Ann Dvorak

Average customer rating:

SKIMPY...WHY?
An early gangster film and a cinema landmark
the best gangster movie ive ever seen
A "TALKY" THAT CARRIES QUITE A WALLOP -- for 93 MINUTES
production code problems

Scarface (Universal Cinema Classics)
Starring: Paul Muni , Ann Dvorak , Karen Morley , and George Raft
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Ball of Fire
Unconquered (Universal Cinema Classics)
No Man of Her Own (Universal Cinema Classics)
Les Miserables (1935 & 1952 Two-Disc Set)
James Cagney - The Signature Collection (The Bride Came C.O.D. / Captains of the Clouds / The Fighting 69th / Torrid Zone / The West Point Story)

ASIN: B000N3T0H8
Release Date: 2007-05-22

Amazon.com

Howard Hawks's Scarface was one of the first "talkies" to reclaim the fluidity of the late-silent masterpieces, while also tapping into a feral new energy that came with talking smart and moving smarter on the motion picture screen. Outgunning such contemporaries as Little Caesar and The Public Enemy--in terms of both its ferocious death-dealing and dynamic style--the movie was interfered with by censors and kept out of circulation for decades thanks to its eccentric producer, Howard Hughes. It remains the gold standard among classic gangster pictures. Paul Muni's portrayal of Al Capone surrogate Tony Camonte etched a screen original: a merciless assassin who's not only reflexively criminal but pre-civilized, almost pre-evolutionary, a simian shadow ready to rub out the world if he can't have it for his own. This is still one of the greatest, darkest, most deeply exciting films American cinema has produced. Those demonically ubiquitous X's--starting with that titular scar gouged into Tony's cheek--rival "Rosebud" for resonance. --Richard T. Jameson

Description

Generally regarded to be the best of the classic gangster films, Scarface tells the exciting story of organized crime's brutal control over Chicago during the Prohibition era. Oscar winner Paul Muni gives an electrifying performance as Tony Carmonte, an ambitious criminal with a ruthless drive to be the city's top crime boss. Produced and directed by the legendary Howard Hawks, Scarface was a groundbreaking film which established both Paul Muni and George Raft as major Hollywood stars, while influencing all gangland films to follow.

Customer Reviews:

SKIMPY...WHY?.......2007-06-12

With such an historic and classic film, that really deserves a commentary track or maybe two, (one, on the films making and importance by film historians, and two, by gangster historians, to elaborate just how close to the truth this film was at the time). It is the same version that came out a few years ago in that SCARFACE box set (exclusive). At least it is out for the people who did`nt want to pay that high price. I did`nt get that then, and I`m not getting this now, since I`ve had this on VHS for a number of years now. I`ll wait for the special edition, or the collectors edition, or the anniversary edition, or the extended edition, or the directors cut edition. PS. I can probably build a whole library of first edition DVDs (sans frills), that were made obsolete when the special editions became available. Tomorrow the special edition two disc version of The Hustler is coming out, OH BOY, maybe I can decorate my Xmas tree with all the first editions.

An early gangster film and a cinema landmark.......2007-05-26

I see reviews here dating back to the year 2000. This review is for the Universal Cinema Classics release of Scarface that came out in May 2007. First off, the video and audio on this print are excellent. There is no hissing in the audio, and there are very few artifacts in the video. The extras are another matter. First there is an introduction by TCM host and film historian Robert Osborne who provides the same excellent short introduction that he would were Scarface playing in prime time on TCM and he were introducing it there - no more, no less. The only other extra is an alternate ending scene for Scarface. There is no commentary track, which is a shame considering this film, along with "Little Caesar" and "The Public Enemy" form the founding trio of the gangster film in the sound era of the motion picture.

As for the movie itself, it is based on real events that happened in the criminal career of Al Capone, although Capone's criminal career had already ended with his conviction on charges of tax evasion six months before this film was released in April 1932. You know you're watching a Howard Hughes production when, during the first scene, a bar employee is sweeping up after a party held by one of Chicago's big gangsters and finds a bra among the confetti. The film shares some aspects with its gangster film predecessors - Tony Camonte is motivated by a desire for power just as Edward G. Robinson's Rico was in "Little Caesar", and also like Rico takes over the gang from a boss he perceives as weak. However, Camonte doesn't seem to have the pent-up rage of Public Enemy's Tom Powers. When Tony performs acts of violence it is usually related to gangland business. The actual deaths are strictly business, but the execution of the killings themselves are something Tony takes pride in - a sort of work of art on his part. Like Tom Powers, Tony Camonte is given a family background, but unlike Tom Powers, Camonte's family is a completely dysfunctional one. What is unique in this gangster picture is Tony's trio of love interests. He wants his boss' girl, Poppy, as a status symbol. He also seems to have a love affair going with the machine gun, acting like he has discovered America the first time he shoots one. Finally, Tony is in love with his own sister Cesca. Tony's only true fits of rage occur when he sees her with another man, and it is this loss of emotional control over this one issue that is ultimately his downfall. George Raft, an ex-gangster of sorts himself, is terrific as the smart and level-headed Guino Rinaldo, Tony's right-hand man. Finally there is Vince Barnett as Tony's extremely inadequate secretary in a bit of comic relief turned tragic at the end of the film. This film is truly a classic. I just wish Universal had put in a commentary track, for such a cinema landmark is certainly worthy of one. Highly recommended.

the best gangster movie ive ever seen.......2006-09-27

i just watched and taped this movie from tcm.i really liked it.i thought,like many old movies it would be long and devoid of any action.boy was i wrong!all the events in the movie were based on real life happenings.it is set in a time where one of the biggest crime bosses just went down and 10 more are jumping in to take his place.so theres someone getting shot up in every scene!it was great!of course its done in a 1932 type way so you wont see any graphic violence gow we think of it today,but it was top of the line for its time.my favorite part is when the lead character is getting the building hes in shot to pieces and he looks up for a second at his shooters and sees their machine gun.and he gets really exited like a kid at x-mas and says"they got a machine gun you can carry around!i gotta get me one of those!".i think its the best gangster movie ive ever seen and yes i have seen "the godfather"

A "TALKY" THAT CARRIES QUITE A WALLOP -- for 93 MINUTES.......2006-03-27

----- * IN A NUTSHELL: NO GLAMORIZING OF PUBLIC ENEMIES HERE -*

A dark and dank insight into the depraved and exciting world of bootlegging gangsters at their worst.

WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT: [WARNING -- CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS BELOW]

Tony Camonte [Paul Muni], is the lead, and a character patterned after Al Capone (also called "Scarface")but not in every way. The obviously amoral Camonte gradually seizes control of the bootlegging racket, from Johnny Lovo (Osgood Perkins), his boss, through a series of barbaric murders which eventually include Johnny Lovo. Apparently, Camonte's ambition is translated into brutality as his sole constructive force, which is hardly constructive at all. There is no bargaining, communicating or making deals, Camonte simply kills everyone that stands in his way even if it is really not needed. I think I counted 26 murders in the film, but others have stated that they counted 28.

BACK TO THE ACTION:

After bumping off his boss Lovo, with the aid of henceman Guino Rinaldo [George Raft], Camonte took up with Lovo's mistress, Poppy [Karen Morley]. Though he has lusted after Poppy from the start, Tony has shown oddly incestuous interest in his own sister, Cesca [Ann Dvorak] that seemed more emotionally deep than that for his newly found trophy girl. There were hints about the incestuous nature of their relationship throughout the film with their mother, who Tony never implied was anything more than a domestic servant, constantly warning Cesca about Tony's intentions in veiled but unmistakable language.

Believe it or not, there is actually humor woven into "Scarface" throughout, with one of the best examples being the murder of Gaffney, [Boris Karloff] while he was bowling. The camera pans to Gaffney's bowling ball knocking down all the pins which is a strike, and one of the many examples of the "X" being used to indicate a murder being committed throughout the film. This reduced the explicitness of the violence, but was perhaps more effective and thought provoking through the implicitly clear outcome.

In the end, Camonte got what he had coming and took it like a weasel, which was required by the censors, but it also removed the romanticism that frequently was given to the many violent criminals of the day, especially Capone. His sister died with him, actually before him. At which point he became a defeated man, ready to throw in the towel, but not before he provided proof that he was no hero and unworthy of anyone's respect, which the police had told us to expect.

ABOUT THE TONE OF THE FILM AND ITS TIME:

Hughes had all kinds of problems with the censors of the day, and we are told that two versions of the film were released. One without the censors approval and one with. Also, that a moral prologue had to be added at the beginning of the film, and added several times during it, to make clear that this was a bad thing we were seeing, [the ruthless life of a killer] and that it was not okay to emulate. In essence, to make clear that the message of the film was NOT to encourage this kind of lifestyle.

MY TAKE ON THE MESSAGE:

To me, the lead character, Tony Camonte, is a vicious swine whose courage came in the form of a gun in his hand. His lusts' and interests' were both perverted and dispicable, making him an unsympathetic character, and a blight in any civilized society. Good - because that is how he was meant to be seen. That, in no way, diminishes the potency of this film. Instead it punctuates and highlights the right from the wrong, the good from the bad. We may not be sure what the good and right is, after seeing this film, but we can be sure what is bad and wrong, because we have seen it for 93 minutes by the time the film ends.

-----*- PRINCIPAL ACTORS -*

Paul Muni - Tony Camonte
Ann Dvorak - Cesca Camonte
Karen Morley - Poppy
George Raft - Guino Rinaldo
Boris Karloff - Gaffney
Osgood Perkins - Johnny Lovo

-----*- PRODUCTION CREW -*

Howard Hawks - Director / Producer / Screenwriter
Howard R. Hughes - Producer
W.R. Burnett - Screenwriter
Ben Hecht - Screenwriter
John Lee Mahin - Screenwriter
Seton Miller - Screenwriter
Fred Palsey - Screenwriter
Armitage Trail - Book Author

ABOUT THE VIDEO:

The video quality was variable, but it was watchable from beginning to end. The sound was even better, with very little of the background hiss that we can expect from a 74 year old film.

BOTTOM LINE:

An excellent film and an excellent companion for the more recent remake of Scarface,1983, Directed by Brian De Palma and starring Al Pacino. When one recalls that Scarface was made in 1932, before film-noir, and actually during prohibition [1920-1933] it reminds us of what a gem this "talky" is.

production code problems.......2006-03-09

By today's standards it is almost a PG film due to the inherently innocent look into the graphic nature of the cinematography. But just the same, by the standards of that time period, it was a horrifically violent movie with around 30 deaths in the film. This was a record breaker in itself. Howard Hawks, under the control of the industry for which he was working had to hold off on releasing the movie more than two years because they were fearful that it was praise for criminals and the crimes they committed. Chicago alone refused to show the film for another year on top of the original two.

Average customer rating:

Great John Wayne experience
John Wayne In Different Form Here and it works
Wayne shows his versatility

Flame of Barbary Coast
Starring: John Wayne , Ann Dvorak , Joseph Schildkraut , William Frawley , and Virginia Grey
Director: Joseph Kane
Manufacturer: Republic Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Dakota
A Lady Takes a Chance
Three Faces West
Dark Command
Legend of the Lost (1957)

ASIN: B00007GZQH
Release Date: 2003-01-21

Amazon.com

Republic Pictures could be downright bewildering when they tried for sophisticated entertainment (mostly the studio specialized in B-movie-with-a-plus knockabout). Exhibit A is this San Francisco wannabe that, despite the presence of John Wayne in a Stetson, is not a Western because it's all citified, takes place six years into the 20th century (when is that earthquake due?), and spotlights romance, capitalism, and civic virtue instead of gunplay. Montana cowhand Duke Fergus (Duke Wayne), effectively robbed by big-time gambler Tito Morell (Joseph Schildkraut), studies up on gambling and returns to beat the simpering Continental at his own game and wrest away his beloved chantoosie Flaxen Tarry (Ann Dvorak). At regular intervals, two of these three people will have a scene in which they express major hostility, come to an understanding, indicate mutual admiration, then get mad all over again--within the space of eight lines of dialogue. None of this makes sense, so it must be sophisticated. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews:

Great John Wayne experience.......2007-03-09

First-if you like John Wayne-you'll like this movie. It was one of his earlier efforts, but he already had those qualities that hold a viewer to the story. The supporting cast is superb-it's a classic!

