PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Western Wednesday 47

The Fighting Frontiersman is a 1946 Charles Starrett film. Charles played the Durango Kid in 65 Westerns between 1945 and 1952 then he retired at age 48. In this one the Durango Kid helps an old prospector who found a cache of Spanish gold. The old man can't keep his mouth shut and the baddies kidnap him so they can get the gold. TDK comes when Dixie, the dance hall girl, writes him for help. The pair work together to save the old man. Typical Western stuff, I found it entertaining. Starrett is a personable guy and Smiley Burnett as his sidekick is tolerable. I'd prefer Gaby Hayes but he needs some time off.

Blazing Across The Pecos is a 1948 Charles Starrett film. It's the usual story of a guy taking over the town with underhanded tricks and trigger happy henchmen. The Durango Kid comes to town and gets made the deputy to Marshal Smiley Burnette. He was made marshal by the baddie so he could have something to laugh at. TDK soon cleans up the mess that Smiley couldn't. Sometimes Smiley plays some annoying characters. This is one of them. Still, a good story. Both of these are out of a 10 Durango Kid movie set from Mill Creek. All are Columbia films. Columbia has been letting Mill Creek issue multi movie DVD sets of many of their titles. Sadly this has 10 movies on 2 discs. I'm still glad to have it and will watch the rest of the films.

Western Wednesday 46

7 Men From Now is a 1956 Budd Boetticher film. He directed and Burt Kennedy wrote the story and the script. Randolph Scott is the lead and Lee Marvin and Gail Russell are the co-stars.

As the movie opens Randolph comes across two men sitting at a campfire. From the little bit of conversation we start to learn about a robbery in a town. $20,000 in gold is gone and there was a killing. The encounter ends with the two men dead.

Randolph meets up with a couple heading to California. He helps them get out of the mud and joins along in their trip to Flora Vista. They're joined in their journey by Lee Marvin and Don 'Red' Barry. They're criminal types who have an interest in the gold. We learn from Lee that Randolph had been a sheriff in the town where the robbery happened. It was Randolph's wife who was killed during the robbery. She'd been working because he wasn't and he feels guilty about her death.

Randolph encounters the rest of the criminals and you can guess it's not going to go so well for them from Randolph's billing in the movie. There's even a hint of romance at the end. It was a good picture that's got re-watchablity.

I'd say the same for Hangman's Knot. It's a 1952 Randolph Scott picture that was written and directed by Roy Huggins. It's set a month after the Civil War ended. It's got Randolph Scott, Lee Marvin, Donna Reed, Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams, Frank Faylen, Richard Denning, Jeanette Nolan and Ray Teal.

As the picture opens Randolph leads a bunch of Southern soldiers in an ambush of a gold delivery by the Northern Army. They find out from the last living Northerner that the war had ended a month earlier. Are they criminals? Who would believe them that they didn't know the war was over? It creates some discussion on what to do among the men but they realize they need to get away.

Men come after Randolph and company. The chase ends in a stagecoach way station. It's a pretty good story and there's a good bit of action between the sitting, waiting, and looking out the window scenes. I was happy to see it and would enjoy it again down the road.

I'm less likely to re-watch When The West Was Young too often. It's 1932 Randolph Scott film that was directed by Henry Hathaway. It was Henry's first credited directorial job. I'd just watched the Randolph Scott film Man Of The Forest, that's one directed by Henry, and he would direct True Grit near the end of his career. WTWWY is based on a Zane Grey novel which was adapted by Harold Shumate and Frank Partos.

The local baddie wants the Naab spread in the canyon. He uses Naab's gambling addicted son to get his way. It would have worked except for Randolph's interference. It's a pretty standard story that isn't helped by the poor quality of the Alpha Video DVD. The two earlier DVDs have much nicer pictures and better stories.

The film was called Heritage Of The Desert when it was new and the 1952 re-issue had the When The West Was Young title. The cast had a couple of people I recognized: Sally Blane (only from a Charlie Chan picture) and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams. You can see it on YouTube.

Western Wednesday 45

I found this 3 pack of George O'Brien Western films during the Half Price Books coupon sale. It's one of those Warner Brothers Archive Collections, it's on DVDr. I hadn't recalled running across George before. He's fairly entertaining, he's a big guy with a pleasant personality. I put his other multi movie Warner Brothers Archive Collection on my wish list. It's got 9 movies for 30 bucks. Maybe if there's a sale soon I'll have it.

