Posted in Audie Murphy, Columbia, Critics' Choice, DVD/Blu-Ray News, George Montgomery, Glenn Ford, William Holden on August 21, 2023| 3 Comments »
We were all really stoked about the DVD sets from Critics’ Choice (and Mill Creek) when they started turning up. Then, the announcements stopped. And now, the existing titles are on sale for just $8.29 each. This is a great time to fill in the gaps in your collection.
There’s the Audie Murphy set above (click on the picture). There are also Western sets featuring Glenn Ford, William Holden and George Montgomery. There’s some really good non-Western stuff, too, like a great Boston Blackie set.
Posted in Audie Murphy, Dialogue Of The Day, Felicia Farr, George Sherman, Gordon Kay on April 20, 2023| 28 Comments »
Audie Murphy’s last seven films for Universal International, all produced by Gordon Kay, don’t get a lot of love. Not sure why. At their best, they’re tight little Westerns in the Ranown mold. At their worst, they’ve got Audie Murphy in them, which is good enough for me!
George Sherman’s Hell Bent For Leather (1960), the first of the seven, is excellent — and may be my favorite Murphy movie. It’s certainly worth another look if you haven’t seen it in a while.
Janet (Felicia Farr): I used to love this country. Now it seems so ugly.
Clay Santell (Audie Murphy): It’s not the country. It’s some of the people who live in it.
Hard it believe that was written 60-something years ago. Sounds like today to me.
Posted in Allan "Rocky" Lane, Audie Murphy, Bob Steele, Dabbs Greer, DVD/Blu-Ray News, Felicia Farr, George Sherman, Gordon Kay, Kathleen Crowley, Kino Lorber, Lee Van Cleef, LQ Jones, Post-1959, R.G. Springsteen, Ray Teal, Royal Dano, Skip Homeier, Stephen McNally, Universal (International) on April 10, 2023| 7 Comments »
This third volume in Kino Lorber’s Audie Murphy series gives us three of the seven pictures he did with producer Gordon Kay for Universal International — each shot in less than three weeks for about half a million bucks. They’ve been given a bad rap over the years. Some of them are really good. And they always have a great cast.
Hell Bent For Leather (1960)
Directed by George Sherman
Starring Audie Murphy, Felicia Farr, Stephen McNally, Robert Middleton, Jan Merlin, John Qualen, Bob Steele, Allan Lane
Audie’s mistaken for a murderer. A marshal (Stephen McNally) knows Audie’s innocent, but wants the reward and the glory.
Shot in Lone Pine in CinemaScope. Directed by George Sherman. A cast that includes John Qualen and Bob Steele — what’s not to like? I’m really excited to be doing a commentary for this one.
Posse From Hell (1961)
Directed by Herbert Coleman
Starring Audie Murphy, John Saxon, Zohra Lampert, Vic Morrow, Robert Keith, Rodolfo Acosta, Royal Dano
Audie rides into town right after four escaped convicts have shot the marshal and taken a woman hostage. He assembles a rather worthless posse and goes after them. Herbert Coleman was an assistant director for Hitchcock and others. Here he makes his debut in the top slot.
Showdown (1963)
Directed by R. G. Springsteen
Starring Audie Murphy, Kathleen Crowley, Charles Drake, Harold J. Stone, Skip Homeier, L. Q. Jones, Strother Martin, Dabbs Greer
Audie is shackled to killer Harold J. Stone (around the neck!) when they make their escape. Stir in some bonds and Kathleen Crowley and things get pretty tense. Directed by the great R.G. Springsteen and shot in black and white by Ellis W. Carter. By the way, Murphy was furious when he learned this would be shot in B&W, but it works well.
The chance to see these pictures again, certain to look terrific, is a real treat. Highly, highly recommended!
Posted in 1950, 1954, Audie Murphy, Brian Donlevy, DVD/Blu-Ray News, Edgar Buchanan, George Marshall, I. Stanford Jolley, James Arness, John Doucette, Kino Lorber, Lyle Bettger, Mari Blanchard, Ray Enright, Scott Brady, Tony Curtis, Universal (International), Wallace Ford, Wanda Hendrix on March 29, 2023| 27 Comments »
Kino Lorber’s second hi-def batch of Audie Murphy Westerns is coming in June. This set includes Sierra (1950), Kansas Raiders (1950) and Destry (1954).