John Wayne In Different Form Here and it works.......2000-12-14

John Wayne the reigning hero of Western & Action films is in a departure of his usual tough guy personna by playing a chracter of self doubt. Wayne plays a Rancher who competes with a gambling tycoon on the Barbary Coast over the hand of a beautiful dance hall queen. This film also displays the infamous 1906 San Fransisco Earthquake. One of the highlights in a film that is otherwise routine. Another highlight is seeing this film in colured version instead of black & white.

Wayne shows his versatility.......2000-08-05

This early outing finds Wayne in a romantic, light hearted story that showed early signs of what was to come. Watch closely to see early parallels with later legendary performances with Maureen O'Hara in films such as the quiet man. Only about 100 mins long, but very easy viewing, and absorbing, don't be put off by the early year of production - this is a very good movie.

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G-Men
No fidelity is forever!
Another entertaining Warner's film from the production line
James Cagney makes publicity for J: Edgar Hoover...
A good guy with shady friends.

G Men
Starring: Robert Armstrong , Marie Astaire , Brooks Benedict , Monte Blue , and Stanley Blystone
Director: William Keighley
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Each Dawn I Die
City for Conquest
Bullets or Ballots
A Slight Case of Murder
The Public Enemy

ASIN: B000FI9OBS
Release Date: 2006-07-18

Amazon.com

There comes a time in the career of every gangster star when he has to go straight. Jimmy Cagney did it in "G" Men, a crisp crimefighting drama directed by William Keighley. Its hero is one more Cagney variation on the working-class guy with a smart mouth and a hard right, only this time he's a lawyer whose education was paid for by the avuncular local crimelord. Cagney's on the square, though, and after a law-school pal turned F.B.I. agent is murdered in the line of duty, he joins the Bureau. Made with the blessings of J. Edgar Hoover, the movie pays homage to several spectacular moments in Bureau legend, but it's at its grabbiest when things get personal for Cagney--say, the complications that arise from his onetime sorta-girlfriend, nightclub chanteuse Ann Dvorak, taking up with very bad dude Barton MacLane.

Film critic Manny Farber praised Keighley as "the least sentimental director of gangster careers," and he gives the numerous murders and shootouts a jolting ferocity. (Thirteen years later Keighley helmed the excellent F.B.I. case history Street With No Name.) The I-don't-like-you-and-I-don't-trust-you byplay between Cagney and his Bureau boss Robert Armstrong gets old, but there's flavorful thuggery from MacLane, Edward Pawley, Noel Madison, et al. "G" Men's style is briskly no-nonsense, yet so beautifully has the film been restored and digitally remastered, there are moments when Sol Polito's cinematography literally glows. One gripe only: The movie should have been presented as it was in 1935, without the F.B.I.-classroom intro tacked on for 1949 reissue (the sort of thing "Special Features" was made for). --Richard T. Jameson

Description

In 1931, James Cagney helped jump-start the gangster genre as The Public Enemy. In 1935, he waged on-screen war against the nation's public enemies. Outcries against movies that glorified underworld criminals put Cagney on the side of the law in "G" Men. Emphasis may have changed but elements are the same. "G" Men builds to a fury of bold escapes, siren-wailing pursuits and frenzied shootouts. "Anything worth newspaper space is worth a movie," Warner Bros. executive Lou Edelman declared. Here, a punchy hot-off-the-presses account of the pursuit and capture of John Dillinger provides the story inspiration as tough-guy Cagney gives it to 'em good in a movie that's "fast, gutsy, as simplistic and powerful as a tabloid headline" (Geoff Andrew, Time Out Film Guide).

Customer Reviews:

G-Men.......2007-06-20

After solidifying his reputation as Hollywood's number-one bad guy, Cagney played a straight-edge lawman in this gangland drama, a huge hit for Warners and great publicity for J. Edgar Hoover's fledgling department, which had only recently granted officers the right to bear arms (a big plot point in the film). Cagney is mesmerizing as Brick, prudent and principled but also tough as nails and willing to throw his weight around. His two love interests, a bar-girl-gone-wrong (Ann Dvorak) and hospital nurse (Margaret Lindsay), land him in a tangle and also help amplify the theme of divided loyalties. Cagney is at his riveting, entertaining best in "G Men."

No fidelity is forever!.......2006-12-05

Although he was raised by an underworld important personage., James Cagney will join F.B.I., when a pal is killed by gangsters ., and he will put all his first hand experience to be useful.

Another little gem of William Keighley of the middle thirties.

Another entertaining Warner's film from the production line.......2006-08-10

"G Men" made in 1935 was a clever response by Warner Brothers to the new Hays Code finally enforced in 1934 and which applied strict censorship on the Hollywood product. The challenge was to maintain the excitement of the gangster genre at the same time as honouring the new code which, among other things, insisted that the gangster not be glamourised.

The solution was to switch the magnetic Jimmy Cagney to the other side of the law and make the gangsters headed by the less than magnetic Barton Maclane much less attractive. The film has a slight documentary feel as Cagney enlists as a G Man when he is unable to make a living as a lawyer. The first section of the film follows his training and it is fairly tedious. Cagney is put through his paces by Robert Armstrong in the cliched role which Pat O'Brien usually played, Cagney's sparring superior officer. Having honoured the Code by expounding the work of the law protectors, Cagney is assigned to a case and the film switches to the gangsters and finally takes off. There are re-enactments of recorded gangland murders and the shootout in a cabin in the mountains has all the violence and excitement of the earlier pre-code films.

Ann Dvorak plays a good hearted night club performer who has a yen for Cagney but marries vicious Barton McLane. She is superb as always and performs a rather untidy but enthusiastic song and dance early in the film. Margaret Lindsay plays the leading lady to Cagney in her usual colourless way. Lloyd Nolan plays Cagney's pal who is murdered in the course of duty.

The film was a box office sensation in 1935, endorsed enthusiastically by the FBI and the Hays Office for informing the public about the prevention of crime. Cagney also was delighted to be playing on the right side for once.

The DVD print is excellent and captures the excellent lighting which gets darker as the film's plot does. It is also packed with good extras. There is an informative documentary about the enforcement of the Production Code but the excellent commentary attached to the film itself is hampered by the nasal drawl of the commentator's voice - unfortunate! There is an hilarious short film with the young Bob Hope which is a rare gem and the Looney Tune cartoon included has that great combination of music and drawings which is so entertaining. Also there is a short film, one of a series on golf, with Cagney appearing without makeup. He looks completely different, freckle faced and tow headed. Finally, a blooper reel is included from Warners films of 1935 and a preview of "Devil Dogs of the Air", a Pat O'Brien/Cagney teaming in cliched roles which were repeated a number of times throughout the decade.

