Fox Western Classics (Rawhide / The Gunfighter / Garden of Evil)
by Henry Hathaway, Henry King
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Actor: Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, Tyrone PowerDirector: Henry Hathaway, Henry King
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Box set, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 272 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-05-13
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of Fox Western Classics (Rawhide / The Gunfighter / Garden of Evil)
DVD Review: 3 worthwhile movies; package could be better
Summary: 3 Stars
This set includes two terrific movies, Henry King's THE GUNFIGHTER with Gregory Peck and Henry Hathaway's RAWHIDE with Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward. The third film, Hathaway's GARDEN OF EVIL with Hayward and Gary Cooper, is much the least of the lot, but at least it has beautiful CinemaScope cinematography that the disc captures very well. It's also regrettable that GARDEN is the only one of the three with a commentary track, doubly so in that the three commentators discuss nothing but Bernard Herrmann's musical score -- a subject in which fans of westerns, Cooper, Hayward or Hathaway will have no interest whatsoever.
On the plus side, as noted, the other two films are terrific, with one of Peck's best-ever performances in THE GUNFIGHTER. Also, the package includes several extras to compensate for the snooze-fest Herrmann commentary: featurettes on Lone Pine, CA, a popular location where over 400 movies were made, on GUNFIGHTER cinematographer Arthur Miller, and on Henry Hathaway, a director whose career and work are decades overdue for the respect they deserve.
DVD Review: 2-1/2 Great Westerns
Summary: 5 Stars
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Fox has released a terrific 3-disc box set, THE WESTERN CLASSICS, in which we're finally getting a DVD version of one of the most revered westerns ever produced, THE GUNFIGHTER (1950) starring Gregory Peck.
Directed by Henry King in glorious black-and-white, THE GUNFIGHTER is almost a Shakespearean tragedy, and is considered to be the first adult western, predating better known films like HIGH NOON and SHANE.
Peck plays Jimmy Ringo, a notorious gunfighter who would like to bury his reputation, but is forced to keep on the run because young punks keep forcing him to draw.
Currently, he's being pursued by the three brothers of a braggart he killed in self defense, but he stops off in the small town where his estranged wife (Helen Wescott) lives, hoping for a reconciliation. The sheriff of the town happens to be Millard Mitchell, an old friend and former gunslinger.
Mitchell wants Peck to leave town, but he won't go until Westcott agrees to meet him. In the meantime, the three brothers are getting closer and, if that's not bad enough, there's a young hothead in town (Skip Homeier) who thinks he's a faster draw than the legendary Jimmy Ringo.
THE GUNFIGHTER may not contain a lot of shoot-'em-up action, but it's filled with a HIGH NOON-like suspense and colorful, multi-dimensional characters. Karl Malden and Jean Parker co-star.
DVD extras include a featurette on cinematographer Arthur Miller, an artist with black-and-white, and a retrospective "Making of" mini-documentary.
Almost as good as THE GUNFIGHTER is RAWHIDE (1951), another beautifully-photographed black-and-white western, directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward and Hugh Marlowe.
Marlowe and his band of ruthless outlaws (Jack Elam, Dean Jagger, George Tobias), all escaped convicts, take control of a desert stagecoach station, run by Edgar Buchanan and his tenderfoot assistant (Power). They kill Buchanan, then hold Power and stage passenger Hayward (and her baby niece) hostage, waiting for a gold shipment to arrive by coach the next day.
Power knows that, once the outlaws have the gold, they will kill their captives, so he and Hayward desperately devise a plan to thwart their intentions.
RAWHIDE is another suspense-filled western, containing a fair share of surprise plot twists.
DVD extras include featurettes on Ms. Hayward and on Lone Pine, where RAWHIDE, THE GUNFIGHTER and many other classic westerns were shot.
Hathaway, Hayward and Marlowe are also involved in GARDEN OF EVIL (1954), the one disappointing film in this box set.
Shot in CinemaScope and color, the movie features some gorgeous and interesting Mexican scenery and boasts a cast that also includes Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark, Cameron Mitchell and (briefly) Rita Moreno.
The problem with GARDEN OF EVIL is the very talky script, which has its characters doing things that make little or no sense.
Cooper, Widmark and Mitchell play three Americans on their way to the California Gold Rush by ship, who get stranded in a small Mexican coastal town and are hired by Hayward to help free her husband (Marlowe) from a mine cave-in. The problem is that the mine is located deep in the mountains in Apache territory.
DVD extras include a retrospective "Making of" featurette and a mini-documentary on director Hathaway.
- Michael B. Druxman, author of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (available December 2008)
DVD Review: A must see package
Summary: 4 Stars
Fox has done a good job with this package of Westerns. Too bad they have to be purchased to see as they are not leasing these titiles to Netflix or Blockbuster for rentals. Price was right so I went ahead and bought them thru Amazon. Each movie has much to recomend. GUNFIGHTER is the best with Greg Peck at is best. Short run time, nice and tight, with a neat ending. RAWHIDE is a better than average suspense type of western. Not your usual cowboys and Indians. Small cast with Tyrone Power a little old for his role. Susan Hayward does her usual Susan Hayward. GARDEN OF EVIL is wonderfully filmed and the only color one in the lot. Nice locations with interesting plot. Characters are almost by the numbers. You know from the start who will survive and who gets who. One illogical plot device is that Susan Hayward, again doing her Susan Hayward, rides to a nearby town to get the help of men to help her husband who has been wounded in a gold mine. This is Indian territory. No Indians bothered her when she rode to the town, no attack when the team of men and her ride back to the mine. No attack at the mine itself, but on the way back...there are the Indians attacking like nobody's business. How is it they didn't attack when she went for help or on to the mine, just on the way back. Doesn't make sense. Other than that, good film and music score.DVD Review: A fine western collection
Summary: 4 Stars
An excellent price/value combination, with three rare titles of good, solid westerns, never before published in America on DVD and with such high video technical quality.
