Product Details

• Actors: Robert Taylor, Julie London, William Holden, Eleanor Parker, Gregory Peck
• Directors: Anthony Mann, Charles Walters, John Sturges, Robert Mulligan, Robert Parrish
• Writers: Alvin Sargent, Arnold Schulman
• Format: Box set, DVD, Color, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 6
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: August 26, 2008
• Run Time: 619 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0018QAIY8
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,320 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Warner Home Video Western Classics Collection (Escape from Fort Bravo / Many Rivers to Cross / Cimarron 1960 / The Law and Jake Wade / Saddle the Wind / The Stalking Moon)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

There's plenty in this set for Western fans to enjoy, but let's note that none of these movies rises to the classic status the box title claims. If the term "Western classic" is to mean anything--and it should--it has to be reserved for the likes of Stagecoach, The Naked Spur, Seven Men from Now, and Unforgiven. What we have here are half a dozen pictures that came out in mid–20th century, have recognizable professionals going about their business, and agreeably remind us of how they made 'em before they stopped makin' 'em the way they used to. And for a pleasant weekend's viewing, that'll do nicely. The Civil War–era Escape from Fort Bravo (1953), the first of director John Sturges's many Westerns, has flint-hard U.S. Cavalry officer William Holden riding herd on Confederate POWs in Arizona. Once Holden has fallen for his colonel's daughter's best friend Eleanor Parker, who's also secretly the fiancée of Rebel officer John Forsythe, the film itself is allowed to escape Fort Bravo and echo off the walls of some picturesque canyons well-supplied with hostile Indians. Sturges had a good eye for staging action, and the big climax involves a kind of Apache Agincourt, a patiently lethal military tactic on the part of the Mescaleros. Cameraman Robert L. Surtees was forced to abandon Technicolor for Ansco color, which has a pleasing palette for standard scenes but tends to go greenish and speckly in desert longshots. This was MGM's first production in modest widescreen (1.77:1), which your flat-screen TV may shave a mite. The other five films in the set, all full CinemaScope (2.35:1), look fine.

The Law and Jake Wade (1958) is another Sturges-Surtees picture, one of three vehicles for fading MGM star Robert Taylor. He's a reformed outlaw turned town marshal who springs former partner Richard Widmark from jail, thereby paying off an old debt. But as Widmark sees it, they still have unfinished business, best settled by dragging Taylor and fiancée Patricia Owens off to a ghost town haunted by old guilt and savage Indians. As a journey Western, the movie pales alongside the great Budd Boetticher films of the same era, but the felonious traveling companions include Henry Silva, Robert Middleton, and DeForest Kelley, and the derelict town and its Boot Hill make a memorable killing ground. The credits of Saddle the Wind (1958) feature two unlikely names to be connected with a Western: the script is by Rod Serling (pre–Twilight Zone), and the wind in need of saddling is personified by John Cassavetes, doing an 1860s variation on a 1950s juvenile delinquent. He's kid brother to Robert Taylor, an ex-gunfighter who's turned rancher with the blessing of range baron Donald Crisp. The peace of their valley is variously threatened by gunman Charles McGraw, an extended family of squatters (headed by Royal Dano in anguished righteousness mode), and most of all the volatile, gun-happy Cassavetes. Saddle the Wind turns out to be something of a discovery, thanks to Serling's metaphor-rich dialogue and intriguingly oblique direction by Robert Parrish. There's some facile '50s-TV psychologizing, but mood trumps plot, and the inevitable showdown takes a surprising turn. Plus it never hurts to have Julie London around to gaze soulfully and sing the title song.

The final Robert Taylor item, Many Rivers to Cross (1955), is the one out-and-out clinker in the bunch, an excruciating attempt at frontier comedy largely set against painted vistas à la Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. As it happens, both films were produced by Jack Cummings, a veteran of MGM musicals--only this is no musical, and the ill-cast Taylor seems poleaxed as free-living vagabond Bushrod Gentry (a rascal role that cries out for Kirk Douglas or Burt Lancaster). Eleanor Parker is fun as the fire-haired "she-fiend" who sets her cap for Bushrod, but really only James Arness hits the right note in a too-brief appearance about an hour in. Master Western director Anthony Mann is credited with Cimarron, the 1960 remake of the 1931 Academy Award winner. However, Mann left in mid-production ("creative differences"), and the movie seems more typical of the MGM contract director who took over, Charles Walters. Edna Ferber's novel of pioneer Oklahoma offers a plethora of themes--several species of prejudice, capitalism vs. charity, sons unhappily following in fathers' footsteps, and the irreconcilable tensions between a stability-craving wife and her footloose husband--but the action is front-loaded and the husband, Glenn Ford, is offscreen for years at a time. Most of the large cast comes and goes without establishing identities, and Maria Schell's Sabra Cravat is tiresome as both ditz and pill. However, the Oklahoma land rush gives grand spectacle. That leaves The Stalking Moon (1969), an odd-film-out since it's the only non-MGM production in the set and a decade more recent than the rest. Gregory Peck plays a scout trying to protect a white woman (Eva Marie Saint) and her half-breed son from an Apache warrior, the woman's captor-husband of ten years. The mostly unseen Apache is a veritable monster of determination, cunning, and bloodthirstiness: Peck and his charges doom entire Southwest communities to extermination just by passing through the neighborhood. This fierce amalgam of Western and horror movie was the last of seven collaborations between director Robert Mulligan and producer Alan J. Pakula--a distant cousin of their To Kill a Mockingbird. As a palm-sweater it's demonically effective, and fascinating as prelude to the great paranoid trilogy Pakula went on to direct, Klute, The Parallax View, and All the President's Men. Robert Forster has an early role as a fellow, part-Indian scout. --Richard T. Jameson