Whether as part of the Warner's Tough Guys set or on its own, the DVD is great value.

James Cagney makes publicity for J: Edgar Hoover..........2006-05-02

...And enjoys every minute. The film begins when Brick Davis (James Cagney) an idealistic but unsuccessful lawyer bows out a mother-beating crook. He refuses to become a shyster but respectable clients rarely show up in his Eastside-office. When one of his friends, a new-fledged G-man is killed during an arrest he decides to join the FBI. Cagney's patron McKay, a basically good racketeer who invested $20.000 in his college-education, agrees with his decision. He too plans to leave the mob ("It does not pay. It brings just money"). His decision infuriates his two underlings : Leggett (a posh gangster with bowler & gardenia) and Collins ( Barton McLane, who never read Emily Post - but his co-stars liked him a lot). Leggett and Collins warn Cagney not to poke his nose into their affairs - it goes without saying that he spends the rest of the film hunting these Dillinger-clones down. They rob banks in passing, stage a railway massacre and butcher officers with their machine-guns.

But first Cagney has to convince his instructor McCord (Robert Armstrong who captured King Kong) that he is no "babe-in-arms". McCord does not think much of "members of the academic club" and the scenes where he tries to "teach" Cagney how to spar and shoot are comic highlights. (Cagney's jiu-jitsu trainer however sends him on the mattress. His judo-scenes in BLOOD ON THE SUN 1945 are even more spectacular). He makes also eyes at McCord's sister (Margaret Lindsy who enervated him with her phony British accent). The filmmakers seize every opportunity to show off FBI-efficiency: they make ballistic tests, compare fingerprints, and Cagney wears even a tie with a mini-camera.

The film's most famous scene is a ten-minutes gunfire at the gangster's country hideout. Real bullets were fired and even gangster-molls are armed to the teeth! (The film cost $450.000 and it shows). There are also two emotional moments when Cagney inadvertently shoots his benefactor whom the gangsters used as human shield and when Collins, who married Cagney's old flame (Ann Dvorak who is excellent) "silences" his wife when she tries to help the kidnapped Margaret Lindsay. Most of the film's mood however is merry and optimistic. G-MEN was one of Warner's biggest box-office hits and everybody (except the gangsters, of course) was convinced that the institution of the FBI was a happy event.

Cagney played more profound roles in his life, but the smart, white-collared FBI-agent was one of his favorites. This is why his performance is so cheerful and entertaining. "Honest at last, mom!" he told his mother. THE PUBLIC ENEMY(1931) made him a star, but he hated nothing more than his screen-image, understandable, in view of his own, exemplary life. I was pleased to read that he paid for the defense of the "Scottsboro boys" (nine African-American youths who were innocently sentenced to death in Alabama 1936. The press of the time smeared Cagney for his moral courage!). And FBI-director Hoover, who enjoyed standing in the limelight, was so positive about the film's publicity-value that he welcomed the film-crew with open arms.

A good guy with shady friends........2005-11-18

Jimmy Cagney polishes his tough, street smart, gangster-type image. This time he is not a punk, he's a fed, if not squeaky clean, at least honest. He's a young lawyer who joins the FBI to avenge his best friend's murder. The name FBI is not used nor is J. Edgar's culture present. New technologies for the time are shown. Interesting, but certainly not the CSI of today. Real life events of the time are woven into the story such as the Kansas City Massacre which occurred in 1933.
It is an old fashioned cops n' robbers movie from the 1930's with the stock characters, classic old cars, chases, gunfights & crashes. This movie is guileless. The guilty are killed or captured, Cagney is the hero, gets shot, recovers & gets the girl in the end, his boss's sister no less. An old favorite.

Average customer rating:

Excellent Critics' Choice Randolph Scott western-double-feature #1 from yesteryear
Very Pleased and pleasantly surprised!.

Randolph Scott Double Feature 1 (B&W)
Starring: Randolph Scott , Charles 'Chic' Sale , Mrs. Leslie Carter , Kathleen Burke , and Ann Sheridan
Director: Charles Barton , and Edwin L. Marin
Manufacturer: Critic's Choice
ProductGroup: DVD
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Randolph Scott Double Feature, Vol. 2
The Man Behind the Gun / Thunder Over the Plains / Riding Shotgun
Colt .45 / Tall Man Riding / Fort Worth
Seven Men From Now (Special Collector's Edition)
Albuquerque

ASIN: B000CBEX4G
Release Date: 2006-05-16

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Critics' Choice Randolph Scott western-double-feature #1 from yesteryear.......2007-01-28

The two black and white westerns featured here are both excellent western fare although "Abilene Town" is the main event here and is without doubt the better film, although perfectly viewable it is let down by a less than perfect transfer to DVD (Star rating reduced accordingly). Strangely enough although eleven years older and somewhat dated "The Fighting Westerner" transfer to DVD is excellent! All well worth the low asking price from Amazon.

ABILENE TOWN (1946 - 89 Minutes).
Based on the novel "Trail Town" by Ernest Haycox and well scripted by Harold Shumate with some excellent one-liners - The story is set in Kansas five years after the end of the Civil War. Abilene is the town at the end of the Chisholm Trail and depicts the struggle between cattlemen and homesteaders in between the two is upright town marshal Dan Mitchell (Randolph Scott) who is trying to calm down the homesteaders led by a head-strong Henry Dreiser (Lloyd Bridges) whilst routing out the corrupt cattlemen. Vying for the marshal's attention is dance hall queen Rita (Ann Dvorak) and general store keeper Ed Balder's (Howard Freeman) daughter Sherry (Rhonda Fleming). Jet Younger (Jack Lampart) is wanted for a train robbery and an out-of-town murder; Dan sets off to capture him with county sheriff "Bravo" Trimble (Edgar Buchanan). Later the homesteaders fence off the cattle trail, leading to the cattlemen stampeding the cattle across the homesteaders land resulting in several deaths. Culminating in both sides facing each other across the streets of Abilene.

