Product Details

• Actors: Joel McCrea, Brian Donlevy, Sonny Tufts, Barbara Britton, Fay Bainter
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC, Full Screen
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: May 14, 1996
• Run Time: 87 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304021720
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #171,151 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In latter-day interviews Joel McCrea always maintained that producers would cast him "only if they couldn't get somebody really good, like [Gary] Cooper." This very pleasant actor was self-effacing to a fault (and largely mistaken), but when it came to the 1946 remake of The Virginian, he had a point. Cooper had done The Virginian already at the dawn of the talkies, and McCrea's incarnation pales beside his, even with the benefit of postcard-pretty Technicolor.

But then, this whole movie pales--alongside not only the classic version but most any run-of-the-mill Western. The elements of the sturdy Owen Wister tale--the growing tension between the Virginian and the black-clad cattleman/rustler Trampas, the running critique of vigilante justice by the new schoolmarm from the East, the slide of the hero's feckless pal Steve into outlawry--are still discernible. But everything's been softened (and the ornate frontier dialogue of the 1929 version is gone), and it's difficult to begin to understand how Stuart Gilmore, newly promoted from the film-editing bench, managed to turn in such a flaccid job of direction. He botches even the surefire sequence of the rustlers' hanging, when the Virginian has to... well, we won't play the spoiler.

McCrea's shortfall vis-à-vis Cooper is less severe than the gulf between Brian Donlevy's stolid villainy as Trampas and Walter Huston's venomous exuberance 17 years earlier, or Sonny Tufts's Steve vs. Richard Arlen's, or--especially--Barbara Britton's Vermont violet vs. Mary Brian's spunky schoolmarm. As Trampas might bark at this point: Oh, I'm sick o' this! Buy the 1929 movie. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 1946 "Virginian", February 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Owen Wister's The Virginian (Universal Western Collection) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

this is a remake in technicolor of the 1930 black and white classic, with Joel McCrea playing the Gary Cooper hero role and Brian Donlevy playing the evil Trampas as earlier portrayed by Walter Huston. Sonny Tufts is a little goofier but still good as the doomed sidekick played by Richard Arlen in the earlier version. Both versions are quite good;neither great. This version would probably be more acceptable to viewers who just don't care for older black and white films.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Oklahoma! without the songs . . ., November 21, 2009

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Owen Wister's The Virginian (Universal Western Collection) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

All around cowboy actor Joel McCrae was a natural pick for this 1946 Hollywood version (the 4th one) of Owen Wister's classic western novel. Conceived as a colorful family-pic, with elements of light-hearted comedy and a few dark shadowy elements, it's not much different in spirit from the musical "Oklahoma!" which had been running on Broadway since 1943. Though set on the Wyoming frontier of the 1880s, there's hardly a hint of historical accuracy in the film. Medicine Bow, which Wister describes as no better than squalid, appears here with all the generic splendor of your standard backlot street of storefronts. And the cowboys wear potato-chip brim hats and jeans, with no concern for what a working cowboy might have worn at the time.

Scenes are borrowed from earlier versions of the film instead of returning to Wister - for example the way Molly and the Virginian meet. In Wister's novel, the Virginian dramatically rescues Molly from a wagon foundering as it crosses a stream. This film uses a comic scene borrowed from an earlier movie version, where the Virginian saves her from what she believes is a violent cow - trading away excitement for a cheap laugh. Wister shows her vulnerability, while allowing her to maintain her dignity - a big difference. Sonny Tufts' Steve is too slap-happy to be taken seriously as a cattle rustler, though he makes what he can of the scene in which he is hanged after associating with horse thieves.

Molly, the schoolmarm from Vermont - a fish out of water on the frontier - is not an easy character to portray sympathetically. She has notions about the superiority of her own New England ways, but there is good reason why she would fail to see the appeal of an unschooled cowboy from a poor Southern family, with no particular redeeming qualities beyond his good looks and his riding and roping skills. Wister made her independent and spirited, which comes across in this and other movie versions as stubbornly shrill. The Goodrich/Hackett screenwriting team make her intelligent and witty in some scenes and vainly shallow in others. Barbara Britton isn't always up to knitting it all together.

Brian Donleavy is OK as Trampas - dressed in black, big surprise - but he shows nothing of the inner Iago that drives Wister's villain, who seems driven as much by envy of the Virginian as a wish to serve his own selfish ends on the fringes of the law. What makes Wister's story interesting is the way each tries to outwit the other, from the card-playing scene where they first meet to the final show-down in the street. The tension of that contest is translated here into the standard good-guy vs bad-guy stereotypes we are familiar with from a hundred other western movies. Walter Huston's Trampas in the 1929 version of the film is far more three-dimensional and interesting.

Of all the versions of the film, the one from 1929, with a very young Gary Cooper as the Virginian, is arguably the best. Of all the actors who have played the part, he comes closest to Wister's original conception of the man - young, lean, handsome. McCrae, face it, was 40 when he played the part - nearly twice the age of Wister's hero. The 1929 version also includes the baby-switching scene, which reflects more of the young cowboys' ambivalence about marriage, family, and settling down. Showing the playful side of the Virginian (as Wister does), we get a more rounded and less stereotypical portrayal. Like "Lonesome Dove," what the novel needs is a mini-series to bring what is a wonderful story to full life on the screen. Until then, we have these partial successes.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Classic Movie, February 6, 2010

By 

Friday's Child (Texas) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Owen Wister's The Virginian (Universal Western Collection) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The Virginian is a western classic. It is funny and sad and shows the code of honor of the old west - much of which has been lost in our modern day life. Joel McCrea has starred in many good movies, but this is the best.

The only downside for me is that it is not available on DVD and the VHS model I bought is protected and won't let me convert it to DVD.