50s Westerns DVD News #238: Gun Fever (1958).

Directed by Mark Stevens
Screenplay by Stanley H. Silverman and Mark Stevens
Starring Mark Stevens, John Lupton, Larry Storch, Maureen Hingert (Jana Davi), Aaron Saxon, Jered Barclay, Dean Fredericks

Almost didn’t post this one since, to me, Sidonis’ forced subtitles are a deal-breaker. But the movie itself — Mark Stevens in a 1958 revenge Western that ran into trouble with the PCA, sounds so cool I just had to throw it out there.

Mark Stevens co-wrote and directed Gun Fever (1958), so we can count on it being a tough little picture. (The crime picture Cry Vengeance, which he directed in 1954, is really cool.) The director of photography was Charles Van Enger, who shot Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), one of my all-time favorites.

Gun Fever should be B&W 1.85. Sidonis out of France have it listed as a May DVD release. I’ve never seen this one, and I’m dying to.

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50s Westerns Discoveries Of 2015.

It’s a lot of fun putting this list together every year, seeing what people are coming across for the first time. Remember, though these things are 60-something years old, if you’ve never seen it, it’s a new movie!

To make the list, a picture has to be mentioned by at least three people. This year, there were fewer titles brought up, but the frequency was a lot higher. We ended up with a solid lineup of fairly obscure, medium-budgeted 50s Westerns — and if you haven’t discovered them yourself, search them out.

And I hope this blog helped you discover some of these.

Dragoon Wells Massacre (1957)
This was my personal favorite discovery of the year, and I was so happy to have others finding it, too. William Clothier’s camerawork deserves a solid CinemaScope transfer — and Jack Elam’s performance needs to be seen by more people. (Stay tuned for the Allied Artists blogathon, where I’ll give this thing some much-deserved attention.)

Cave Of Outlaws (1951)
William Castle directs a 50s Western for Universal — shooting at Carlsbad Caverns, Vasquez Rocks and the Iverson Ranch. Needs a DVD release.

Wyoming Mail (1950)
A fairly obscure U-I Western starring Stephen McNally and Alexis Smith. Reginald Le Borg keeps things moving at a brisk pace and Russell Metty makes sure the Technicolor looks terrific.

Gunsmoke In Tucson (1958)
A number of people picked up the DVD from Warner Archive, and it seems like most of us were impressed. If you still haven’t tracked this one down, get to it!

Thunderhoof (1948)
A Phil Karlson horse picture with a cast of only three (and the horse). Can’t to track this one down.

Four Guns To The Border (1954)
This one was on last year’s list, too. We keep bumping into, and we all seem to like it. It’s a great example of what a Universal 50s Western can be: terrific cast, gorgeous Technicolor, plenty of action.

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50s Westerns DVD News #170: The Best Of 2014.

The charge was this: send in your list of favorite 50s Westerns DVD releases for 2014, along with a few 50s Westerns that you discovered this year.

For today, here are your (and my) 10 favorite DVDs or Blu-rays released during the 2014 calendar year.

10. Panhandle (1948) This terrific Rod Cameron picture, directed by Lesley Selander, was released a few years ago as part of VCI’s Darn Good Western Volume 1. This year, it showed up on its on.

9. City Of Bad Men (1953) Dale Robertson leads a great cast: Jeanne Crain, Richard Boone, Lloyd Bridges, Hugh Sanders, Rodolfo Acosta, Don Haggerty, Leo Gordon, John Doucette, Frank Ferguson, James Best. Harmon Jones directs.

8. Fort Massacre (1958) Joel McCrea plays way against type. Forrest Tucker, Susan Cabot, John Russell and Denver Pyle co-star. You can get a nice regular DVD here in the States — and a stunning Blu-ray in Germany.

7. Gunfight At The O.K. Corral (1957) The guys who developed VistaVision look down from heaven, see this Blu-ray playing in our living rooms, and are very happy indeed.

6. The Lusty Men (1952) There was a time when Nicholas Ray was a machine that cranked out Great Movies. This study of modern-day rodeo cowboys — starring Robert Mitchum, Susan Haywood and Arthur Kennedy — comes from the heart of that period.

5. Drum Beat (1954) Alan Ladd shows us he’s got more than Shane up his sleeve, and Delmer Daves delivers yet another solid Western. This is a lot better movie than you’ve heard (or remember).

4. Gunsmoke In Tucson (1958) When an Allied Artists Western starring Mark Stevens makes a Top Ten list, I know I’m in the right place.

3. Tim Holt Western Classics Collection Volume 4 As good as the series Western ever got. For me, this fourth volume is the best — which makes it plenty great indeed.

2. Shoot-Out At Medicine Bend (1957) It’s not a stupendous Randolph Scott movie, but it’s a Randolph Scott movie — and Warner Archive has it shining like a black and white, 1.85 diamond.