Directed by Edward L. Marin with some nice Fordian touches like the hymn singing in the church with the 23-year old Rhonda Fleming in fine voice, also the haunting strains of `Glory Glory Hallelujah' at the homesteaders camp. Marin also seemed to have Scott alternately (according to his attire) to look like Gary Cooper or William S. Hart. On its release in January '46, critics of the day reported that "Scott showed his age (47) also he looked tired and in need of a rest" Indeed little or no rest lay ahead for him as over the next 15 years discounting a cameo appearance he made another 40 films 38 of them westerns; half-a-dozen of them minor-masterpieces and culminating in Sam Peckinpah's elegiac RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY (1962).

THE FIGHTING WESTERNER (1935 - 70 Minutes).
Formerly known as "Rocky Mountain Mystery" Based on a Zane Grey story "Golden Dreams" this charming early Randolph Scott contemporary western is, more or less a semi-comic murder mystery set in the West. Mining engineer Larry Sutton (Randolph Scott) teams up with a cantankerous Deputy Sheriff "Tex" Murdock (Charles "Chic" Sale) to solve a series of murders in a Nevadan Radium Mine. James Ballard (George Marion Sr.) has hired Sutton for his mining expertise on arrival at the mine he is fired on by Rita Ballard (Ann Sheridan). From here on in the story moves at a fast pace as Sutton and Co try to solve the Rocky Mountain mystery.

Directed by Charles Barton. Scott is perfectly at home in the title role. The love interest is supplied by 20 year-old former Beauty Queen Ann Sheridan in only her second major role. Charles "Chic" Sale (1885 - 1937) played "Ben Gunn" in the 1934 version of TREASURE ISLAND. Halliwell's Film Guide records: Mrs. Leslie Carter (a rare screen appearance, and just as well to judge from her performance) plays Mrs Borg the housekeeper.

Very Pleased and pleasantly surprised!........2007-01-15

I had never seen these two Randolph Scott westerns before, and boy I was bowled over by Ann Dvorak's dancehall scene. Wow where have I been! Actually wrong generation. I'm sure my grandfather would have known about Ann Dvorak.
Both movies were very interesting in their own way. Abilene Town shows the stress between ranchers and cattleman, and the difficulty presented to Abilene in living with both sides. Rhonda Fleming is beautiful, but looses out to Ann Dovrak in the end. Lloyd Bridges is good as one of the young ranchers. Seems to be a very authentic story, but one very short section of the film has contrast problems.
Rocky Mountain Mystery, based on a Zane Grey story, is typical of the kinds of westerns I remember seeing on Saturday morning television in the fifties. I wonder if it was originally meant to be a serial, because of the way Randy Scott seems to escape from certain death every 20 minutes or so? Very entertaining, and like a lot of these movies the gorgeous outdoors, trees, range, seems to steal the movie from the actors, even when filmed in black & white.

Average customer rating:

What happened to you, Joe?
The Long Night
1947 FORGOTTEN NOIR GEM
the long night
Good story, GREAT PHOTOGRAPHY

The Long Night
Starring: Henry Fonda , Barbara Bel Geddes , Vincent Price , Ann Dvorak , and Howard Freeman
Director: Anatole Litvak
Manufacturer: Kino Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 6305950687
Release Date: 2000-07-18

Customer Reviews:

What happened to you, Joe?.......2005-09-05

A gunshot rings out as a blind man (Elisha Cook, Jr.) tap-tap-taps his way up a flight of stairs in an apartment building. A well-dressed and well-wounded man tumbles out of a third floor apartment and rolls down the stairs. THE LONG NIGHT begins where most crime thrillers end - with a murder - and through a series of flashbacks it unravels and reveals its story. Henry Fonda plays an Average Joe conveniently named Joe Adams who has an average girlfriend named Jo Ann, played with sweet innocence by Barbara Bel Geddes. After the smoke clears a bit we're propelled into the story proper when Joe interior monologues `How can I explain what I don't understand myself?' In 1947 even a war vet (looks like Joe was a sergeant in the infantry) couldn't growl a `Get away from here and leave me alone!' to a hallway full of police without expecting a bit of tommy gun and sniper fire. Director Anatole Litvak will bring us back to Joe's bullet ridden apartment now and then for a cigarette until a photograph or a stuffed bear trigger yet another flashback.

Chain smoking and brooding doesn't seem to help clarify things much for Joe, but the movie is conventional enough. Joe returns from the war and gets a job as a sand-blaster in an unnamed, heavy industry town somewhere in Pennsylvania. Litvak hints a bit about the edges that THE LONG NIGHT is a story about class in America, but that aspect of the movie is never developed. Joe's a regular working man with modest, if any, dreams when he meets Jo Ann. Their sweet twosome develops into a suspicion filled ménage à trois with the appearance of Vincent Price, a traveling magician with a dog act and a sharp-talking assistant played by Ann Dvorak. Price's Maximilian hides his demented self behind a glib air of sophistication and faux refinement. In short, he dazzles the naïve Jo Ann, who properly enough knew him before she met Joe. For a while Ann Dvorak's Charlene, one of those tough-talking dames with a heart of gold, threatens to turn THE LONG NIGHT into a messy ménage à quatre. Fortunately, though, this movie and the French film it was based on, 1939's LE JOUR SE LÈVE, keep things on track. Tragedy or redemption will be realized through Joe and Jo Ann.

The Kino disk has a nice text/film clips set of extras. One feature goes into a great bit of detail on Eugène Lourié's set design, and another highlights the similarities between the American movie and the French one that influenced it. The print shows a little bit of un-restored wear. It's bad enough to distract the purists but it wasn't so bad that it pulled me out of the movie. The movie itself was okay. Even without learning about the miniature sets, forced perspectives, and suchlike the movie would still look like it was shot on a big soundstage and after a while it made me feel a little claustrophobic. Even though I think Price injected the right amount of slightly hammy menace his character and the movie called for, Maximilian was a little preposterous. Without him, for - or maybe because of - all of Fonda's earnestness and Bel Geddes' little girl charms this one would have been edging on the dreadful.

The Long Night.......2002-09-30

This was a very cool film. Henry Fonda did an excellent job as a man who is hiding from the law. Vincent Price plays the guy that gets killed by Henry Fonda at the very beginning. Almost the entire film is flashback, which explain why Fonda is in this predicament in the first place, and how it came to be that he killed Price. A great suspense movie.

