Laramie In Color Part One - 28 episodes!
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Actor: Dennis Holmes, John Smith, Robert Crawford, Robert Fuller, Spring ByingtonDirector: n/a
Brand: FULLER,ROBERT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 1450 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-03-30
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Timeless Media Group
DVD Reviews of Laramie In Color Part One - 28 episodes!
DVD Review: Partners
Summary: 5 Stars
I first encountered "Laramie" in reruns soon after it had gone off the air, loved it, and greeted with delight its appearance on DVD, since (of course) it's impossible to find uncut classic Westerns on TV anymore. And, like most of the older series (which were made by people who cared about entertainment, not just the Almighty Dollar), it holds up well even 40-odd years later. Of these 28 episodes, I had seen all but five. John Smith plays Slim Sherman, a 30-some Union veteran who inherited a small ranch and stagecoach swing station outside Laramie from his pioneering father; Robert Fuller is Jess Harper, the fast gun from Texas who became his friend and partner; Dennis Holmes is Mike Williams, the orphan they take in; and Spring Byington is their housekeeper, Daisy Cooper, a widow from back East who served as a nurse during the Civil War. "Laramie" is almost unique among not only Westerns but all dramatic series of its day: the overwhelming majority of the former, and most of the latter, focused on either a single main character (with or without a sidekick), as in "The Rifleman" or "Gunsmoke," or a duo of an older, mentor-type character and an attractive male ingenue (as in "Wagon Train" or "Rawhide"), but here we see two men of nearly an age who interact as equals and derive their success not from a student/teacher relationship but from a meshing of individual strengths and weaknesses. Slim is steady and serious, shaped by his father's death and several years as the guardian of a younger brother; Jess is quick-tempered and still only half-domesticated, a former Confederate, POW, and, as he admits, "on a Wanted poster a long time ago," prone to exploding when he runs into unpleasant reminders of his own past, but loyal and capable of real compassion. (In the episode "The Replacement" Fuller displays his real skill as an actor when Jess finds himself torn between Slim and a long-ago oath to kill a man.) Between them--sometimes one, sometimes the other, and sometimes both, often serving as deputies to Sheriff Mort Corey (Stuart Randall)--they cope with outlaws, Indians, crooked lawmen, old friends in trouble and old enemies looking for it, ex-cons trying to make new lives, accusations of murder, people in crises of conscience, rebellious teenagers, people who turn out not to be what they claim, and assorted other difficulties with style and humor.
Like many of the quality A-list Westerns of its era, "Laramie" attracted a long list of good guest stars: veterans like Harry Carey, Jr., character actors like Arthur Hunnicutt, Warren Kemmerling, Karl Swenson, Dabbs Greer, Kevin Hagen, John Anderson, Bing Russell, Trevor Bardette, Walter Sande, Willis Bouchey, R. G. Armstrong, Kathleen Freeman, Sean McClory, Henry Beckman, Harry Lauter, Jason Evers, William Fawcett, perpetual Indian Frank deKova, and the inimitable L. Q. Jones, long-time heavies like Robert J. Willkie (who at least once plays it straight as a lawman), Lyle Bettger, Hal Baylor, John Larch, Barton MacLane, Mort Mills, Lane Bradford, Anthony Caruso, George Keymas, and Dennis Patrick, perpetual backups like William Boyett, later stars-in-their-own-right like Leonard Nimoy, Gary Clarke (who became Steve in "The Virginian"), Russell Johnson (of "Gilligan's Island"), John Lupton (who plays an Indian-hating character quite unlike his Tom Jeffords of "Broken Arrow"), Robert Blake (the former "Little Beaver" of B-movies and later Baretta), and Alex Cord (credited as Alex Viespi), B-list stars like Rod Cameron, pretty girls like Roberta Shore (Betsy Garth of "The Virginian"), Ruta Lee, and Susan Oliver, and genuine stars like Dan Duryea and Lloyd Nolan. The scripts are uniformly fast-moving (you can usually depend on a fistfight or two and some shooting in each one) and always leavened with at least a touch of humor, and most of the exteriors were clearly filmed outdoors. Of course the perpetual weakness of classic Westerns is the confusion over history: though Slim and Jess agree that the action is taking place about six years after the close of the Civil War (i.e., 1871), all sorts of incongruities find their way into the scripts--mentions of actress Lily Langtry (debuted 1881), the Lincoln County War (1878), the James boys and the Daltons (said to have ridden the area "10-15 years ago"), and the towns of Billings, MT ("20-odd years ago") and Tascosa, TX, barbed wire (introduced 1873), and the Colt Peacemakers (ditto) that everyone carries. There's also some confusion over what Indians the partners should be meeting up with: though Wyoming was largely Sioux territory (and the Sioux do play a part in at least two segments), Arapahoes and Blackfeet also put in appearances--and the various tribal cultures aren't always accurate. Still, if you love old Westerns you're used to this sort of thing, and the series has the great advantage of being family-friendly, not addicted to gratuitous blood and dirty language like its modern counterparts.
Technically I found the transfer generally satisfactory, with only "Trial by Fire" suffering from a hiss in the soundtrack and too bright a contrast. (Note that Timeless Media did have some difficulties with the early pressings, and if you have breakup or drop-out issues you can contact them directly and get replacements at no charge.)
Description of Laramie In Color Part One - 28 episodes!
Genre: Westerns
Rating: NR
Release Date: 24-DEC-2008
Media Type: DVD
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