Customer Reviews

Tough Guys of the West 20 Movie Pack

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

 

 

This is a review of the "Tough Guys of the West" 20 movie DVD collection issed by Brentwood Home Video.

What you have here is a very good collection of 20 B-Westerns. The films transfers range from very good or excellent to very poor. But, overall these are all watchable and are generally in fairly decent quality overall considering the age and nature of public domain films.

The film transfers for most are at least adequate and generally as good as or better than the typical low-end type of public domain product available out there. But, as I noted there are exceptions, however, and some films are in much better shape than others, but there are only maybe three or four films that I would call very poor transfers (still watchable, but in poor quality), most of the rest of the films here are such that you can generally enjoy the movie itself without being overly distracted by the scratches, fuzziness, splices, etc.

Some of the films that rank in the lower end of the quality range here include: Aces and Eights, Arizona Gunfighter, Gangster's Den, and Frontier Fury. These four films are pretty fuzzy looking - you can watch them o.k., but if you happen to really, really like any of those and were considering buying this collection just for those four films, you should look elsewhere for better copies.

On the other hand, "Abilene Town" is in much, much better quality here than I have seen in some other collections and "Hittin' the Trail", "Stampede" and "The Painted Desert" are also in very good condition here - these are all very good to excellent in terms of picture quality most of the time. Probably as good as it gets for these great old films.

The Roy Rogers film, "Nevada City" is a sharp picture, but it is washed out looking - you can compensate somewhat by increasing the contrast and still get a decent result.

In addition, please note that the Roan Group has issued a much, much better quality DVD version of the Roy Rogers film "Billy the Kid Returns" than what you find here in this collection. Also, if you are looking for a near perfect quality DVD of "Angel and the Bad Man" you need to get the one issued by Good Times which is much better than the film transfer of that film included in this collection. In both cases those two films are certainly very watchable in this collection, I'm just letting you know that if you want perfect copies of those two films and are willing to pay the extra money to get them, significantly better film transfers can be found elsewhere. The ones on this collection are certainly watchable and enjoyable, just not perfect.


Here is a list of the movies included in this set:

Abilene Town - Randolph Scott
Aces and Eights - Tim McCoy
Angel and the Badman - John Wayne
The Arizona Gunfighter - Bob Steele
Cavalcade of the West - Hoot Gibson
Dawn on the Great Divide - Buck Jones
Fighting Caravans - Gary Cooper
Gangster's Den - Buster Crabbe
Hittin the Trail - Tex Ritter
The Light of Western Stars - Alan Ladd
My Outlaw Brother -
Nevada City - Roy Rogers & George "Gabby" Hayes
Painted Desert - Clark Gable
The Phantom Thunderbolt - Ken Maynard
Santa Fe Trail - Errol Flynn
Billy the Kid Returns - Roy Rogers
Boss of Bullion City - Johhny Mack Brown
Range Defenders - Ray "Crash" Corrigan
Stampede - Charles Starrett
Frontier Fury - Charles Starrett

Tough Guys of the West is a collection of 20 Westerns that have only one thing in common: they are all public domain and as such it is possible for them to be presented in highly affordable collections. I paid $23.99 for my set and that comes down to less than $1.25 per movie. The way that movie tickets cost nowadays, you really cannot complain about this collection.

This deal is even better when you consider that many of the movies in this collection are available as individual movie DVD's at prices of $5 and higher. Many of the movies in this collection are presented in better condition than they are from other DVD companies.

Additionally, some of these movies are of such quality and/or proven audience appeal you just have to wonder just why the movie studios did not renew their copyrights. Chief among these are Santa Fe Trail starring both Errol Flynn & Ronald Reagan, Angel and the Badman starring John Wayne and Abilene Town starring Randolph Scott.

All in all, a great deal for the money.

this set of 20 movies is a western lovers dream. the transfers are all good for the most part and my stepfather really likes this set also. a great way to build your collection of western movies.

TOUGH GUYS OF THE WEST features all the big cowboy stars of the 1930s and 40s, plus many other well-known actors. These mostly hour-length oaters were often screened back then as half of a Saturday afternoon matinee. If you've never seen in action Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard, Buck Jones or Bob Steele (other than in his F-Troop! role of Trooper Duffy), this fine DVD box set will afford you just that opportunity. With ten double-sided discs containing twenty still well-loved westerns, TOUGH GUYS is a great way to start your "classic westerns" library off on the right hoof.

And if you really want an instant collection of films like these, why not try WESTERN CLASSICS 100 MOVIE PACK? It's about the best darn thing to come along since the silver bullet!

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The following alphabetized program lists provides viewer poll ratings (based on a 1 to 10 scale) for each film, plus years of release and their most prominent actors.

(6.3) Abilene Town (1946) - Randolph Scott/Edgar Buchanan/Ann Dvorak
(6.0) Aces and Eights (1936) - Tim McCoy/Luana Walters
(6.8) Angel And The Badman (1947) - John Wayne/Gail Russell/Harry Carey
(5.9) Arizona Gunfighter (1937) - Bob Steele/Jean Carmen
(6.0) Billy The Kid Returns (1938) Roy Rogers/Smiley Burnette
(6.0) Boss of Bullion City (1940) - Johhny Mack Brown/Fuzzy Knight
(5.0) Cavalcade of the West (1936) - Hoot Gibson/Rex Lease
(6.7) Dawn on the Great Divide (1942) - Buck Jones/Mona Barrie/Christine McIntyre
(5.8) Fighting Caravans (1931) - Gary Cooper/Lili Damita/Eugene Pallette
(???) Frontier Fury (1943) - Charles Starrett/Roma Aldrich
(5.7) Gangster's Den (1945) - Buster Crabbe/Al St. John
(6.3) Hittin' the Trail (1937) - Tex Ritter/"Snub" Pollard/Hank Worden
(5.7) The Light of Western Stars (1940) - Victor Jory/Noah Beery Jr./Alan Ladd(in support)
(5.3) My Outlaw Brother (1951) - Mickey Rooney/Robert Preston/Robert Stack
(5.7) Nevada City (1941) - Roy Rogers/George "Gabby" Hayes
(5.6) The Painted Desert (1931) - William Boyd/Clark Gable
(5.5) Phantom Thunderbolt (1933) - Ken Maynard/Frances Lee
(6.0)Range Defenders (1937) - Robert Livingston/Ray "Crash" Corrigan/Yakima Canutt
(6.0) Santa Fe Trail (1940) - Errol Flynn/Ronald Reagan/Olivia de Havilland
(6.8) Stampede (Canada/USA-1936) - Charles Starrett/Finis Barton

I had a problem that some of the discs were duplicated, but every thing was sorted out by Amazon who gave me a full credit

This is a good set of western films, however...the set does NOT include the Rod Cameron/Gale Storm version of "Stampede". The box says it does, but it is in fact an older film called "Stampede" with Charles Starrett. Considering the fact that I bought it for the Cameron/Storm movie...I must say I was very much NOT pleased. So if that's the film you're buying the set for...it isn't on there!

The movies with more than one don't list all of the movies and I am looking for one very special one by John Wayne , and I am not having any luck finding it at all .
Please help me find this movie are point me in the right direction to find it from some one other than Amazon .

Sincerely
Marilyn Farquhar