Blu-Ray News #354: The Mississippi Gambler (1953).

Directed by Rudolph Maté
Starring Tyrone Power, Piper Laurie, Julie Adams, John McIntire, Paul Cavanagh, John Baer, Ron Randell, Ralph Dumke

Kino Lorber is bringing Rudolph Maté’s The Mississippi Gambler (1953) to Blu-Ray — and that’s a really good thing.

The thing I’ve always wondered about this movie is “Why is this called a Western?” The question still stands, but who cares? It’s really good.

For a vehicle for a major star, Tyrone Power, it’s interesting that it has so many rich character roles — a good part for John McIntire and a great one for Paul Cavanaugh. And it parades a steady stream of others through its 98 minutes. That’s what made doing the commentary for it so much fun — the chance to shine a little light on guys like Ralph Dumke and Bill Walker.

Coming in April. Recommended.

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3-D Blu-Ray News #353: Southwest Passage (1954).

Directed by Ray Nazarro
Starring Joanne Dru, Rod Cameron, John Ireland, John Dehner, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, Morris Ankrum

The folks at The 3-D Film Archive have done it again! The missing reels have been tracked down (it Italy, of all places) and they’ll be bringing Ray Nazarro’s Southwest Passage (1954) to Blu-Ray in 3-D. It’s gonna be a while, so hang tight.

In the meantime, you can see it, flat and full-frame, on DVD from MGM’s old MOD program. It’s a cool movie. And you can get the scoop on its recovery from the Lost Archives” in this podcast.

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DVD/Blu-Ray News #352: Border River (1954).

Directed by George Sherman
Starring Joel McCrea, Yvonne De Carlo, Pedro Armendáriz

Kino Lorber has announced Border River (1954) for DVD and Blu-Ray release in March of 2023. This year’s getting off to a pretty good start already, especially for me — I get to do a commentary for it!

This is the next-to-last of Joel McCrea’s six Westerns for Universal International, released from 1950 to 1954. It’s got a great cast, featuring Yvonne De Carlo, Pedro Armendáriz and the wonderful Mexican character actors Alfonso Bedoya and Nacho Galindo. George Wallace, Commando Cody himself, is in it, too.

It’s directed by George Sherman, so you know you’re in for a good ride. Highly recommended!

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Been Waiting For Something To Shake Loose On These!

From the ClassicFlix newsletter: “We have several major projects underway, the largest at the moment is restoration of all 66 Hopalong Cassidy feature films… The first three films in the series are Hop-A-long Cassidy, The Eagle’s Brood and Bar 20 Rides Again (all 1935).”

This is wonderful news. I can’t wait. More news to follow.

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Blu-Ray News #351: Rancho Notorious (1952).

Directed by Fritz Lang
Starring Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy, Mel Ferrer, Gloria Henry, William Frawley, Jack Elam, George Reeves, Frank Ferguson

When The Warner Archive brought Fritz Lang’s Rancho Notorious to DVD back in 2009, I was overjoyed. They’ve now got a Blu-Ray coming in January — and I’m maybe even more excited.

Since that DVD hit our players, the picture has become one of my favorite 50s Westerns. It’s one I return to quite a bit, finding something new each time. That’s something you can say about most of Lang’s films.

Can’t wait to see Hal Mohr’s gorgeous Technicolor in high definition. Highly, highly recommended.

Thanks to John Knight for the news.

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Blu-Ray News #350: Will Penny (1968).

Written & Directed by Tom Gries
Starring Charlton Heston, Joan Hackett, Donald Pleasence, Lee Majors, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, William Schallert, Matt Clark, Luke Askew

This is going to make a lot of people happy — it’s a constant on many Western fans’ Blu-Ray Want List. Kino Lorber has announced an upcoming Blu-Ray release of Will Penny (1968), one of the finest post-50s Westerns of them all.