The Marshal Of Mesa City 1939 The movie was directed by David Howard and the screenplay is by Jack Lait Jr. David directed 46 films in his 11 year career. Many of them were Westerns, three of them are in this set. David died in 1941 at age 45. Jack wrote 7 films and died at 52.

George arrives outside Mesa City just in time to prevent the kidnapping of the local school teacher by the henchmen of the corrupt sheriff. She decided to leave after the sheriff hit on her too many times. He is creepy. Since the stage was damaged in the ruckus George takes the school teacher back to her boarding house. George finds the sheriff has his fingers into the local judge. The sheriff threatens George and George fights back. The sheriff's days are numbered and that school teacher is mighty pretty.

The movie has one of the weirdest shootouts. George and his deputy go up against the sheriff and a few of his henchmen, in the fog. That's George and his deputy on the right, they walk into the fog, you can see gun barrel flashes for a while. Then it's all over and the gang are dead and so is the deputy.

That's his grave. I liked that shot. The camera rises up to reveal the mayor, George and the school teacher paying their respects.

Legion Of The Lawless 1940 The screenplay is by Doris Schroeder and it's directed by David Howard. Doris wrote a bunch of films in her career and then she wrote a whole pile of Whitman Kids novels. I've read several and they were all pretty good.

George arrives in Ivestown to hang up his law talking guy shingle only to find that the town is in the hands of a vigilante committee. The head guy doesn't like the law and he tries to run George out of town. That goes south for him and George has to blast him down in the end. It's a nice tight story. I have to say these prints of the film are fairly decent. All three come on one disc. They're all short, 62, 60, and 68 minutes.

Triple Justice 1940 It's directed by David Howard and the screenplay was written by Arthur V Jones and Morton Grant, the story was by Arnold Belgard and Jack Roberts.

George goes to Star City to be best man at his pal's wedding. He winds up getting mixed up with a bank robbery. There's plenty of Western action and a bit of romance.

All the movies were entertaining and I'd certainly watch them again.

Western Wednesday 44

I ran out of time last week to watch the commentary on The Tall T and the documentary that shares that disc. The Tall T commentary is by film historian Jeanine Basinger. She's done several commentaries on older movies but this is the only Western. It was a good commentary.

Budd Boetticher A Man Can Do That is a documentary about Budd. It's from 2005 and the writer is Dave Kehr and the director is Bruce Ricker. They do a great job, there's a nice mix of comments from hosts Clint Eastwood and Quentin Tarantino, plenty of interviews with film makers Peter Bogdanovich, Larry Cohen, Andrew Sarris, Paul Schrader, Taylor Hackford and Robert Towne. There's a lot of archival footage commenting on Budd and his films. Budd himself appears in plenty of old interviews, he died in 2001. Well worth seeing, good info on Budd, his films and his life.

When Budd wrapped up Comanche Station he really didn't do much after that. He later raised horses for bullfighting. It was another part of his life. Interesting guy.

Western Wednesday 43

Four more Randolph Scott Westerns today, all are from Budd Boetticher The Collector's Choice. It's a five film collection and I'd already seen The Tall T from The Randolph Scott Round-UP collection. After seeing that film I ordered the BBTCC from eBay as there are commentaries and interviews that are worth having. The copies on Amazon are much more expensive, and from Amazon Partners, so I'm thinking it's out of print. I had found The Randolph Scott Round-Up from Mill Creek for cheap and I'll keep it, there's a film on there I don't have, The Lawless Street, which was directed by another director. The Mill Creek set puts the 6 films on two discs, with no extras, while the five films in the BBTCC set are on their own discs. Those five films are the core of the 7 Westerns Boetticher made with Randolph Scott. The only ones missing are Seven Men From Now and Westbound. Both are available and I put them on my wish list.

Decision At Sundown 1957 Charles G Lang wrote the screenplay and it was based on a 1955 novel, of the same name, by Vernon L Fluharty. Never heard of either of the but I see Lang wrote another of the Scott/Boetticher films and an episode of Cheyenne, The High Chaparral and Perry Mason and a couple of Bonanza.