Sierra (1950)
Directed by Alfred E. Green
Starring Wanda Hendrix, Audie Murphy, Burl Ives, Dean Jagger, Tony Curtis, James Arness, Jack Ingram, Houseley Stevenson, I. Stanford Jolley
Audie and his dad, Dean Jagger, have been hiding in the mountain for years. A chance meeting with Wanda Hendrix brings civilization to their doorstep, where it’s not welcome.
Wanda Hendrix and Audie Murphy were newlyweds when production began on this one. They were separated before its release. Some really nice horse stuff (some of it lifted from 1949’s Red Canyon) and a great cast of character actors.
I’m doing a commentary for this one.
Kansas Raiders (1950)
Directed by Ray Enright
Starring Audie Murphy, Brian Donlevy, Marguerite Chapman, Scott Brady, Tony Curtis, Richard Arlen, Richard Long
U-I mangles history again, but who cares? Murphy is Jesse James, Brian Donlevy is Quantrill. Yet another solid Western from Ray Enright, with typically-gorgeous cinematography from Irving Glassberg.
Destry (1954)
Directed by George Marshall
Starring Audie Murphy, Mari Blanchard, Lyle Bettger, Thomas Mitchell, Edgar Buchanan, Lori Nelson, Wallace Ford
For this 1954 remake, U-I puts Murphy and Mari Blanchard in the roles played by James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich in 1939’s Destry Rides Again. George Marshall directed both versions. (There was a semi-remake in 1950, Frenchie, with Joel McCrea, Shelley Winters and Marie Windsor.) In this one, it’s good to see Murphy play against type a bit, and it’s always great to see Wallace Ford. Of course, Mari Blanchard looks terrific.
All three of these pictures boast the usual U-I 50s Western Technicolor sheen. (Destry should be widescreen.) They’ll look wonderful on Blu-Ray. Highly recommended.
Posted in Audie Murphy, Budd Boetticher, Joel McCrea, LQ Jones, Randolph Scott, Sam Peckinpah on July 10, 2022| 16 Comments »
L. Q. Jones (Justus Ellis McQueen, Jr.)
(August 19, 1927 – July 9, 2022)
The great Western character actor L.Q. Jones has passed away at 94.
His real name was Justus Ellis McQueen, Jr., but for the screen, he took his name from his first picture, Battle Cry (1955).
Jones worked with some of the greats of 50s Westerns: Randolph Scott (1958’s Buchanan Rides Alone, above), Joel McCrea and Audie Murphy. Sam Peckinpah made him a member of his stock company, casting Jones in five of his films. He stayed extremely busy on TV, often in Westerns, throughout the 60s and 70s. And he wrote, produced and directed the 1975 science fiction film A Boy And His Dog.
He was a great storyteller, as the many YouTube videos of him will prove. 
L.Q. is T.C., the bad guy on the far right, in this promo still from Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969). He became close friends with Strother Martin (upper left).
Posted in Audie Murphy, DVD/Blu-Ray News, Explosive Media, Felicia Farr, George Sherman, Gordon Kay, Stephen McNally, Universal (International) on March 26, 2022| 15 Comments »
Directed by George Sherman
Starring Audie Murphy, Felicia Farr, Stephen McNally, Robert Middleton, Jan Merlin
Explosive Media out of Germany has announced another Audie Murphy picture coming to DVD and Blu-Ray in June — George Sherman’s Hell Bent For Leather (1960).
The first of the Audie Murphy pictures produced by Gordon Kay for Universal International, Hell Bent For Leather was directed by George Sherman in CinemaScope and Eastman Color. This one has a good part for Felicia Farr, one of my favorite actresses from 50s Westerns (The Last Wagon, Reprisal!, 3:10 To Yuma), and really incredible Lone Pine location work from Clifford Stine. This is a good one!
I’m so stoked that someone has gotten around to these Gordon Kay Murphy films on Blu-Ray, so a big thanks to the folks at Explosive Media. Highly recommended.
Thanks again to John Knight for the news.