The extras are relatively abundant and very interesting.
A must have for every serious classic westerns collector.
DVD Review: I've waited for the Gunfighter for a long time and I'm well pleased!
Summary: 5 Stars
As the title stated, I've been waiting for the Gunfighter for a long time (on DVD) and I'm well pleased!
Actually the other two films were "A" class as well, especially "Rawhide". I'm a big western fan and I have many westerns on DVD but I just know there are other gems out there waiting for me to obtain.
Enjoy y'all.
Description of Fox Western Classics (Rawhide / The Gunfighter / Garden of Evil)
IncludesDisc 1: Garden of Evil (1954) Feature FilmDisc 2: The Gunfighter (1951) Feature FilmDisc 3: Rawhide (1951) Feature FilmFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre:?WAR/CLASSICS UPC:?024543512585 Manufacturer No:?2251258One of these three new-to-DVD Westerns is a universally esteemed classic, well worth the price of the set. But in happy fact, the whole package delivers the goods: sturdy genre entertainment from the Western's peak decade, the 1950s; solid Fox studio craftsmanship in every department; and breathtakingly crisp restorations that make you feel you've been time-warped back to a loge seat in your Bijou of choice on opening day. Henry King's The Gunfighter (1950) is the crown jewel--the film that deserves the credit (often awarded to High Noon) for ushering in the "adult Western," the '50s subgenre that emphasized psychological intensity over action and spectacle. Gregory Peck (topping his acclaimed performance in King's WWII drama Twelve O'Clock High) is excellent as Jimmy Ringo, a notorious shootist grown middle-aged and mortally weary of having to defend his legend. His trail takes him to a frontier town where an old comrade (the great Millard Mitchell) now serves as marshal, and where Ringo's estranged wife and the son he has never seen also reside, under an assumed name. Over one night and one day, Ringo dares to dream of a normal life. But there are avengers not far behind, and other threats yet to be counted. Although hailed by critics, The Gunfighter lost money for Fox; studio head Darryl F. Zanuck blamed the soup-strainer mustache--a stroke of period realism--director King ordered Peck to grow for the role. Well, a little red ink is a small price to pay for a masterpiece. Incidentally, the impeccable black-and-white cinematography is by three-time Oscar-winner Arthur Miller, capping a career that reached back to The Perils of Pauline.
The 1951 Rawhide (no relation to the later TV series) is a trim, satisfying Henry Hathaway picture that blends the leathery trappings of the Western with the claustrophobic atmosphere and intensity of a noir suspense film. At a remote swing station for the transcontinental stagecoach, several no-goods aim to help themselves to a gold shipment. But the next coach isn't carrying gold, so the intruders hold the stationmasters (Tyrone Power and Edgar Buchanan) and some stranded passengers captive while they wait. Power and Susan Hayward handle the heroics without larger-than-life posturing; Dean Jagger, Hugh Marlowe, and George Tobias relish the rare opportunity to play villainous or ambiguous types; and Jack Elam is, well, Jack Elam, reliably oozing viciousness from every pore. Screenwriter Dudley Nichols knew the territory, having scripted John Ford's Stagecoach thirteen years earlier. Hathaway also directed Garden of Evil (1954), Fox's first Western in the new CinemaScope process. (Very wiiiiide CinemaScope--the DVD preserves the 2.55:1 format, which was later modified to 2.35:1.) The story involves several fortune-seeking Americanos accidentally thrown together in Mexico and enlisted to help rescue a fellow countryman injured at his remote gold mine. Much of the film unreels as a journey Western exploring tensions among the strangers, especially those inspired by dreaming of gold and the man's redheaded wife (Susan Hayward). The dialogue reaches for profundity and comes up short, but Richard Widmark as a self-designated "poet" and Gary Cooper as a retired lawman give satisfaction as they one-up each other. The movie's distinction lies in Hathaway's no-sweat adaptation to the widescreen format, the awe-inspiring Mexican settings--a deserted village, a valley of black sand, a mountain town buried under volcanic ash--and the only music score ever composed for a feature Western by Bernard Herrmann.
Herrmann is just about the only thing the four commentators on Garden of Evil talk about (there's also a separate "making of" featurette). Nobody does commentary on The Gunfighter or Rawhide, but the disc for the former includes a featurette on master cameraman Arthur Miller, while a Rawhide addendum highlights the oft-used movie location of Lone Pine, Calif., and another pays tribute to gutsy leading lady Susan Hayward. Talking heads include some half-dozen film historians (e.g., David Biographical Dictionary of Film Thomson) plus Henry Hathaway's son and Gary Cooper's daughter. --Richard T. Jameson
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