Randolph comes to the small town of Sundown looking to kill a man named Tate. He's played by John Carroll who was Zorro in the 1937 Zorro Rides Again. I have seen that but I don't remember him any. Tate had had an affair with Randolph's wife while he was off fighting the Civil War. She committed suicide before Randolph returned and he blames Tate. Randolph's pal, played by Noah Beery Jr, tries to tell him she wasn't a good woman and Tate was just one of many but Randolph won't listen.

Things turn tense when Randolph crashes Tate's wedding and tells him he wants to kill him. Much of the rest of the movie has Randolph holed up in a stable. The situation is taken advantage of by townspeople who want Tate gone but were too weak to do anything about it. It ends poorly for some but the lady is saved from marrying the baddie. That's always nice. I enjoyed it quite a bit. There's a good cast and it's a nice modern story that's still a good Western. There's an interesting but short interview with Taylor Hackford and the original theatrical trailer.

Buchanan Rides Alone 1958 Charles G Lang writes the screenplay and he adapts a novel by Jonas Ward. I read Ward wrote 30 Western and Crime novels that I haven't heard of or read, he died at 38 in 1960.

Randolph rides across the US Mexican border into the border town of Agry Town. It's a crooked place run by the Agry family. Randolph helps a Mexican man called Juan who comes over the border to kill the Agry nephew for attacking his sister. They both wind up in jail but Randolph gets cleared of the charges.

The family falls apart when Juan's father offers 30 horses for his return alive. The head Agry wants $50,000 and the other Agry's go after the money themselves. There's plenty of action and a good story. I liked the cast, Craig Stevens, Berry Kelly, Tol Avery, Peter Whitney, Joe De Santis, and L Q Jones. All in all, a winner for me. Taylor Hackford talks about the film in a short interview and there's the original theatrical trailer.

Ride Lonesome 1959 This one is written by Burt Kennedy. Burt wrote 30 movies and directed 35 in his career. I liked his 1976 version of Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Of Me with Stacy Keach. He also directed the James Gardner comedies Support Your Local Sheriff and Support You Local Gunfighter. He died in 2001 after 45 years in the business.

Randolph is a bounty hunter, he catches James Best, who had killed a man in Santa Cruz. James says his brother, played by Lee Van Cleef, will come looking for him. Pernell Roberts and James Coburn are waiting at a stagecoach station with Karen Steele. Her hubby, the station manager, is out looking for his horses. The local Indians attack and the group takes off. Randolph wants to return James for the reward and it turns out Pernell and Coburn want the man, they can trade him for amnesty for their past crimes.

It all comes to ahead at that dead tree. You'll be surprised at what comes out. It's a good story, sadder than some, but there's a good ending. It was James Coburn's first film and he was especially entertaining. This film has a nice audio commentary by film historian Jeremy Arnold, a short interview with Martin Scorsese and the original theatrical trailer.

Comanche Station 1960 Burt Kennedy wrote this film too.

Randolph buys a white women from a Comanche Chief for some goods and a rifle. Heading for her home they encounter Claude Akins, Skip Homeier and Richard Rust. Randolph knows Claude from the Army but they aren't friends by any stretch. The men band together for safety because of the active Comanches.

Claude eventually tells Randolph he's going to take the woman away from him. There's a $5000 reward for her, dead or alive, and Claude is thinking dead is easier to deal with. His two henchmen aren't too keen on killing a woman. It causes a rift and things so south for the baddies. Especially since Randolph is so good with a gun.

Another good story and great cast. I know I'm going to want to watch these all over again. There's a good audio commentary by Taylor Hackford, Clint Eastwood talks about the film in a short interview and there's the original theatrical trailer.

Western Wednesday 42

A hat trick of Randolph Scott Westerns today. It's a triple feature from Warner Brothers and all the movies are worth a gander for the Western fan.

The Man Behind The Gun 1953 Screenplay by John Twist and direction by Felix Feist. John wrote The Saint Strikes Back but I can't say I recognize much else in his credits, other than The Outcasts Of Poker Flats. Felix started directing in 1930, after TMBTG, his next movie would be Donovan's Brain, after that he'd make one more movie, then no more.

Randolph is a US Army officer who's traveling under cover. He's on a stagecoach that gets robbed by an outlaw played by Anthony Caruso. Randolph captures the outlaw and turns him over to Captain Giles at the local garrison.