1. South Of St. Louis (1949) This terrific Joel McCrea picture, with its Technicolor appropriately saturated, is stunning on Blu-ray from Olive Films. Alexis Smith and Dorothy Malone should’ve paid cinematographer Karl Freund for making them look so beautiful.

Along with all these favorites, there was a common complaint: that Olive Films’ promised The Quiet Gun (1956) didn’t make it in 2014.

Thanks to everyone who sent in their lists.

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DVD Review: Gunsmoke In Tucson (1958).

Directed by Thomas Carr
Produced by William D. Coates
Screenplay by Paul Leslie Peil & Robert Joseph
Story by Paul Leslie Peil
Director Of Photography: William Whitley, ASC
Film Editor: George White
Music Composed by Sid Cutner

CAST: Mark Stevens (Chip Coburn), Forrest Tucker (John Brazos), Gail Robbins (Lou Crenshaw), Vaughn Taylor (Ben Bodeen), John Ward (Slick Kirby), Kevin Hagen (Clem Haney), John Cliff (Sheriff Cass), Gail Kobe (Katy Porter), George Keymas (Hondo), Richard Reeves (Notches Pole), Bill Henry (Sheriff Blane).

__________

As the titles roll, we’re looking up into a large tree. Once “Directed by Thomas Carr” dissolves away, a noose is tossed over a branch of the tree, and the camera pans down for an establishing shot of a lynching, all in CinemaScope and nicely-preserved DeLuxe Color. It’s a stylish way to open Gunsmoke In Tucson (1958), an Allied Artists Western that really delivers—and maintains that visual flair and creativity throughout its running time.

Mark Stevens and Forrest Tucker are brothers on opposite sides of the law. Stevens is Chip Coburn, who wants to put his outlaw ways behind him and settle on a ranch of his own. Tucker is John Brazos, a marshal who doubts his brother will stay on the straight and narrow. Chip winds up in the middle of a rancher-farmer dispute and his forced to pick up his guns again.

Story-wise, it’s nothing new, but the writers—Paul Leslie Peil and Robert Joseph—manage to keep things fresh. As we all know, Westerns work well when they use one of the genre’s standard plots (or plots, in this case) as a springboard. Mark Stevens is really good at the intense, brooding, tortured tough guy, whether in Westerns like this one and Jack Slade (1953) or noir stuff like the excellent Cry Vengeance (1954), which he also directed. Of course, Forrest Tucker is always terrific. His 50s Western filmography is second to none. Gale Robbins is good as Lou, Chip’s saloon girl girlfriend. Gail Kobe’s part, as the good girl who’s loved Chip all along, doesn’t give her much to do. And Kevin Hagan, who plays farmer Clem Haney, is known the world over as Doc Baker on Little House On The Prairie. He does a good job, even though he’s forced to wear a lousy fake beard.

The bond, or conflict, between brothers was a common theme in 50s Westerns. It can be found in pictures like Horizons West (1952), Rage At Dawn (1955), The True Story Of Jesse James (1957), Night Passage (1957), Fury At Showdown (1957) and Face Of A Fugitive (1959, though Fred MacMurray’s brother doesn’t make it past the first reel). Forrest Tucker does a good job in Gunsmoke In Tucson, striking just the right tone in his brother-or-duty scenes and keeping the dialogue from coming off hokey.

Old Tucson was a busy place in 1958 and ’59. Buchanan Rides Alone. Rio Bravo. The Badlanders. The Lone Ranger And The Lost City Of Gold. The location adds tons of production value to this low-budget film, with director of photography William Whitley wisely letting us see the landscape surrounding the street set. The bridge that’s featured so prominently in Buchanan and Gunfight At The O.K. Corral (1957) gets some screen time as well. (I watch for that bridge like a favorite character actor.)

One of the things that really strikes me about Gunsmoke In Tucson, something that was mentioned in its reviews back in ’58, is William P. Whitley’s camerawork. Whitley worked for Sam Katzman at Columbia in the early 50s (Jungle Jim, serials, etc.), then got into television—The Adventures Of Superman, The Lone Ranger (the fifth, color season) and eventually Bonanza. He shot over 75 episodes of Bonanza before retiring. He did three pictures for Allied Artists, all released in 1958: Quantrill’s Raiders, Queen Of Outer Space and Gunsmoke In Tucson. All are in Scope and look terrific. Whitley seems to have enjoyed the chance to shoot for the wide screen–his shots are well-composed and inventive throughout Gunsmoke In Tucson. And he made sure Gale Robbins’ red hair popped in scene after scene.

We wouldn’t be appreciating Mr. Whitley’s work if it wasn’t so well presented by Warner Archive. It’s a bit soft, perhaps, but the color is really nice and the audio’s got plenty of punch. This is a really tough, solid little movie—the kind of forgotten treasures this genre, and decade, are full of. Recommended.

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