Blu-Ray News #331: Santa Fe Trail (1940).

Directed by Michael Curtiz
Starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale, Van Heflin, Guinn “Big Boy” Williams, Ward Bond

Warner Bros. had a real knack for stomping all over American history in the name of making a good movie. Santa Fe Trail (1940) is a prime example.

Historic figures like “Jeb” Stuart (Errol Flynn), John Brown (Raymond Massey), George Armstrong Custer (Ronald Reagan), Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis pop in and out of this thing, bumping into each other in very non-actual ways. But none of that matters, since the performances and direction are great, and the whole thing runs at about a mile a minute.

This was the seventh of Flynn’s pictures with Olivia de Havilland. They’d do only one more together Raoul Walsh’s They Died With Their Boots On (1941), with Flynn playing George Armstrong Custer, who Reagan plays in this one. Raymond Massey is terrific as John Brown — who cares about the realities of it.

It’ll be great to see Santa Fe Trail in high definition after its years in public domain VHS/DVD hell. Highly recommended.

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Blu-Ray News #330: The Naked Spur (1953).

Directed by Anthony Mann
Starring James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker, Millard Mitchell

Mann and Stewart’s third Western, coming after Winchester ’73 (1950) and Bend Of The River (1952), has been screaming for some restoration work for quite some time. Warner Archive has announced a Blu-Ray release for September. Can’t wait to see what they’ve done with it.

These Mann-Stewart pictures are certainly among the best Westerns ever made. Beyond that, it comes down to your personal preference.

I’ll post the technical details as they become available. This one’s as essential as they get.

Love that poster art by Gustav Rehberger.

Thanks to Paula for the tip.

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Active Ingredients.

Like the last post, which was a status report on the book, here’s another one dealing with something I’m often asked about — research and resources.

There’s a great big stack of books I’ve turned to quite a bit during the “making” of 50 Westerns From The 50s. You’re probably familiar with most, if not all, of them.

The B Directors: A Biographical Directory – Winston Wheeler Dixon
Close Up: The Contract Director – Jon Tuska
Company Of Heroes: My Life As An Actor In The John Ford Stock Company – Harry Carey, Jr.
De Toth On De Toth – Andre De Toth & Anthony Slide
Escape Artist: The Life And Films Of John Sturges – Glenn Lovell
The Films Of Audie Murphy – Bob Larkins
The Films Of Budd Boetticher – Robert Nott
The Films Of Randolph Scott – Robert Nott
Fritz Lang: The Nature Of The Beast – Patrick McGilligan
Highway To Hollywood, The Hard Way – Maury Dexter
The Hollywood Posse – Diana Serra Cary
Hollywood Trail Boss – Burt Kennedy
I Was That Masked Man – Clayton Moore
John Ford – Peter Bogdanovich
John Wayne: The Life And Legend – Scott Eyman
Ladies Of The Western – Boyd Magers & Michael Fitzgerald
Last Of The Cowboy Heroes – Robert Nott
The Legendary Lydecker Brothers – Jan Allen Henderson
Lost In The Fifties: Rediscovering Phantom Hollywood – Winston Wheeler Dixon
A Million Feet Of Film: The Making Of One-Eyed Jacks – Toby Roan (just kidding)
Paul Landres: A Director’s Stories – Francis Nevins
Print The Legend: The Life And Times Of John Ford – Scott Eyman
The Ragman’s Son – Kirk Douglas
Searching For John Ford: A Life – Joseph McBride
A Siegel Film: An Autobiography – Don Siegel
Talk’s Cheap, Action’s Expensive: The Films Of Robert L. Lippert – Mark Thomas McGee
Three Bad Man: John Ford, John Wayne, Ward Bond – Scott Allen Nollen
Universal International Westerns, 1929-46 – Gene Blottner
Universal International Westerns, 1947-63 – Gene Blottner
The Western – Phil Hardy
Westerns Women – Boyd Magers & Michael Fitzgerald
When In Disgrace – Budd Boetticher
White Hats And Silver Spurs – Herb Fagan
Who The Devil Made It – Peter Bogdanovich
Who The Hell’s In It – Peter Bogdanovich
Wild Bill Elliott – Gene Blottner
The Years Of George Montgomery – George Montgomery

This is just a small fraction of the books I’ve turned to in my research, and the list grows every day. (Assembling a bibliography is a real drag, by the way.) I’ve noticed that, next to maybe The Beatles and Bob Dylan, I have more books on John Ford and John Wayne (often combined) than any other topic.

Then there’s magazine and newspapers articles. There are several binders around here filled with those, some on the films covered in the book and others covering lots and lots of other 50s Westerns. Newspapers.com has been a godsend.

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