Randolph has a couple of ex-Army guys along, Alan Hale Jr and  Dick Wesson, who  don't know he's undercover. That's them in the picture above. Alan would later play The Skipper on Gilligan's Island. The trio arrive in Los Angeles to find the locals have gun runners in their midst and there's a separatist movement that's getting violent. Randolph and pals will soon put a stop to all those shenanigans.

It was entertaining and there's plenty of shooting and riding about. The movie has a few jokes and a bit of romance too.

Thunder Over The Plains 1953 Screenplay by Russell S Hughes and Andre De Toth is the director. Russell only wrote 10 movies but one of them was THEM! He wrote an episode of Have Gun - Will Travel, one of Perry Mason and four of Maverick, along his numerous other credits. Andre directed 35 movies and the 1953 House Of Wax is among them. I recently saw his 1953 film Crime Wave and that was a real treat. He also directed a fair bit of TV.

Randolph is a Federal Captain in Texas just after the Civil War, he's not liking to uphold the law for the scumbag carpetbaggers that are legally robbing the citizens of their homes. Phyllis Kirk plays his wife. There's plenty of trouble ahead as the homesteaders resist the criminal scum who run the county. There's plenty of shooting and running about. A good solid story and a good cast. You might know Lex Barker, Charles McGraw, Henry Hull, Elisha Cook Jr, Hugh Sanders or Fess Parker.

Riding Shotgun 1954 Another film directed by Andre De Toth. It's got a screenplay by Thomas W Blackburn. Thomas wrote quite a good lot of TV episodes and several movies. He wrote several programs for Disney including the Fess Parker Davy Crockett And The River Pirates.

Randolph rides shotgun on stages. He's got an agenda, he's looking for the man, a guy named Dan, who killed his wife and child. He gets tricked by one of Dan's henchmen and leaves the stage in the hands of another guard. Randolph is captured and left to die. He escapes. When Randolph gets back to town he finds the stage was robbed and the town's people blame him. He's hold up in a cheap saloon waiting for the sheriff to get back. The town's folk want to string him up but they are afraid of him. Even the deputy doesn't want to go up against him. Only a couple of people believe his story about Dan's plan to raid the bank.

It's another good tight story with a good bit of action, tension and humor. I think I liked this one the best of the three but they're all good. Here's a couple of fun foreign posters for Riding Shotgun.

Western Wednesday 41

Only one Western today, The Westerner, with Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan. It's a 1940 movie that's based on a story by Stuart N Lake. Several people banged away on the screenplay: Niven Busch and Jo Swerling get the credit and W R Burnett, Lillian Hellman, Dudley Nichols and Oliver La Farge are all uncredited. William Wyler is the director. I recognized some in the cast: Forrest Tucker, Chill Wills, Lilian Bond, Dana Andrews and Trevor Bardette.

Walter plays Judge Roy Bean in a story that only barely hints at his past. He did have a thing for Lilly Langtry but he didn't die the way the movie makes out. Gary is a guy who's brought into town as a horse thief. He's nearly hung but he reveals to the Judge that he has a lock of Lilly's hair. The Judge is excited and wants that lock of hair. Gary is saved when the real horse thief turns up and gets plugged by the Judge. Gary and the Judge have a night of heavy drinking and Gary leaves the next morning. He stops at a farm for water, it's run by Fred Stone and his daughter Doris Davenport. That's her with Walter and Gary up above.

The basic story is about the hatred between the cattlemen and the homesteaders. The Judge is on the side of the cattlemen and he'll kill to keep them on top. Gary sides with the homesteaders, thinking there's plenty of land to go around. Things don't go so well for the Judge in the end, especially after Fred is killed when the cattlemen's henchmen burn the corn crops.

It's a good story with a good cast, Walter Brennan won his 5th Best Supporting Actor Oscar. It was his 3rd. I was glad to watch it. I'll probably have to pick one up when I find it cheap enough.

Western Wednesday 40

I picked up a four pack of Randolph Scott Westerns from Amazon. Three are from the 1930s and the other, from 1955, is the only one in color. Three of the films in this set that is based on the novels of Zane Grey. I can't remember ever reading a Zane Grey novel but I have seen plenty of the stories on film. I just wasn't a Western novel reader, in general, until more recently. When I was young I liked Western films, TV shows and comic books, then I kind of lost interest by the 70s. I hadn't totally abandoned the genre, I still would watch the occasional Western. A few years ago I discovered that there were oodles of free Westerns to be watched on the internet and I've watched a shit load of them since. I've also read several Western novels in that same time period. Most all of them published by Whitman and featuring TV and Film characters like Gene Autrey and Roy Rogers.