1947 FORGOTTEN NOIR GEM.......2002-01-03

Henry Fonda is Joe Adams, a man pinned inside his third floor apartment after gunning down a mysterious magician Vincent price. Joe's fractured memories are told in an intricate web of flashbacks that reconstruct the events leading up to the murder. Barbara Bel Geddes plays the third corner of the tragic, complicated and mesmerizing love triangle. Exceedingly mody and atmospheric direction by the masterful Anatole Litvak ("The Snake Pit," "Sorry Wrong Number"). The DVD is a pristine transfer made from a 35 MM nitrate negative. Bonus material includes a gallery of photos and artwork as well as excerpts from Marcel Carne's Le Jour se Leve. (Full Frame, B&W, 68 minutes, Not Rated)

the long night.......2001-01-04

It is wonderful to discover forgotten gems and this is such a title. Too bad the producers, Kino Video, could have taken time to produce better sound. On Chapters #5 & #16 the sound cuts out on front speakers when using surround sound and comes only from the back. Very annoying. Kino Video offer a disclaimer sayin thisis due to the age of the film....bull. It is due to someone cutting out the sound when the film was being reproduced. I hope others will take time to write Kino Video...someone should be horsewhipped. Otherwise the picture quality is super.

Good story, GREAT PHOTOGRAPHY.......2000-09-13

A simple, tightly-told story with amazing art direction, sets and photography. Effective, hammy acting all around adds to the mix to make a very enjoyable short movie. The disc supplements are an entertaining and informative icing on the cake.

Average customer rating:

Finally out on DVD!
"Yes, but your mother was smarter than mine."

Merrily We Live
Starring: Alan Mowbray , Billie Burke , Patsy Kelly , and Ann Dvorak
Manufacturer: Nostalgia Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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You Were Never Lovelier [Region 99]
The Man Who Came to Dinner
My Man Godfrey - Criterion Collection
You Can't Take It With You (1938) (Sub) [Region 99]
Holiday [Region 99]

ASIN: B000K2JU36

Product Description

Hilarious farce concerns a dizzy socialite with a penchant for hiring ex-cons and bums to help tend to her family's needs. After an unshaven writer shows up at her door asking to use the phone, she mistakenly believes him to be a tramp and gives him a job working as a servant. Quickly, her new employee uses his life skills to get the household in order as he falls for her eldest daughter. Constance Bennett, Brian Aherne, Ann Dvorak, Billie Burke star. 90 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English.

Customer Reviews:

Finally out on DVD!.......2007-04-20

I won't write how great this movie is because someone here already did that. I first saw this movie back in 1987 on the Nostalia Channel. Yes, a long gone channel. But I taped it off the TV the next time it was on and since that day have never been able to find even the name of the movie on movie lists or in the lists of movies the stars appeared in. Praise that is over! I absolutely LOVE this movie and you will too!

"Yes, but your mother was smarter than mine.".......2007-03-12

This delightful and zany film from MGM is one of the great forgotten examples of screwball comedy. An amazing cast and fine direction from Norman Z. McLeod make this little-known film a real gem.

Constance Bennett may have shortened her own career by being difficult to work with but shows here why her swanky sophistication, touched with sweetness, made her such a huge and sought after star during the 1930's. Young Bonita Granville, always a favorite, also gets to shine as her younger sister.

Bille Burke gives another in a long string of delightful performances as their daffy mom who has a penchant for taking in tramps in an effort to reform them. Brian Aherne as her latest project and Alan Mowbray as their put-upon butler would steal any other film but everyone else is so good here that their topflight antics blend right in. Add a great song from Phil Charig and Arthur Quenzer and you have a screwball masterpiece.

Brian Aherne is novelist Wade Rawlins. When the car he rented gives out and then goes over the side of a mountain he stumbles upon the Kilborne mansion only to use the phone but is soon drafted by Emily Kilborne (Billie Burke) to be her latest project, much to the consternation of the entire family, especially the butler, Grosvener (Alan Mowbray). An exasperated Rawlins (Aherne) soon gives up trying to use the phone and plays along.

Soon all the sevants love him and young Marion (Bonita Granville), who sells info to the rest of the family for two bits a pop, has a huge crush. But it may be real love for swanky Geraldine, who slowly warms to the charms of the tramp who cleans up nice. Bennett is sweet and fabulous here and looks as good as she plays in outfits by Irene. Her scene pretending to lose her key so Rawlins will help her through the window will have you smiling.

When a senator's young daughter named Minerva (Ann Dvorak) takes a shine to the Kilborne's new "guest" Geraldine gets jealous and plays domestic by making fudge with pickles in an attempt to seem more desirable. There is a hilarious scene as Rawlins trades crazy gestures with a smitten Granville standing behind Geraldine, who just looks confused and somewhat amused.

Screwball also had charm, and this one has it in droves. Only in a screwball comedy would someone who's just had a pail of water splashed in their face jump into the arms of the perpetrator and respond with: "I knew you loved me!" This is a wonderful film that is light and delightful and a splendid time capsule of this genre of film during the 1930's. They don't make films like this anymore and they don't build 'em like Bennett anymore either. Film fans don't want to miss this one!

Average customer rating:

Abilene Town
The tame always win
From cattle chaos to homesteading order
Cattlemen vs homesteaders vs law

Abilene Town
Starring: Randolph Scott , Ann Dvorak , Edgar Buchanan , Rhonda Fleming , and Lloyd Bridges
Director: Edwin L. Marin
Manufacturer: St Clair Vision
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Albuquerque
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ASIN: B0001GH7BS
Release Date: 2004-02-17

Amazon.com

Stiff-as-a-board town marshal Randolph Scott, with his laconic drawl and smiling as if at some personal joke, is the moral authority of an end-of-the-trail frontier town in this surprisingly intriguing 1946 Western. The community is literally split down the middle--shops and churches line one side of main street, saloons and taverns the other--and Abilene's citizens tolerate the rowdy, rough-and-tumble antics of trail hands and rambunctious cowboys as long as they remain on their side of the street. Lloyd Bridges plays the leader of a flock of newly arrived settlers who inadvertently tip the uneasy balance when they string up the open range and draw the fire of the cattlemen, who bring their reign of terror into the town. Edwin L. Marin's professional (if pedestrian) direction keeps the film plugging along, but the smart script, an ingeniously mercenary climactic battle plan, and a defiantly righteous performance from Bridges give the film bite. Hellfire in heels dance-hall girl Ann Dvorak's love-hate relationship with Scott provides comic sparks and a potent challenge to his chaste courting of shop girl Rhonda Fleming. Edgar Buchanan is suitably dry as a cowardly, card-playing county sheriff who knows the value of a voting constituency. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Abilene Town.......2006-07-03

If you like westerns and especially if you like Randolf Scott you will enjoy Abilene Town. Being in B&W makes it like a documnetary on the growth of our nation. Yet this movie does have action and lessons to be learned without all of the blood and guts that the current movies like to show; and yes it does have a happy ending. This is a movie you can watch with your kids to give them an opportunity to see how the west was won.

