This old world has been churning out motion pictures for well over a hundred years. Some are good, some ain’t. Some are easy to find, and unfortunately, some ain’t. This has been on my mind lately, and it’s been a fairly frequent topic among the comments on this blog and “the other one.”
I just wrapped up my contribution to the second volume of Kit Parker’s Saddle Up Westerns series. (The first will be out soon.) Number 2 includes Jacques Tourneur’s Stranger On Horseback (1955)* starring Joel McCrea, a Western considered pretty much lost until Mr. Parker sorted out and bought the rights — and tracked down what is probably the only surviving 35mm color print (hiding at the BFI).
There was a DVD released through VCI several years ago, and now that lonely print has been pulled back into service for Blu-Ray. We should be happy to have a chance to see Stranger On Horseback, period. There are lots and lots of movies that haven’t come back from the abyss like this one has. For it to make it to DVD, much less Blu-Ray, is really something.
We’re Spoiled, Admit It.
Many of us complain about “double dipping” — buying a film over and over as technology evolves. First, nobody’s holding a gun to your head — you don’t have to make all those re-purchases. You can stick to that VHS copy of Goldfinger (1964) you bought 30 years ago. Once upon a time, you thought that tape looked pretty damn good, now you’d turn your nose up at it. (Same goes for that ancient DVD of it.)
This new Stranger On Horseback will be a huge improvement over the DVD. And just as you have to open your wallet for these upgrades, so do these video companies — an entirely new transfer/scan is required. And that kind of restoration work comes with a pretty hefty price tag.
I’m so thankful that folks like Mr. Parker and Phil Hopkins of Film Masters are giving these films another chance to be seen (and maybe later another chance to really shine). Their efforts are to be applauded — and certainly supported. To be selfish about it (and to prove I learned something in Economics class), as long as we keep buying them, they’ll keep making ’em.
The major studios seem to have given up on the old, obscure films we cherish, making these independents even more important as a video source and as an engine for film preservation.
2025 already promises a wealth of video riches (and the restored The Searchers might hit your mailbox before the end of 2024). Rather than complain because there are so many movies NOT available on DVD or Blu-Ray (such as Republic’s The Great Train Robbery from 1941), I’m gonna look at my video collection as half full rather than half empty. And if I’m gonna complain about anything, it’s gonna be that I need more shelf space!
*The second feature in this set will be Outlaw Women (1952) starring Marie Windsor, scanned from a 35mm Cinecolor original.
50 Westerns From The 50s.