widescreen, Night Passage is as sharp as movies could get in the late 50s. And with loads of incredible location work in Durango, Colorado, it’s stunning — and a perfect candidate for Blu-Ray. The movie itself, while it’s no masterpiece, has been unjustly maligned. You’ll find the story behind all that in an old post.
Man In The Shadow (1957)
Directed by Jack Arnold
Starring Jeff Chandler, Orson Welles, Colleen Miller, Barbara Lawrence, John Larch, Royal Dano, James Gleason
There are a thousand reasons to be excited about this modern-day (well, 1957) Western — Jeff Chandler, Orson Welles, B&W CinemaScope and Jack Arnold, for starters. Welles and producer Albert Zugsmith got to talking here, which led to Touch Of Evil (1958).
The Rare Breed (1966)
Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen
Starring James Stewart, Maureen O’Hara, Brian Keith, Juliet Mills, Ben Johnson, Jack Elam, Harry Carey, Jr.
The best thing The Rare Breed has going for it is its incredible cast — how could it go wrong? Not to mention the Technicolor/Panavision cinematography of William H. Clothier.
All four films will feature a commentary (I’m doing both Passage films) and an original trailer. It’s no easy to recommend these things!
50 Westerns From The 50s. 
Well this is very good news- particularly excited about Canyon Passage & Night Passage.Canyon Passage makes my list of 25 “Top 10 Favorite Westerns” – no way could I actually limit it to 10 if you know what I mean:).
Congratulations on the commentary assignments – I have listed to many of your previous ones and they are both informative and fun. Not as excited about The Rare Breed – while I am a Jimmy Stewart & Maureen O’Hara fan – eh about that particular movie. I have this in the J Stewart collection on DVD – which for the most part has good picture quality. I have upgraded all of the available films in that set on blu-ray e.g. Bend of the River, The Far Country, The Man from Laramie & now Night Passage but think I’ll draw the line at The Rare Breed. Don’t know The Man in the Shadow but I usually like Jeff Chandler’s work. Sorry he wasn’t with us longer.
I’m a big fan of Night Passage, and it was a lot of fun doing that commentary. it’d been a long time since I’d seen Canyon Passage, and it really knocked me out — so much of Tourneur’s horror/noir look made its what into the movie. It’s a really unique Western.
Share your thoughts on The Rare Breed. it’s one of those where the whole doesn’t equal the sum of its parts. But that cast!
I have to disagree that CANYON PASSAGE is overlooked/underrated.
For starters there are already two Blu Ray versions available,(UK,Germany)
as well as the Universal DVD back in the days when Universal really cared about their back catalog of vintage titles.
I don’t expect today’s “celebrity obsessed” generation to be interested
in CANYON PASSAGE or any other vintage Western,for that matter.
Only the other day some vacuous so called “political commentator”
confessed that she had never even heard of Doris Day…..typical.
The fact is that Laura,Vienna,Kristina,Margot,Colin,Mike,Jeff and many other
fine people who run very fine blogs have all heard of CANYON PASSAGE
and at the end of the day that’s all that matters.
Tourneur’s stock has continued to rise over the last 55 years and will
continue to do so especially if the aforementioned people continue to
fight his corner,as I’m sure they will.
Finally,again I’d like to put in a kind word for THE RARE BREED which
is far,far superior to McLaglen clunkers like SOMETHING BIG and
THE LAST HARD MEN. The fact that legends Stewart and Ben Johnson
share a scene together makes the whole thing worthwhile-but there’s far
more to the film than that. The German,Explosive Blu Ray looked fantastic,
as good as a vintage Universal Western gets,so the Kino version should
be equally impressive.
I’m sorry that I’m gonna miss the Toby commentary on both “Passage”
films,I’m sorry Dude,I cannot afford to “double dip” these days.
To bad you never got MAN IN THE SHADOW,I’d have loved for you to have
been let loose on an Arnold flick….someday perhaps.
You’ve found the same gold in The Rare Breed that I did, its cast.