The tame always win.......2004-10-25

Smart and briskly told, ABILENE TOWN is an above-average homesteader vs. cattle rancher movie. Randolph Scott stars as the town marshal of Abilene who finds himself in the middle of a land war. Short of only John Wayne, Scott is the man for the task. The movie opens with Scott in church, singing hymns with the angelic Rhonda Fleming. The pious music is interrupted by the sound of gunfire. The cattle drovers are in town, shooting up the honey pots.
Check that - they're shooting up-wards in the saloons, more in emphatic syncopation with song and dance girl Ann Dvorak's act that in meanness. The wranglers and ramrods are saving that meanness for act two, when the hymn singing, sodbusting homesteaders arrive and begin planting houses and barb-wiring up the northern terminus of the Abilene Trail. That levels out their aim some.
ABILENE TOWN is about the tension of opposites, with Randolph Scott smack in the middle. His character is a failed rancher who sympathizes with the "decent life" desiring homesteaders. He has to chose between Good Girl Rhonda Fleming and Bad Girl (with a heart of gold) Ann Dvorak. The movie also pits the merchants against the saloons, cattle against wheat, the pious against the profane. It's a contest between a restoration of the status quo and the establishment of a new order.
With its strong story, straight-ahead direction, and solid cast, ABILENE TOWN is a treat. Scott is well within his competent comfort zone as the man with the badge, Edgar Buchanan and Ann Dvorak leaven things with amusing diversions, and a young Lloyd Bridge is effective as the firebrand leader of the sodbusters. Hired thug Chet Younger, played by the underrated Jack Lambert, burns enough barns and shoots enough defenseless women and children to keep our sympathies from straying over to the wrong side of the fence. The transfer print on the review copy was faded out some, which tends to flatten out the picture. Nothing major. Otherwise it's in good shape, a real bargain considering its deeply discounted price.
ABILENE TOWN is a classic western that will delight fans of the genre and quite possibly hold the attention of non-converts as well.

From cattle chaos to homesteading order.......2002-06-13

This film is interesting because it shows how a city that was built and that prospered thanks to the driving of cattle from the SouthWest to the Middle West becomes a farming town. The fight between the drovers and the homesteaders is very well depicted, with its killings when the drovers deem it necessary to impose their domination. But the city is cut in two. On one side of the street the saloons. On the other side of the street the shops. The change comes when the homesteaders cut the trail with their barbed wire and when the shopkeepers understand that there is more money on the homesteaders' side than on the drovers'. The drovers push their last pawns, with the support at first of the saloonkeepers. But it means killing some homesteaders and the local marshall opposes it and imposes law and order. The drovers are driven out of the city. The city becomes a farming city and Kansas moves from a state that is crossed by herds of cattle to a farming state. This is possible, though never really said, because the railroads make it feasible to transport the cattle from Texas to Illinois without having to cross any farmland any more. But this future is made a reality because of the alliance of the shopkeepers with the homesteaders. We thus are shown history in its making.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Cattlemen vs homesteaders vs law.......2001-03-28

In this opus,town marshall(Randolph Scott)his his hands full keeping trail hands,at the end of a drive from treeing his town. Added to this is an enept sheriff(Edgar Bucannan),a hot headed farmer (Lloyd Bridges)and the town's saloon keepers -who will do anything to make a fast buck

Average customer rating:

Highly Entertaining, Twice as Shocking
Typical Pre Code Warners packs a wallop
"She'll probably go to reform school."
You've found it... this is what pre-code is all about!!!
SEEDY & CAPTIVATING.

Three on a Match (1932)
Starring: Virginia Davis , Joan Blondell , Anne Shirley , Ann Dvorak , and Betty Carse
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Manufacturer: MGM (Warner)
ProductGroup: Video
Binding: VHS Tape

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Kid Galahad
Bureau of Missing Persons
Wagons Roll at Night
The Oklahoma Kid
Ex-Lady

ASIN: 6302041104
Release Date: 1998-09-01

Amazon.com

If three people light cigarettes from the same match, one will die soon, or at least that's how the old superstition had it. Three childhood friends (Joan Blondell, Bette Davis, Ann Dvorak) laugh it off as they all light up from the same match. Vivian (Dvorak) is married to a wealthy attorney (played by Warren William, in a sympathetic role for once). Bored and stifled in her life, she decides on a walk on the wild side; absconding with their 4-year-old son, she falls in with gangsters and takes a nosedive. Soon she's living the life of a slattern, hooked on cocaine and bootleg liquor, neglecting her son like he's so much excess baggage. Meanwhile her husband and friends are frantic to get the little boy back and set things right again. In this movie's 64-minute running time, director Mervyn LeRoy managed to include Depression-era social commentary, drugs, crime, sex, violence, and some surprisingly well-fleshed-out characterizations. The young Bette Davis is beautiful (even playing one scene in her lingerie), and Blondell and Dvorak are both great in their roles. Even more remarkable, though, is the number of future stars that can be spotted in Three on a Match: Lyle Talbot, a young Anne Shirley, Edward Arnold, and Humphrey Bogart in a great role as a menacing hood. This is entertaining fare that's still potent today in all its pre-censorship seediness. --Jerry Renshaw

Customer Reviews:

Highly Entertaining, Twice as Shocking.......2006-04-28

Three on a Match is a superstition begun by a matchmaker who wanted to sell more matches. Supposedly, if three people light the same cigarette on one match, the third to do so will die. The story begins in a schoolyard where three girls are at recess. There is a mischievious girl who smokes and shows her bloomers to everyone named Mary (Joan Blondell), a prissy popular one named Vivien (Ann Dvorak), and a smart but quite one named Ruth (Bette Davis). They all follow different paths; Mary goes to reform school and then becomes an actress, Vivien gets married and has an adorable little boy, and Ruth goes to business school and then to work. The three meet and have lunch together. As they light their cigarettes with one match, the end is foreshadowed by the fact that Vivien lights her cigarette last.