Posted in Audie Murphy, Barry Sullivan, DVD/Blu-Ray News, Explosive Media, George Sherman, Gordon Kay, Harry Keller, John McIntire, Kenneth Tobey, Universal (International) on March 8, 2022| 15 Comments »
Directed by Harry Keller
Starring Audie Murphy, Barry Sullivan, Venetia Stevenson, John McIntire, Kenneth Tobey
One of the last run of pictures Audie Murphy did for Universal International, produced by Gordon Kay and directed by Harry Keller (with a day or two by an uncredited George Sherman), Seven Ways From Sundown (1960) is a good one. Murphy’s as cool as ever, and there’s a great part for Barry Sullivan. Plus, John McIntire and Kenneth Tobey are along for the ride.
Explosive Media has announced a May 22 release for the picture on DVD and Blu-ray. It’ll be in its original 1.85 and region free.
It’s a solid picture (and it gets a chapter in my book). Highly, highly recommended.
Thanks to John Knight for the news.
Posted in Audie Murphy, Ben Cooper, Columbia, Critics' Choice, DVD/Blu-Ray News, Frank Ferguson, Raymond Hatton, Sidney Salkow, Ted de Corsia, William Witney on December 10, 2021| 2 Comments »
Here’s another Critics’ Choice release, the appropriately-named Audie Murphy Western Double Feature. It gathers up a couple of mid-60s pictures Murphy did for Admiral Pictures, distributed by Columbia. Both were in Techniscope and Technicolor.
Arizona Raiders (1965)
Directed by William Witney
Starring Audie Murphy, Michael Dante, Ben Cooper, Buster Crabbe, Gloria Talbott
Shot at Old Tucson, this one has Murphy and William Witney keeping the 50s Western thing going as long as they can. It’s a remake of Texas Rangers (1951), and it’s always good to see these folks at work.
The Quick Gun (1964)
Directed by Sidney Salkow
Starring Audie Murphy, Merry Anders, James Best, Frank Ferguson, Ted De Corsia, Raymond Hatton
Sidney Salkow directed this one. Shot at Iverson, it’s got a great cast (I’d watch Frank Ferguson in anything).
Both of these were part of Columbia’s MOD program, and it’s great to see them paired up at a great price.
Posted in Audie Murphy, Budd Boetticher, DVD/Blu-Ray News, Indicator/Powerhouse, Lucien Ballard on September 30, 2021| 3 Comments »
Directed by Budd Boetticher
Starring Richard Lapp, Anne Randall, Robert Random, Beatrice Kay, Victor Jory, Audie Murphy
Both Audie Murphy and Budd Boetticher’s last film, A Time For Dying (1969) had a hard time — the sets were destroyed twice, and it never really got any distribution in the United States.
Murphy is Jesse James. Victor Jory is Judge Roy Bean. Boetticher wrote and directed. And Lucien Ballard shot it. Aren’t you glad our friends at Indicator/Powerhouse are bringing it to Blu-Ray?
This one’s a must, folks.
Posted in 1954, Audie Murphy, Barton MacLane, Dan Duryea, Dana Andrews, Douglas Kennedy, DVD/Blu-Ray News, George Sherman, James H. Griffith, Jesse Hibbs, John Payne, Lee Van Cleef, Mari Blanchard, Myron Healey, Universal (International) on June 7, 2021| 11 Comments »
Directed by Jesse Hibbs
Starring John Payne, Mari Blanchard, Dan Duryea, Joyce Mackenzie, Barton MacLane, James Griffith, Lee Van Cleef, Myron Healey
Universal’s German “branch” has announced an upcoming nine-movie Blu-Ray set featuring a good, but somewhat random, selection of Westerns — many available on Blu-Ray for the first time.
There are two Audie Murphy pictures, Jesse Hibbs’s Ride Clear Of Diablo (1954) and Gunpoint (1966).
Jesse Hibbs’s Rails Into Laramie (1954) is a cool, sadly under-seen 50s Western with a really terrific cast. It’s been on my Want List for quite some time.
Also in the set are Jacques Tourneur’s Canyon Passage (1946), George Sherman’s Comanche Territory (1950), Douglas Sirk’s Taza, Son Of Cochise (1954), Smoke Signal (1955), Lonely Are The Brave (1962) and The Ride To Hangman’s Tree (1967).
While packages like this tend to lead to some duplication in your DVD/Blu-Ray collection, they offer up some really good stuff. Recommended.
Thanks to (birthday boy) John Knight for the tip!
50 Westerns From The 50s. 