My point with Canyon Passage is that is deserves to be mentioned along with Cat People, Out Of The Past and Stars In My Crown. Tourneur is known for a tiny handful of films, when he made so many good ones.
In the early ’60’s the UK’s Sight & Sound magazine
did a piece on Tourneur who at the time had just been
“re-discovered” by trendy French critics.
As always where The French lead,the rest of us eventually
follow or The USA and The UK at least.
The interviewer mentioned a particular fondness for
STARS IN MY CROWN and Tourneur was amazed that anyone
had actually seen the film which he stated was “thrown away”
by MGM at the time.
Tourneur stated that STARS IN MY CROWN was his favorite
of all of his films and THE FEARMAKERS his least favorite.
THE FEARMAKERS was certainly not “third time lucky”
for Tourneur and Dana Andrews.
THE FEARMAKERS does,however have a dynamite,late
career turn from Dick Foran which turns out to be the films
strong suit.
The fact is,the way things now stand Horror and Noir are always
going to have a higher profile than Westerns and I take what you say,
and admit that NIGHT OF THE DEMON is always going to be
more highly regarded than CANYON PASSAGE.
The fact that soon there will be 3 Blu Ray editions of CANYON
PASSAGE means that it’s reputation can only grow further
especially when DVD Beaver and Cinesavant get on it’s case.
My idea of overlooked/underrated Westerns are two from
Harold Schuster namely JACK SLADE and DRAGOON WELLS
MASSACRE which so far have not even had a DVD release
or are highly unlikely to.
Finally,Toby perhaps you can get on Kino’s case and get them
to release Jack Arnold’s THE TATTERED DRESS which again
has never been released on DVD even.
A lot of folks are after this one and a Toby commentary
would surely be the icing on the cake.
I won’t be double dipping on any of these .It’s nice to see these getting released ,but I would like to see some unreleased westerns getting released on either BLU RAY or DVD .Modern westerns don’t really appeal to me ,and the only reason I have MAN IN THE SHADOW is because it’s on a compilation ,but modern westerns have their fans.
These releases are so exciting! I’ve only seen the PASSAGE films (love CANYON PASSAGE, like NIGHT PASSAGE) so I’ll get to enjoy revisiting those films (with Toby’s commentaries!) along with exploring some new-to-me movies.
The more I see CANYON PASSAGE, the more it impresses me. I saw it as recently as one year ago at the Autry Museum, hosted by Jeremy Arnold, who’s also done some good Kino commentaries. It’s one of those films which is so rich it reveals more every time I see it, in terms of characters’ relationships, the themes, etc. Really interested to hear what you have to say, Toby.
And John, thank you for the nice mention! Great to “see” you here!
I’m excited about the variety of titles Kino is putting out, including Westerns and British noir, and that they’re bringing out most of them with at least some extras.
I’ll be reviewing a new-to-me Tourneur film soon, incidentally, the new Warner Archive release of GREAT DAY IN THE MORNING. Any movie with Virginia Mayo and Ruth Roman, directed by Tourneur, has to be worth watching. 🙂
Happy New Year to Toby and all here! 🙂
Best wishes,
Laura
Laura,I’m glad you mentioned Virginia Mayo.I watched her in THE PROUD ONES the other night and she gave such a great performance .She was one of my favourite actresses in westerns.
Graham, I agree about Virginia Mayo in Westerns and she liked making them. Her favorite director was Raoul Walsh. She liked working with Joel McCrea and she described his horse riding as like watching a symphony.
Here is an interview she gave in the early 1990’s. http://westernclippings.com/interview/virginiamayo_interview.shtml
Toby, congratulations on getting more commentary assignments and Happy New Year!
Any good Westerns coming out on Blu-Ray is very good news in my book. I first saw the above mentioned four wonderful Western Movies on television as a
youngster. I liked them then and I still do, and always will. Also, I would like to join John K in commending the bloggers and everyone else who does their part in keeping Western Movies alive in the world of today.
