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Nicholas Ray’s CinemaScope detour into outlaw Americana is yet another sincere artistic effort muffled by studio interference. Ray sought to examine a legend in terms of folklore and celebrity. Fox just wanted a cheap remake of its 1939 hit and undermined the director all the way. It’s a potentially great film marred by clumsy reshoots and re-edits.

The True Story of Jesse James

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 92 min. / Street Date November 20, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Robert Wagner, Jeffrey Hunter, Hope Lange, Agnes Moorehead, Alan Hale Jr., Alan Baxter, John Carradine, Rachel Stephens, Barney Phillips, Biff Elliot, Frank Overton, Barry Atwater, Marian Seldes, Chubby Johnson, Frank Gorshin, Carl Thayler, John Doucette, Ken Clark, Anthony Ray, Gene Roth, Sumner Williams, Carleton Young.

Cinematography: Joe MacDonald

Original Music: Leigh Harline

Written by Walter Newman, based on an earlier screenplay by Nunnally Johnson

Produced by Herbert B. Swope Jr....

Gregory Peck slips into vengeance mode full-tilt, riding down a quartet of blackhearted knaves: rapist Stephen Boyd, ambusher Albert Salmi, sneaky Lee Van Cleef and inscrutable Henry Silva. The action direction and scenery in this late ‘fifties Big Sky western are excellent; Joan Collins and Kathleen Gallant put in good performances as well.

The Bravados

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1958 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date September 18, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Gregory Peck, Joan Collins, Stephen Boyd, Albert Salmi, Henry Silva, Kathleen Gallant, Barry Coe, George Voskovec, Herbert Rudley, Lee Van Cleef, Joe DeRita, Andrew Duggan, Ken Scott, Gene Evans, Beulah Archuletta, Robert Adler.

Cinematography: Leon Shamroy

Film Editor: William Mace

Original Music: Lionel Newman

Written by Philip Yordan from a novel by Frank O’Rourke

Produced by Herbert B. Swope Jr.

Directed by Henry King

The Bravados is just the kind of western America liked in the late 1950s,...

Call him strange, but CineSavant is fascinated by ‘women’s films’ that advance a consensus role template for American women. Then they ask questions like, “Is Hilda Crane a . . . Tramp?” Ladies attending these films may have sought to stir up fantasies with a racy romantic adventure — but not too racy. What a tough nut to crack within the Production Code: ace screenwriter Philip Dunne chose this as his third writing-directing assignment. Jean Simmons gives it her best shot, but the screen is stolen by everybody’s favorite harpy, Evelyn Varden.

Hilda Crane

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1956 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date , 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Jean Simmons, Guy Madison, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Judith Evelyn, Evelyn Varden, Peggy Knudsen, Gregg Palmer.

Cinematography: Joseph MacDonald

Film Editor: David Bretherton

Original Music: David Rakson

From the play by Samson Raphaelson

Produced by Herbert B. Swope Jr.

Written and Directed by...

Associated Press The house that may have inspired “The Great Gatsby” being demolished.

In Sands Point, N.Y., on Monday, an excavation loader demolished the “Land’s End Mansion” that some scholars believe inspire F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” The mansion will be replaced by a subdivision of five houses prices at $10 million each.

According to a 2005 profile of the estate in Forbes, when it was on the market for $28 million, it was built in 1902 and “came to...