Deadly Companions, The
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DVD details
Actor: Brian Keith, Chill Wills, Maureen O' Hara, Strother MartinDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-01-12
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Deadly Companions, The
DVD Review: Verging on "Deadly Dull"
Summary: 3 Stars
This 1961 Western has a lot going for it: It stars Brian Keith and the beautiful Maureen O'Hara, who had such great chemistry in "The Parent Trap," released the very same year. It's Sam Peckinpah's directorial debut in motion pictures; most people reading this know that Peckinpah went on to become a highly acclaimed director with such notable efforts as 1969's "The Wild Bunch." In addition, "The Deadly Companions" was filmed on location in Arizona (including Old Tucson); you can't beat Arizona for fine, authentic Western locations. Lastly, the picture only runs 90 minutes, so it won't likely wear out its welcome.
THE STORY: Keith's character vengefully searches for a scumbag who tried to scalp him alive 5 years earlier and accidently kills a beautiful saloon girl's son. Feeling guilty, he offers to escort her to the ghost town where the boy's father was buried so she can bury the son as well. There's two problems: They have to go through injun territory and two lowlifes accompany them most of the way.
BOTTOM LINE: On paper this sounds like it would be a worthwhile Western, unfortunately it never rises above mediocre, and dangerously verges on being deadly dull. Plus the viewer can hardly see what's going on during the numerous (brief) night sequences. Moreover, two of the main characters are incredibly unlikable (which can be defended on the grounds that they're the real villains of the story). Hence, I can only recommend "The Deadly Companions" to uber-fans of Keith and O'Hara or Peckinpah completists.
With all that said, there are some worthwhile aspects, like the church service in the saloon and the depiction of O'Hara as a social outcast amongst the church folk (for legitimate reasons).
NOTE: There are numerous editions of this film by different dvd companies; my dvd is from PDC Home Entertainment and the picture quality is great for such an old film; the main menu is kind of cheap, but who cares about that?
3/5 Stars is generous. Grade: C
DVD Review: The Masters First feature movie...and a comment on the format
Summary: 4 Stars
This is Peckinpah's first feature film,a western, and a quite enjoyable 1:st. I find it odd that there do not seem to be other dvd releases available in the US than a full screen pan-and-scan version, with not so good picture quality, plus ditto from Canada, with an even more terrible quality. This said, because I recently, 28oct07, bought an official Nordic/Scandinavian release by Futurefilm here in Finland, with a marvelous fine picture quality AND in wide-screen anamorphic format! And seen this way, this is truly lovely movie. So if this state of things is not corrected over in the US, it is truly a shame and a cultural scandal. DVD Review: Peckinpaugh's First Offering
Summary: 5 Stars
This, I am told , was his first Directorship
I only bought it as part of my complete collection.
DVD Review: i make my opinion about the DVD
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this item and i have to say that i dont't see the movie (was a gift for someone else) but i see the main menu and is very poor, just the movie and the menus scene, nothing else, is true the DVD es very cheap, but i expect a little more for a clasic like this; a good thing is the CASE, is a Beauty Slim Case.
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Compe este item y no tengo nada que decir de la pelicula pues no la evisto (era un regalo), sin embargo puedo dar mi opinion respecto al DVD y les dire que lo encuentro bastante pobre, el menu solo tiene la pelicula y la seleccion de escenas, pero nada mas, ni banda sonora, ni biografia del director, ni sinopsis...nada, es verdad que es barato, pero esperaba algo mas. Algo a favor es la CAJA es una Caja de las delgadas (no habia visto una asi) tipo Slim Case, muy bonita y practica.
((Escribe en tu idioma es mejor para todos))
DVD Review: Deadly Companions
Summary: 4 Stars
Brian Keith play ex-Union soldier referred to as Yellowleg and Maureen O'Hara plays a, er, performer at the Black Garter dance hall in Sam Peckinpah's feature film debut, THE DEADLY COMPANIONS. Keith plays a character with a score to settle with a nasty hombre from his past when he gives O'Hara a grudge of her own to gnaw on when he accidentally shoots and kills her son. Keith, with a brace of prairie thugs in tow (Steve Cochran and Chill Wills) attempts to make amends by escorting the headstrong O'Hara through hostile Apache country after which she'll bury her son.
THE DEADLY COMPANIONS has a lot going for it. Dramatic tension is maintained at a satisfyingly high level - the group is threatened from without by the marauding Apaches and, for a variety of reasons, from within by each other . Keith and O'Hara act and react well with each other. O'Hara always seemed to give her best performance opposite a strong male co-star, and the underrated Keith proves a good match. Chill Wills, who was seldom given much more to do then bray and act mulish plays a shaggy ex-Reb with some blood on the hands of the skeletons in his closet, and who, in the course of the movie, reminds us that he was a pretty accomplished character actor.
Although there are moments of explosive violence, Peckinpah doesn't dwell on them with the obsessively loving eye that would later become his trademark. There are other signs of an unbecoming and uncharacteristic delicacy at work. During Keith's and O'Hara's great emotional showdown scene O'Hara talks about the scars she carries from the men with dirty arms who, for money she let pinch her and kiss her. I don't know how many filters O'Hara's speech had to pass through before it reached the screen, but the final product sounds polite and phony. Okay, the bar is set higher because Peckinpah is the director, but still, the way DEADLY COMPANIONS tiptoes around O'Hara's real occupation is aggravating, especially so in light of the fact that Peckinpah devotes an early scene to a clutch of town hens gossiping maliciously about the unwed O'Hara and her five-year-old-son and how it just ain't fitting blah blah blah and land sakes I reckon even she don't know who the boy's father is blah blah blah. (Strother Martin Alert - The church service takes place in a bar that modestly quits serving drinks during the service. Strother Martin plays the town preacher, foreshadowing a similar bit role he'd play seven years later in Peckinpah's masterpiece, THE WILD BUNCH. Oddly enough, in both films Martin leads the congregation in a stirring rendition of Yes, We'll Gather at the River. Must have liked that one.)
For all of its dated delicacy, DEADLY COMPANIONS was interesting and more than a little enjoyable. Deeply undermining the enjoyment factor is the full screen, pan-and-scan presentation. Unless there was absolutely no wide-screen print fit to print, a truly shameful decision. Even so, a high recommendation for this one.
Description of Deadly Companions, The
After going AWOL, a Rebel Civil War soldier named Turk attempted scalping a wounded Union Army officer; and now the retired sergeant, Yellowleg, is obsessed with tracking his attacker.With its small cast, character-driven story, and modest production values, Sam Peckinpah's first feature film seems very like another of his TV Western dramas--just one that happened to get shot in Panavision. The director's favorite TV actor, Brian Keith, plays a surly loner named Yellowleg who ventures into Indian country with a dance-hall girl (Maureen O'Hara), the corpse of her little boy, and a pair of marginally human specimens (Steve Cochran and Chill Wills) who more than justify the title. Everybody has, or seems to have, a guilty or shameful secret: Why does Yellowleg keep his hat on? Was Kit (O'Hara) a widow, or a whore? Action, menace, and ethical dialogues come and go pretty much according to TV rhythms, and the visuals and editing are conventional. But there's enough quirky character work and offbeat mood-making to hint at the singular filmmaker soon to arrive big-time. --Richard T. Jameson
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