I first saw THE RARE BREED(1966) on the NBC SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES in 1968. I thought it was a better than good entertaining Western then and I still do. Yes, the movie had a great cast and it also had a good story line of introducing English Hereford cattle to the ranching West. As someone who grew up in a world of raising Hereford cattle, this movie struck a chord with me and a lot of other people that I knew. Although, the scene of Sam “Bulldog” Burnett(James Stewart) with the Hereford/Longhorn crossbreed calf was unrealistic and laughable.
The cattle stampede scene is very well-done and is quite exciting. Hal Needham is listed as the action coordinator and the stunt women Patty Elder and Stephanie Epper were almost killed in the scene where the wagon turned over, but they escaped with minor injuries. This was in the final cut of the movie.
THE RARE BREED isn’t one of James Stewart’s great westerns, and there are flaws and gaffs, but it’s pretty entertaining anyway and it isn’t one of the worst Westerns ever made.
Here is a newsreel made at the premiere in Fort Worth, Texas at the Palace Theater on February 2, 1966. https://texasarchive.org/2008_00207
Firstly Walter,many thanks for the RARE BREED clip and
in particular the Mayo interview-this one for some reason has
passed me by,so thanks Walter.
Interesting Mayo comments on Raoul Walsh and Kirk Douglas
and as an aside Douglas loathed working with Walsh-he maintained
that horses were ill treated on that film.
Yep! by many accounts Kirk was intense in those early days but
he certainly mellowed with age.
Laura I can virtually guarantee that you will love THE RARE BREED
especially the Disneyesque second half.
Really two films in one,the first half has Jimmy sorting out nasty
Jack Elam.
I look forward to Laura’s take on GREAT DAY IN THE MORNING
on the Tourneur register I would rate it in the same league as
THE LAST FRONTIER on the Anthony Mann register both films
not without much interest but way below the directors’ best.
The heavy Jumbo Means played by Raymond Burr is identical to
the heavy that he played in George Sherman’s COUNT THREE
AND PRAY recently released on a lovely Sony Blu Ray.
I mentioned here recently that COUNT THREE AND PRAY is
similar in many ways to CANYON PASSAGE with it’s strong
sense of community and both films affection for the often
contentious townsfolk.
That element sadly is basically missing from GREAT DAY IN
THE MORNING the vehicle sadly is nowhere near as strong
and relies on more basic plot development.
Having said all that it’s great to have GREAT DAY IN THE MORNING
beautifully restored in widescreen.
Graham mentioned THE PROUD ONES which is certainly my idea
of a very underrated Western,perhaps it’s reputation would be higher
if it’s director Robert Webb had more “cult” appeal.
The recent German Blu Ray is a considerable upgrade over the DVD
version.
If I sounded a bit prickly yesterday it’s because I saw on Blu Ray.com
that The Bounty Hunter is due on Blu, but sadly,I should have know better;
it’s the Jennifer Aniston film not the much sought after Scott title.
Well this blog is always a pleasure and a financial cost creator for me. Now I’ll be having to purchase Count Three and Pray:)
A few more random thoughts: 1) Canyon Passage has some wonderful plusses a great cast, originates from a novel authored by Ernest Haycox & Ward Bond is just terrifying. The setting is beautiful & I just love Susan Hayward & Dana Stevens in it – throw in Hoagy Carmichael & the direction by Tourneur – wow!
2) Love seeing Virginia Mayo in just about anything including a recent viewing of Colorado Territory. I picked up her autobiography based on a mention in Laura’s blog & enjoyed it. She’s very candid including a story where having recently moved near Joel McRea. He and his son rode over to welcome her to the neighborhood because Mayo surmised Frances Dee (Mrs. M) was too stiff and uptight to ever invite her over for a neighborhood tea or some such.
3) I’m putting The Proud Ones on to my viewing schedule this month!
John, thanks for the encouragement re enjoying THE RARE BREED and also all the other great feedback and info. I’ve never seen COUNT THREE AND PRAY, sounds like it needs to be on my list.