Product Description

WARNER HOME VIDEO WESTERN CLASSICS CO - DVD Movie

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A pretty good collection of western films from the 50's and 60's, May 9, 2008

By 

calvinnme - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Warner Home Video Western Classics Collection (Escape from Fort Bravo / Many Rivers to Cross / Cimarron 1960 / The Law and Jake Wade / Saddle the Wind / The Stalking Moon) (DVD)

This is a pretty good collection of miscellaneous westerns by Warner Home Video. There is no word on extra features yet, but here are the details on the films themselves and my viewpoint on each one.

Escape From Ft. Bravo (1953) Directed by John Sturges. (4/5)
At the end of the Civil War, Ft. Bravo is being used to house Confederate POWs. William Holden stars as Captain Roper, a man responsible for retrieving escapees from the Fort. He is often brutal in the execution of his duties, but he feels he must be or risk even more escapes. Eleanor Parker comes as a visitor to the fort and butters up Roper. All the while she is helping enable the escape of her true love, a Confederate prisoner. Roper falls in love with Parker's character. When he finds out the truth - after the prisoners escape - he could just leave them to the Apaches. Instead he goes out to rescue and retrieve the prisoners and the girl who betrayed his trust.

Many Rivers To Cross (1955) Directed by Row Rowland. (4/5)
This is a rather unusual cross between a comedy and a western. I really didn't like it the first time I saw it, but it does grow on you. Eleanor Parker stars as a woman who is afraid she will be a spinster and sets her sights on Robert Taylor's character, Bushrod Gentry. Bushrod is an unlikely husband and an untameable frontiersman, or so it seems.

Cimarron (1960) Directed by Anthony Mann (3/5)
Maybe I was spoiled by the 1931 version - in particular the very hammy portrayal of Yancey by Richard Dix. That film won an unbelievable Best Picture Oscar and a Best Actor nomination for Dix. This movie is far superior to the original, with Glenn Ford as Yancey. It confronts head-on the issues that the original just skirts around, yet in doing this it just seems to take on too much. The film is about an ill-matched couple that settles in Oklahoma during the land rush years and how things progress between the two of them as the years progress. Yancey is a wanderer at heart. His wife, Sabra, wants Yancey to settle down and raise a family. You'll probably like this one more if you haven't seen the original.

The Law and Jake Wade (1958) Directed by John Sturges (4/5)
This one has great performances in a rather unremarkable story. Robert Taylor plays Jake Wade. Richard Widmark plays Clint Hollister. It turns out that in years past Clint saved Jake's life when they were in the same gang. Jake goes straight and becomes a sheriff. Jake hears that Clint is about to hang - for something that he actually did - yet feels a debt and breaks him out of jail. Clint does the natural thing - he kidnaps Jake and his fiancee and forces him to return some money Jake stole when he was with the gang. You can pretty much see where this one is going at every turn, but it is worth it to see Taylor and Widmark in the lead. They really are excellent.

Saddle The Wind (1958) Directed by Robert Parrish (3/5)
The only western written by Rod Serling, this one was rather disappointing considering its author. Robert Taylor once again plays a bad guy gone straight, this time as a farmer. He has a younger brother (John Cassavetes) who is following in his wild footsteps but surprises everyone when he brings home a wife. This doesn't prevent him from getting into deep trouble from which his brother must rescue him.

The Stalking Moon (1968) Directed by Robert Mulligan (4/5)
Considering it was made at a time when westerns were largely out of fashion, this one is very good. It does a great job of building suspense. An army scout (Gregory Peck) takes in a woman and her half-Apache son who are pretty much ostracized by society because of their origins. Unfortunately, the boy's Apache father is a violent fellow who wants his "property" back.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice package for a nice price!, July 14, 2009

By 

Dr. Z! (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Warner Home Video Western Classics Collection (Escape from Fort Bravo / Many Rivers to Cross / Cimarron 1960 / The Law and Jake Wade / Saddle the Wind / The Stalking Moon) (DVD)

Even though I like Westerns, I can't say the movies in this package are all excellent; they range from good to maybe very good at best.

Warner does its job again and the picture quality is very nice and aspect ratios preserved. If you like actors like Robert Taylor, William Holden and Glenn Ford, and Gregory Peck, you may want to consider getting this box set since it also has a good price.

Considering everything, I gave the package 4 stars but the movies would get between 3 and 4 stars from me.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WESTERN CLASSICS BOX SET, October 24, 2008

By 

J. L. Rohde (Crystal Lake, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Warner Home Video Western Classics Collection (Escape from Fort Bravo / Many Rivers to Cross / Cimarron 1960 / The Law and Jake Wade / Saddle the Wind / The Stalking Moon) (DVD)

If you love Westerns, you will love this Warner Western Classics DVD box set. Not just one movie but ALL 6 DVD movies are SPECTACULAR in this set. I could watch them over and over, the movies will keep you on the edge of your seat-----indeed real thrillers! Fantastic acting, beautiful scenery in vibrant color,and LOTS of action! I would actually rate these films a 10+---------
Simply thrilled that they put these Westerns out on DVD!!