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List Price: $26.98Amazon.com's Price: $24.49 You Save: $2.49 ( 9%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Universal
EAN: 0025193311221
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Label: Universal Studios
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Universal Studios
Region Code: 1
Release Date: May 08, 2007
Running Time: 354 minutes
Sales Rank: 25425
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: November 20, 1950
Editorial Review:
Description:
Journey back to the Old West for timeless adventures in the Classic Western Round-Up: Volume 1! Relive all the gunfights, barroom brawls and romance with The Texas Rangers, Canyon Passage, Kansas Raiders and The Lawless Breed. Starring Hollywood favorites Rock Hudson, Fred MacMurray, Audie Murphy and Dana Andrews, this action-packed collection features some of the most exciting films ever to hit the silver screen! The Texas Rangers (1936) Two crooks (Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie) reluctantly enlist in the Texas Rangers as a means of staying one-step ahead of the law. Canyon Passage (1946) Adventure awaits when a pack-mule express owner (Dana Andrews) escorts a young woman (Susan Hayward) home to a remote Oregon town. Kansas Raiders (1950) Jesse James (Audie Murphy) and his brothers join William Quantrill (Brian Donlevy) and his vengeful raiders in an effort to save the Confederacy. The Lawless Breed (1953) When famed outlaw John Wesley Hardin (Rock Hudson) is released from prison, he gives an in-depth account of his scandalous life to a local newspaper.
Amazon.com:
This DVD set indeed qualifies as a 'round-up,' gathering a quartet of otherwise unrelated Westerns on two discs. Despite its seeming randomness, this set has a fine pedigree (three excellent directors are represented) and offers good value for fans of the oater.
The Texas Rangers is a 1936 Paramount picture (the other titles are Universal) from director King Vidor, working from a story of his own concoction. Two shady characters, Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie, join the Rangers as subterfuge, but slowly find themselves cottoning to the idea of nobility. Although it's a minor effort in the director's career, Vidor shows his feeling for the American land (he'd just come off the salt-of-the-earth classic Our Daily Bread) and the redemptive plot is hard to resist. Lloyd Nolan, in one of his early roles, makes a very offbeat bad guy--eventually named 'The Polkadot Bandit'!
The gem of the collection is Canyon Passage, a relaxed 1946 Northwestern directed by Jacques Tourneur. Dana Andrews plays an Oregon frontier entrepreneur who keeps getting dragged into romantic triangles, Indian reprisals, and bailing out his irresponsible best friend (Brian Donlevy). He's a little like Rick in Casablanca, allegedly out for himself but thawed by the needs of his friends. Tourneur's use of color and forest-y locations is beautiful to behold, and the movie has a wry Greek chorus in the form of Hoagy Carmichael's mandolin-strumming shopkeeper (he sings 'Ole Buttermilk Sky,' among others). Susan Hayward and Patricia Roc provide the lingering looks toward Andrews, and Ward Bond makes a particularly brutal bad guy.
Kansas Raiders (1950) weds two popular Western subjects: the James gang and Quantrill's Raiders. The film's story tracks the arrival and disillusionment of Jesse and Frank James (and the Younger brothers) into the service of Rebel agitator William Quantrill (Brian Donlevy). The movie pretty thoroughly romanticizes Jesse James and co. (a narrator has to remind us at the end that these future bank robbers were 'warped' individuals), but it's an enjoyable enough Western outing. Audie Murphy, the Texas war hero, brings his sullen charisma to the role of Jesse, and the gang includes Tony Curtis and Richard Long.
Even more historical whitewash is applied to the legend of John Wesley Hardin in The Lawless Breed (1953), starring Rock Hudson as the notorious killer. The film bends over backwards to prove that Hardin killed in self-defense, which might be why it feels so flavorless (the usually robust director Raoul Walsh is defeated here by the blah conception of the character and Hudson's stolid performance). Quintessential Universal babe Julia Adams is Hardin's showgirl ladyfriend.
This is a no-frills package, which works out just fine. Most importantly, the films look very good, especially the three color pictures. Canyon Passage has a few moments of wobbly color separation, but is otherwise a particularly vivid transfer. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - "Canyon Passage" makes the package worth the money!
"Canyon Passage" with Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward, Brian Donlevy, and Hoagy Carmichael is the best movie in this set and is good enough to make this set a worthwhile purchase. "Canyon Passage" was filmed in the Diamond Lake area of Oregon and has wonderful scenery featuring Mt. Thielson as the background in many of the scenes. Mt. Thielson is a sharply pointed peak just north of Crater Lake National Park and Crater Lake is briefly seen in the background as Dana Andrews and Susan Hayward ride past ... Read More
Rating:  - Great scenery, flimsy plot
Director Jacques Tourneur is probably most fanous for "Cat People" and "Out of the Past," with most of his other work ranging from mediocre to downright B-movie making. "Canyon Passage" is a fairly sluggish western set on Oregon, whose natural beauty is the real star of this film. The 1946 Technicolor process is astoundingly rich and most of the movie is filmed outside, against mountains, lakes, forests, meadows, and farmland. The story is flimsy, involving hionest-to-a-fault Dana Andrews taking ... Read More
Rating: - western roundup
This is one of those movies you want to see over and over.The Texas Rangers is one of those movie that was made over call The Streets of Lorado with William Holden thats no longer available/Kansas Raiders is Audie Murphy at his best.I also was suprise to see Tony Curtis in a western, A must see movie for all western fans.Audie Murphy has another very good movie call Seven Ways from Sundown with Barry Sullivan that is no longer available/The lawless Breed very good story line a must see all classics.
Rating: - Classic Western Roundup
Well going in I had high hopes based on earlier reviews concerning Canyon Passage. That turned out to be a pretty good old style western. If all of the other movies had the same standard then the disk would have been rated 5 stars. The others are good but not as good as CP and that is what brought it down. All of the fils were pretty well played, good plot development and any fan of the old stuff should like this collection.
Rating: - Non-shoot-out Movie About the West
Fine picture of mostly non-violent pioneers in the Pacific Northwest. A loyal rendering of Ernest Haycox's novel. Dana Andrews stalwart as Logan, the shopkeeper, Susan Hayward as sweet and loyal Lucy, Brian Aherne as Lucy's fiancee, with a problem with gambling. Hoagy Carmichael is a townsman, who introduced his theme song "Old Buttermilk Sky," Lloyd Bridges a gold prospector, Ward Bond a sweaty ruffian. One for kids to see it wasn't all saloons and gunmen who settled the West.
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