Lyson, I’ve been curious about Virginia’s take on Frances Dee as it seems out of keeping with Frances’s local reputation. Frances was very active in her community and known for spontaneous acts of kindness to others such as bringing home soldiers she saw hitchhiking for Thanksgiving with the family, including giving them a place to spend the night. If Virginia’s impression is accurate it sounds like it must have been something specific with the ladies.
I’m glad Graham mentioned THE PROUD ONES as it’s been over a dozen years since I last saw it. Time for a rewatch!
Best wishes,
Laura
I agree with John’s comparison of Great Day In The Morning and The Last Frontier. I would rate the former slightly higher for the cast therein.
Just finished GREAT DAY IN THE MORNING and the assessments here seem fair. Worth watching, most especially for the ladies and the gorgeous Technicolor (the Blu-ray is a treat), but surprisingly dry for a Tourneur film, with an unlikeable hero (anti-hero?) whose relationships never come to anything.
Best wishes,
Laura
The other day I bought a DVD with 6 movies I thought I would never see on DVD .It was released on Umbrella Entertainment here in Australia and called THE JUNGLE JIM MOVIE COLLECTION.It was produced by our old friend Sam Katzman.
Let me know how they look. Would love to have some of those on DVD!
Toby,I have watched most of the films on the Jungle Jim collection and they are all good prints.
Wonderful! Is it region free?
Toby,not sure,but 95% sure it is.
Thanks, Graham!
https://thehannibal8.wordpress.com/2020/01/06/dvd-news-273-the-jungle-jim-movie-collection/
With reference to John’s comment that The Proud Ones being underrated, I feel its more likely Robert Ryan does not have a high box office appeal.
Just checked out Laura’s review of GREAT DAY IN THE MORNING and
could not agree more with it.
Actually COUNT THREE AND PRAY is not really a Western,more
Americana although it does have Western elements.
Van Heflin,too is an anti hero but generates far more sympathy than
Stack in the Tourneur film.
The opening scenes are a virtual copy to the opening of Boetticher’s
HORIZONS WEST-was this George Sherman’s nod to his buddy?
Like COUNT THREE AND PRAY and GREAT DAY IN THE MORNING
HORIZONS WEST also had another great Raymond Burr heavy performance.
In COUNT THREE AND PRAY Burr and Alison Hayes make a superb
very bad twosome.
Sony nowadays release very few of their classic films themselves so
COUNT THREE AND PRAY was a very welcome release a lovely
transfer in it’s original aspect ratio 2.55.
As GREAT DAY IN THE MORNING has been covered here I thought
I would draw attention to Gary’s review over at DVD Beaver.
Gary is very impressed with not only the film but the stunning quality
on the Warner Archive Blu Ray.
Gary’s detailed review is well worth checking out,plenty of nice screen grabs
as well to entice potential buyers.
We live in hope that Warners present the other RKO 50’s Westerns that
they own with similar love and care.
DEVIL’S CANYON,TENSION AT TABLE ROCK,TREASURE OF PANCHO
VILLA.
The Blu-Ray looks good, and I really like the movie. Will have a review up soon.
With this Blu-Ray, plus working on a commentary for Canyon Passage and doing some very interesting research on Stranger On Horseback (more on that later), I’ve been wallowing in Jacques Tourneur Westerns of late. What really impressed me in Great Day In The Morning is Ruth Roman. She’s so good!
John k ,I was only thinking about TREASURE OF PANCO VILLA the other day and how it would be nice to have a good release of it .There are still plenty of westerns that need to be put on DVD or BLU RAY.
Toby,I look forward to your research on STRANGER ON HORSEBACK.I’ve often wondered if a longer version exists considering the elements it was taken from.
I received a copy of the Stranger On Horseback script. It’s over 100 pages long, WAY too long for a 66 minute movie. Gonna go through it and see what was removed. Can’t wait t dig into it.
