Customer Reviews

The John Wayne Adventure Collection (The High and the Mighty / In Harm’s Way / Island in the Sky / Hatari! / Donovan’s Reef)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

THE JOHN WAYNE ADVENTURE COLLECTION is five of Duke's better 1950s and '60s productions. Each widescreen transfer in this currently out-of-print box is on its own disc; extras are minimal.


SYNOPSES--

DONOVAN'S REEF reunites "Liberty Valance" vets Duke, Lee Marvin and director John Ford. Filmed in Hawaii and with a Xmas subtext, the two former navymen meet once a year on their mutual birthday for drinks and fisticuffs.

HATARI! features Hank Mancini's famous "Baby Elephant Walk." It's the story of a group of African hunters that collect animals for zoos and the lady photographer who disrupts their little circle, especially with her penchant for adopting infant pachyderms.

In THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY, engine trouble on a commercial trans-oceanic flight unnerves the pilot, so his back-up, Dan Roman (Wayne) slaps some courage into him. A loss of fuel from an errant bullet that hits but doesn't explode (?) a gas tank means they may not make it to shore. Co-pilot Roman however refuses to give up.

Otto Preminger's IN HARM'S WAY is a WWII epic with soap opera undertones. Here, Duke is a heavy cruiser commander who's relieved of duty after issuing some questionable orders while at sea during and just after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. He's given a desk job for some months but eventually gets a second chance at command in the South Pacific campaign.

ISLAND IN THE SKY is a story of survival under harsh winter conditions. Duke's transport plane crashes in an uninhabited area of Labrador and it's his responsibility as pilot to keep everyone from freezing to death until they can be rescued.


Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll ratings.

(6.6) Donovan's Reef (1963) - John Wayne/Lee Marvin/Elizabeth Allen/Cesar Romero/Dorothy Lamour/Mike Mazurki/Edgar Buchanan

(7.2) Hatari! (1962) - John Wayne/Hardy Krüger/Elsa Martinelli/Red Buttons/Bruce Cabot

(6.9) The High and the Mighty (1954) - John Wayne/Claire Trevor/Laraine Day/Robert Stack/Jan Sterling/Phil Harris/Robert Newton/Sidney Blackmer/Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez

(7.1) In Harm's Way - John Wayne/Kirk Douglas/Patricia Neal/Brandon De Wilde/Jill Haworth/Dana Andrews/Stanley Holloway/Burgess Meredith/Franchot Tone/Patrick O'Neal/Carroll O'Connor/Slim Pickens

(6.9) Island in the Sky (1953) - John Wayne/Lloyd Nolan/Walter Abel/James Arness/Andy Devine/Jimmy Lydon/Allyn Joslyn/Harry Carey Jr./Gordon Jones

The John Wayne Adventure Collection is a great set of movies for any fan of The Duke's non-western films, with four of his most popular titles plus the collector's edition of Island in the Sky. Since you can easily find reviews for the individual movies, I'll confine my comments to the value of this box set, other than to say again that The High and the Mighty, Donovan's Reef, Hatari, and In Harm's Way are all very popular John Wayne movies. Just check some customer reviews on different sites and you'll see that a large majority of people give them five stars.

As for this set, it's an excellent value if you want all five of these movies in your collection. A few minutes of searching will tell you that In Harm's Way, Hatari, and Donovan's Reef are not exactly easy to find new at a decent price. I've been keeping track recently trying to decide what to buy, and those three DVD's have cost consistently around $20 each, sometimes more for In Harm's Way and Hatari. The five movies separately always add up to about $80, maybe a little more. New copies of the Adventure Collection are usually available for $60 or less, so this really is a good deal if you want all five.

The only other small detail is that even though the five movies are on their own discs, they come in three thin-size cases. In Harm's Way and Island in the Sky (collector's edition) are in the same case, as are Donovan's Reef and Hatari. The High and the Mighty is a two-disc collector's edition, and is the only one with its own case. If you can live without having each movie individually packaged, you'll probably appreciate the savings of this box set. The original movies and DVD special features are all intact.

Have watched 3 of the 5 movies so far, every one of them have been of good quality. I believe that these 5 are among the top 10% of his movies.

My husband & I are big John Wayne fans & this collection is so wonderful. Our favorite movie is "The High & the Mighty" as you sit on the edge of seat wondering how it will all end. We enjoyed the theme song for "The High & the Mighty" very much. "Island in the Sky" is so exciting & not as familiar to fans as the other films are but just as good as the others in this collection. "Donovan's Reef's" is a comic delight with lots of Hawaiian music thru-out the movie. This one was our 2nd favorite & "Island in the Sky" was our 3rd favorite. You don't want to miss "Hatari" & "In Harm's Way" as they're very enjoyable. What a good collection of John Wayne movies!!!

Package arrived with no damage and all of the DVD's played without problems. All of the movies were excellent and just what we were expecting; a great addition to our collection.

I purchased this for a Christmas gift. It was received in a timely manner and in perfect condition.