The Fighting Westerner is a 1935 Western with Randolph as a mining engineer who helps the local deputy solve a murder. First of the three Zane Grey adaptations.

Chic Sale plays the deputy. He does need a lot of help. There's a bit of comedy, some action, and a bit of romance. A bit more humorous than a lot of the Westerns. Fun.

Man Of The Forest is a 1933 Western that has Randolph break up the evil scheme of Noah Beery Sr. There are lions and their cubs in the film. I liked the wooded areas used for the locations. Another Zane Grey. When I was younger there was the Zane Grey's West Society which reprinted 75 of his books in nice hardcovers. You can buy a complete set on Amazon for $455 right now.

Barton MacLane and Buster Crabbe are in the cast. There are the usual antics of a Western of the time and it's fairly good. Randolph has a mustache that I didn't care for but it didn't seem to bother the lady in the blue dress. The villain is pretty villainous and deserved to get blasted.

Rage At Dawn is the 1955 color Western. Randolph is a special agent who's after the Reno Boys who killed his wife. He posses as a train robber to get in with the gang. We've got a good cast, Forest Tucker, J Carrol Nash, Ray Teal, Denver Pyle, Trevor Bardette, Kenneth Tobey, Edgar Buchanan, with Mala Powers as the romantic interest. Once inside the gang Randolph finds out that the local officials are corrupt, taking bribes from the Reno Boys. He soon puts an end to their doin's.

Buffalo Stampede is a 1933 Western based on Zane Grey's The Thundering Herd. The movie was originally released under that name. Randolph and Harry Carey are looking for some buffalo hunters who have kidnapped his girlfriend. The local natives are keen on attacking the buffalo hunters so there's some danger from that. It was fairly good. All in all a nice bunch of Westerns that I might get around to again someday. Who knows.

Western Wednesday 39

I watched The Iron Horse today. It's a 1924 film about the building of the transcontinental railway,  It was nominated for the AFI's 10 Top 10 in the Western genre in 2008 but did not make the cut. The Library of Congress says it's culturally, historically, or Aesthetically significant and it's been preserved by the National Film Registry. John Ford was the producer and uncredited director. Charles Kenyon, John Russell and Charles Darnton were the writers.

In the prologue Brandon and Miriam are childhood friends. Brandon's father is a surveyor who wants to build the transcontinental railroad his friend Abe Lincoln dreams of, Mariam's father is a contractor and he's not so sure that it could happen. Brandon and his father go out west to survey a route. They find a pass through the Black Kills that will save 200 miles. Sadly the father is killed by a white man, with two fingers, who travels with the Cheyenne. Brandon, who managed to hide when the men showed up, is found by some men heading west to look for work.

In 1862 Brandon is all grown up when he comes to work on the train tracks. He finds Miriam is due to marry a scummy guy but he can't do much about that. The scummy guy is in league with another creep who wants to sabotage the railroad. He has riled up the Cheyenne and there's quite a few attacks on the rail line. Eventually the bad men are exposed and that two fingered guy gets his from Brandon.

It's all slow moving and melodramatic, the DVD runs about 2.5 hours, and there are longs takes. Occasionally there are some nice vistas but none of it was filmed in the places it actually took place. I found it entertaining except for being so slow. The film looked pretty good, better than most of the films of that era do, and the actors were OK. It's a silent film with OK musical accompaniment. I doubt I would watch it again so I'm not going to bother buying a copy. You can see a good copy of YouTube. You might like it.

I liked The Tall T a whole lot better. It's another Randolph Scott western by Budd Boetticher. They made several films together over the years. It came out in 1957 and the screenplay was written by Burt Kennedy, who adapted a Leonard Elmore short story called The Captives. I got a copy in The Randolph Scott Round UP DVD collection. Six movies on two discs for under ten bucks. It's a Mill Creek re-issue of an earlier 5 film Budd Boetticher collection that is currently 50 smackaroonies on Amazon. There are some extras on that set that aren't transferred over to the Mill Creek set but most people wouldn't care. I didn't think I needed them for that money. People argue that movies on disc will go away but I think they'll wind up at places like Mill Creek and what will go away are the extras from the original releases. If you save up a bunch of DVDs with extras you might use them to retire on, if you live long enough.