Toby,in a previous post on STRANGER ON HORSEBACK you mentioned a naked scene in a pool that was censored so this could be something missing that was cut.When I looked this film up on IMDB someone mentioned it was on DARN GOOD WESTERNS .I also discovered 2 more volumes of this series that I’ve never seen before .Vols 3 and 4 which I have now ordered.
I will be VERY interested to hear your opinion on GREAT DAY IN THE
MORNING at the moment we have Laura and myself negative and
Margo and Gary positive…the swing vote is with you Toby 🙂
For all my negative comments regarding GDITM I’m still thrilled to have it
on this beautifully restored Blu Ray in it’s original aspect ratio.
STRANGER ON HORSEBACK is excellent,I was first made aware of this
film by an early 60’s piece by Raymond Durgnat who commented on (among
other things) a moment of what he called “Hawksian Moral Sadism”
where the weak willed sheriff (Emile Meyer) finally accepts the need for
violence and blasts away at the bad guys with a shotgun.
“How do you like it” asks Joel McCrea
“Loathsome” replies Meyer grinning broadly.
Ruth Roman great in anything have you seen the very low budget
but interesting REBEL IN TOWN.
Finally a very interesting review of CIMARRON from Glenn at Cinesavant
Glenn tells it pretty much as I remember it from all those years ago.
When all is said and done it’s fine to see these Warner Archive Westerns
getting such detailed and informative coverage.
Night Passage is one of my favorite Stewart westerns. Go figure.
Congrats on the commentary gigs!
I’m a big fan of it, too. And watching it 4,217 times while doing the commentary, I didn’t get sick of it! In fact, the more I watched it, the more excited I got about the Stewart/Murphy scene coming up.
I would love to see Naked Spur on BluRay. I think that is Stewart’s best western, but Night Passage is pretty good. Anything Audie/Duryea is going to be good.
Just checked in at Hollywood-Elsewhere and am saddened to learn
of Edd Byrnes passing age 87.
Edd defined a whole era for cats of my vintage….. OK 70 somethings.
Nice tribute from Jeff and how very true, in his later career Edd WAS
Rick Dalton.
Still hoping for a Warner Archive Blu Ray of YELLOWSTONE KELLY.
Thanks again, John, for keeping us in the loop. Before I ever actually got to see “77 SUNSET STRIP” myself everyone was talking about Edd Byrnes’j character, Kookie. He even had a hit record “Kookie Lend Me Your Comb”. I read much later that Edd actually thought Kookie was a pillock.
RIP Edd Byrnes.
Hey Toby – how about doing reviews of the best “Made for TV Westerns” ? I recently saw a list of 180+ of these. I know a lot of them were cheesy and many had lousy TV-style soundtracks, but there were some good ones. I saw a few of these in the 70s and early 80s when they were aired (Gambler, Sacketts, High Noon 2) and remebered some of them being pretty good.
Sounds like a fun exercise. However, it falls way outside the scope of this blog and I’ve hardly seen any of them. I’d do a lousy job of it, I’m afraid.
Tom ,THE LAST DAY with Richard Widmark and RETURN OF THE GUNFIGHTER with Robert Taylor which was shown on US TV are two good ones.
Criterion has announced a release of DESTRY RIDES AGAIN. Sadly, the 1954 DESTRY is not included.
The former Johnny Guitar checking in, so glad to see 50s Westerns is back and these very discussions in this thread is why I love 50s Westerns. So many great and informative opinions on such a wide variety of films. Some opinions I agree with a & some not. But all are interesting.
I don’t know if this happened to anyone else but ever since the Toby posting of the 1 Eyed Jacks book I have not seen any further postings on this blog since. That is until just a few days ago when I came here and a whole slew of post-One Eyed Jacks postings suddenly appeared. Very glad to see that life seems to have gone on even if I never saw it till now.
Welcomes back!
Lee R,good to have you back with Toby’s possee .I was wondering where you were.Hope to hear your comments and your feedback soon.