Writer-director Tom Gries based his screenplay on an episode of The Westerner, which he also wrote and directed. (Sam Peckinpah created the series.) Charlton Heston often said this was his best performance and named this his favorite of his own films. Lucien Ballard’s cinematography is incredible, and will be beautiful on Blu-Ray — and the entire cast is near perfect.

This is one even real cowboys have a hard time finding fault with. Highly, highly recommended.

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DVD News #349: Bill Elliott Western Double Feature.

It’s been a long, long time since we had a Wild Bill Wednesday. 

Thanks to the folks at VCI, we can add two more William Elliott pictures to our collections, from his time at Columbia.

In Early Arizona (1938)
Directed by Joseph Levering
Starring Bill Elliott, Dorothy Gulliver, Harry Woods, Franklyn Farnum, Jack Ingram, Charles King

Elliott is Whit Gordon, a gunslinger brought in to clean up Tombstone, which is being run by Bull and his gang.

The Law Comes To Texas (1939)
Directed by Joseph Levering
Starring Bill Elliott, Veda Ann Borg, Bud Osborne, Charles King

Elliott’s a lawyer who poses as a rustler to get to the bottom of a Texas town run by outlaws. Around the time Veda Ann Borg did this picture, she was in a car wreck that required surgery to reconstruct her face. Bud Osborne is a crooked judge. (Love the tagline in this title card for the Astor re-release!)

Charles King plays Kaintuck, Elliott’s sidekick, in both. These were some of the last pictures from director Joseph Levering, who got his start with silent dramas and spent the late 30s doing Westerns for Columbia.

Really looking forward to this one. 

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Blu-Ray News #348: Nevada Smith (1966).

Directed by Henry Hathaway
Starring Steve McQueen, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Arthur Kennedy, Suzanne Pleshette, Martin Landau, Pat Hingle, Paul Fix, Gene Evans, John Doucette, Lyle Bettger, Ted de Corsia

It’s about time on this one! Kino Lorber is bringing Henry Hathaway’s Nevada Smith (1966) to Blu-Ray from the camera negative.

It’s a prequel to The Carpetbaggers (1964) with Steve McQueen playing a younger version of Alan Ladd’s character. It was beautifully shot by Lucien Ballard in a number of incredible locations. For 50s Western fans, its biggest appeal might be its supporting cast of great Western character actors. Highly recommended.

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Blu-Ray News #347: Four Guns To The Border (1954).

Directed by Richard Carlson
Starring Rory Calhoun, Colleen Miller, George Nader, Walter Brennan, Nina Foch, John McIntire

Four Guns To The Border (1954) is an excellent 50s Western from Universal International. It’s been a hard one to track down, but our friends at Explosive Media are taking care of that.It’s coming to Blu-Ray in December.

This picture gave actor Richard Carlson one of his few directing credits. He does a tremendous job. Wish he’d done more. Four Guns To The Border has a great cast, gorgeous color and will be terrific on Blu-Ray. Can’t wait!

Thanks to John Knight for the tip!

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Blu-Ray News #346: The Long Riders (1980).

Directed by Walter Hill
Starring David Carradine, Keith Carradine, Robert Carradine, James Keach, Stacy Keach, Dennis Quaid, Randy Quaid, Christopher Guest, Nicholas Guest, Pamela Reid, Harry Carey Jr., Fran Ryan

Imprint has announced Directed By Walter Hill, a Blu-Ray set of six films directed by Walter Hill: Hard Times (1975), The Driver (1978), The Long Riders (1980), Extreme Prejudice (1987), Johnny Handsome (1989) and Broken Trail (2006).

This is good news, first, because I absolutely love The Driver and The Long Riders—and because among the many extras to be including in this thing, I get to do a commentary for The Long Riders—one of the best of the many Jesse James movies. It’s almost certainly the most accurate.

The folks at Imprint do extraordinary work, always, and I’m overjoyed to be a tiny part of this one. Highly recommended.

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