The cast is pretty good, Richard Boone, Henry Silva, Skip Homeier, Maureen O'Sullivan, John Hubbard and Arthur Hunnicutt. Randolph is a small rancher, he looses a bet to a man over a bull and has to give up his horse, that puts him on the road when the stage coach passes. They take him to the station but the only thing waiting there are the three bad men, Richard, Skip and Henry, lay in wait. They've already killed the station man and his young son, their bodies tossed in the well. Sadly,the candy sticks that he was bringing the boy are still in his pocket when Skip snatches them away. 

The stage coach driver is killed making a foolish move for his shotgun. The other passengers are the daughter of a rich miner and her new husband are saved from killing when the husband spills that her father is rich. He's hoping to buy his way out of the situation but that won't get him to the end of the movie. Like Richard I too have only contempt for the snake of a man. For some reason Richard takes a liking to Randolph and doesn't kill him right away. That turns out to be a big mistake. It's a good movie, well worth seeing.

Western Wednesday 38

Yesterday when I went to blog about these two new Westerns that I watched Typepad kept coming up with an error message. I couldn't sleep so I got up and things are working again. I watched the two remaining movies in the Fox Western Classics DVD set. Rawhide was the one I watched a couple of weeks ago. I got the set used but it's still cheap at $13.99 on Amazon. The set came out in 2008 and it's still available.

The Gunfighter is a 1950 Gregory Peck movie and, like it's companions in the set, it's a cut above the average Western. William Bowers and Andre De Toth wrote the story that Bowers and William Sellars used to write the screenplay. Roger Corman and Nunnally Johnson are listed on the IMDb as uncredited. Nunnally shared the producer role with Darryl F Zanuck. Nunnally and director Henry King wrote the new ending that Zanuck wanted.

Gregory is famed gunslinger Johnny Ringo, he's gotten old and he's tired of the game. He comes to town to see his ex-wife and the son he hadn't ever met, hoping to get back together with them. Johnny can't check his rep at the saloon door and before long he gets into a gunfight with some punk kid, played by Richard Jaeckel, and kills him. Now Richard's brothers are coming for Johnny and gunfighter wannabe Hunt Bromley, played by Skip Homeier, wants to make his rep with a shoot out. There's an old man gunning for Johnny too. That's a real sad bit of business.

You can see all the problems in poor Johnny's life are piling up and it won't end well for most of the players. It's a nice script, good characters, and there's a nice grim noirish feel to the whole thing. I liked the ending a whole lot and would highly recommend it. It's such a cut above the average Western fare. You can see it on YouTube, there's a link in the title above. Worth looking at.

Garden of Evil is a 1954 Western with Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward, Richard Widmark, Hugh Marlowe, Cameron Mitchell, Rita Morena and Victor Manuel Mendoza. It was written by Frank Fenton, from a story by Fred Frieberger and William Tunberg, with Henry Hathaway directing. It was one of the early CinemaScope pictures, projected at 2.55:1, and it's the only Western to have a Bernard Herrmann score.

Gary, Richard and Cameron are travelers on a ship headed for the gold fields of California. The ship flounders and abandons the men in a small Mexican port town. Rita sings in the local bar where Victor hangs out. Susan shows up, all excited, waving a big bag of gold around. Her husband is trapped in a mine accident and she needs some men to come with her to rescue him. She'll pay $2000 a man. Sounds like a lot but the mine is far into the mountains and there are hostile Indians to deal with. I wouldn't go but the guys saddle up and head into the hills.

It's a dangerous trail, especially in the high mountains. They rescue the hubby right away but he's got a broken leg and can't travel very fast. Unfortunately the natives are after them and one by one the party falls. 

I enjoyed the movie, there are some cool locations, and while it's not quite as good as The Gunfighter, the difference is between a 7 and an 8, it's still top notch entertainment.

There's even a bit of a happy ending. That's the shot from the final scene in the film. They use that CinemaScope to great advantage.

The set of three DVDs has a few extras, nice featurettes on each film, one on Susan Hayward, one on Arthur Miller, one on Henry Hathaway. Garden Of Evil is the only movie to have a commentary and it features 4 film and music historians who they discuss the Bernard Herrmann score. The DVD also has the score on an isolated track. There's restoration bits on each film, the film's trailers, advertising and pictures galleries. A nice package with three good films that lend themselves to re-watching.