Classic matinee westerns ride again
By Doug Nye
Knight Ridder News Service
From the 1920s to the mid-1950s, a Saturday at the movies meant saddling up with your favorite cowboy hero for a rip-roaring adventure accentuated by smoke-shrouded shoot-outs and table-smashing fistfights.
For the kids who were there, the memories of those rides across the big screen never faded. But trying to relive those days on DVD was difficult for a while.
Studios rushed to get the latest special-effects-laden blockbusters to DVD.
Gradually, they also began to dip into their vaults and release classic films from the previous seven decades.
However, most of the low-budget films of the past — such as the old westerns — received little attention from video companies. One exception has been VCI Entertainment of Tulsa, Okla., which has been in the home-video business since 1976.
VCI specializes in B-budget films, a list that includes plenty of those old cowboy adventures. The original negatives for most of these films are long lost, so VCI uses the best prints it can find to bring them to DVD.
That means the films vary in quality from very good to just OK. I recently screened several DVDs from VCI, though, and all were highly watchable and very enjoyable.
Some of them are available in the DVD-R format, a standard recordable DVD. The format allows VCI to offer numerous titles without the cost of having to mass produce hundreds of copies of each film. Be aware that these might not be compatible with DVD players more than three years old.
Following are a number of western titles now available from VCI at www.vcientertainment.com or (800) 331-4077.
• Red Ryder double features: The cowboy comic strip hero created by Fred Harmon came to life in 27 features from 1944 to 1948.
Just released: Vol. 3, starring Jim Bannon as Ryder in two color features, "The Fighting Redhead" (1949) and "The Cowboy and the Prizefighter" (1949); and Vol. 4, starring Allan Lane as Ryder in "Marshal of Cripple Creek" (1947) and "Oregon Trail Scouts" (1947).
Still available are Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.
• "Zorro's Cliffhanger Collection": The three-disc set has the 12-chapter Republic serials "Zorro Rides Again" (1937), "Zorro's Fighting Legion" (1939) and "Zorro's Black Whip" (1944).
• "The Miracle Rider": This 15-chapter 1935 serial was the last starring role for the legendary Tom Mix. Here, he plays a Texas Ranger who helps an Indian tribe plagued by the villainous Zaroff and his henchmen.
Among those available in the DVD-R format:
• Bob Steele double feature: "Tombstone Terror" (1935) and "Lightnin' Crandall" (1937).
• Tex Ritter double feature: "Marshal of Gunsmoke" (1944) and "Oklahoma Raiders" (1944). Ritter, father of John Ritter, was a singing cowboy star from 1936 to 1945 and gained fame for his rendition of "High Noon."
• Buster Crabbe double feature: "Sheriff of Sage Valley" (1943) and "Western Cyclone" (1943). Olympic swimmer Crabbe starred in 42 westerns from 1942 to 1946, as well as playing comic-strip spaceman Flash Gordon in three serials and Buck Rogers in one serial.
• Johnny Mack Brown double feature (volume 2): "Law of the Range" (1941) and "Raiders of San Joaquin" (1943). A former University of Alabama football standout, Brown starred in 113 westerns from 1930 to 1952. Vol. 1, "Badmen of Red Butte," and "Rawhide Rangers" also are available.
• "Frontier Doctor": The silver screen's last singing cowboy, Rex Allen, starred in this series during the 1955-56 TV season. The DVD has four half-hour episodes.
• "Dawn on the Great Divide": This 1943 feature was the last for Buck Jones, a cowboy star since the early 1920s. It was released a month after Jones died in a Boston fire.
• "Bells of Rosarita": Roy Rogers gets plenty of help rounding up the bad guys in this 1945 film with guest stars Wild Bill Elliott, Allan "Rocky" Lane, Sunset Carson, Don Barry and Bob Livingston. Other Rogers DVD-R offerings include "Idaho" (1943) and "Home in Oklahoma" (1946).
• "Riders of the Whistling Pines" and "Rim of the Canyon": Gene Autry stars in these two 1949 films he produced.
• The Three Mesquiteers double feature: Vol. 1, "Ghost Town Gold" (1936) and "Come on, Cowboys" (1937). Vol. 2, "Hit the Saddle" (1937) and "Heart of the Rockies" (1937).