The events that follow are the reason why this movie is included in the Forbidden Hollywood series. There is adultery, neglect of a small child, drug use, and organized crime. It is a fast paced, short but thrilling movie.

Blondell is great in her role. She is beautiful, witty, and natural. Dvorak does not fare so well; most of her lines sound scripted and awkward, making the main character hard to believe. Davis's part is small and she is mostly eye candy here, a very beautiful woman in her youth. Worth mentioning is the toddler who plays Dvorak's son, little Buster Phelps, who read his lines with conviction and the sweetest whine you ever heard. Also appearing are Warren William and Humphrey Bogart.

Leonard Maltin adds commentary before the show about the Production Code and why this film is part of Forbidden Hollywood.

Typical Pre Code Warners packs a wallop.......2006-02-20

In the early thirties, Warner Brothers specialised in hard hitting "small" films which were torn from the headlines. Many of their output are the least dated of all films from that period even though they were often made on a shoe string. "Three on a Match" is a good example. The film runs for just over an hour and never was the pace faster. The plot tracks the the lives of three school friends who renew friendship at lunch, lighting their cigarettes on a single match, an action with superstitious repercussions.

Ann Dvorak plays the bored wife of wealthy Warren William. Joan Blondell plays the ex-reform school showgirl with a heart of gold. Bette Davis plays a mousy secretary who becomes Dvorak's son's nanny. The plot involves the kidnapping of Dvorak's son by a particularly brutal group of thugs including the young and very nasty Humphrey Bogart. Kidnappings were in the news in 1932.

Ann Dvorak proves that she should have become a much bigger star. She was a precursor to Davis without the mannerisms, acting with a realism which was unusual in 1932. Warren William and Joan Blondell are first rate and Davis is very attractive but has a very small part and no character to play at all. This is one of the few films in which she displayed "cheescake", in a bathing costume at the beach and in a slip in another scene.

Sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll, well jazz anyway. It is all there, hard hitting and utterly convincing. If the Code had not been enforced in 1934, the history of film would be very different. Don't miss this little gem.

"She'll probably go to reform school.".......2005-08-03

"Three on a Match" is the story of three schoolgirls who lose touch with each other, but reunite accidentally a few years later. Mary (Joan Blondell) is the wild one who gets in trouble and ends up in a reform school. Ruth (Bette Davis) is the serious, quiet one who becomes a stenographer. Vivian (Ann Dvorak) is the popular, pretty girl. With just a few brief scenes, the plot establishes the basic character of each girl, and then shows how each girl is essentially still the same in adulthood.

When the three women--now adults--meet in New York, Vivian is married to the highly successful lawyer Robert Kirkwood (Warren William). While Ruth and Mary envy Vivian's social position, her chauffeur driven car etc., they also feel that she's incredibly lucky to have such a nice husband. Vivian, however, is bored to tears by her husband and her lifestyle. She's the sort of person who never appreciates the good things in life because they fall into her lap so easily. Vivian's pouting results in her husband suggesting that she needs a holiday. Vivian packs up the couple's only son and heads for a ship sailing to Europe.

Unfortunately, Vivian meets a lowlife gangster Michael Loftus (Lyle Taylor) and jumps right into disaster....

"Three on a Match" is a pre-code film made in 1932. It's a bit sentimental, but well acted. A tight plot, and a stellar cast create a delightful film. Bette Davis has only a tiny role, and Humphrey Bogart also stars in a small (but memorable) role as gangster, Harve--displacedhuman

You've found it... this is what pre-code is all about!!!.......2005-02-04

I have been on a pre-code/early-talkie kick as of late, and so I was bound to come across this film sooner or later. When I saw my local video store announced it as "scandalous enough to upset the sensibilities of even the most jaded modern viewer", I couldn't quite believe it but had to take a look. As it turns out, in the first five minutes of the film a very young school girl shows off her bloomers to the boys before smoking a cigarette with some of her classmates! And there was more good stuff after that. Three on a Match is of course dated and stagy like all early talkies (I thought Ann Dvorak's acting in the lead was by far the worst), but if you are interested in cinema history you really have to see it. The whole film, even with Leonard Maltin's intro and epilogue, breezes by in less than 70 minutes. I hope they give this Forbidden Hollywood series a DVD set release like the earlier Film Noir and Gangster films have now received.

Some final thoughts on the cast: 24 year old Bette Davis has a very small role but is absolutely delicious as a cute little blond. I have gone thru her photos and it appears she rapidly morphed into the form she later became better known for sometime during the late 1930s; an astonishing and most unfortunate transformation (enjoy it why it lasts, Mena Suvari!). Also worth watching to see Humphrey Bogart in a small role as a low-ranking gangster. And you should check out the talented Warren William (Robert Kirkwood) in a much more flattering role in Capra's fantastic little 1933 hit, Lady for a Day.

SEEDY & CAPTIVATING........2003-01-03

A relatively little-seen Warner's programmer which has a biting sense of realism in its favour. Blondell, Dvorak & Davis play old school chums who meet for lunch after 1O years have passed. While they light up their Chesterfields, they laugh off the old superstition which says the third party lit - Dvorak - will be the first to die. Mary (Joan Blondell) has become a successful entertainer, Vivian (Ann Dvorak) has married successful lawyer Robert Kirkwood (Warren William) and Ruth Wescott (Bette Davis) is a prim & proper stenographer. Because she is quite frankly bored with her social position, Vivian takes up company with a handsome but immoral playboy gambler she's introduced to, one Michael Luftus. From there she's on the road to "God knows where" as she finds herself in the company of low-life drug addicts....Originally, the censor boards were reluctant to pass the kidnapping segment, fearing the public would find it in bad taste: this was made during the wake of the infamous Lindbergh kidnapping. Because the kidnappers were apprehended, the censors relented - on the East coast, anyway. As Ruth Westcott, Bette Davis is blonde and attractive, but her part is a very inconsequential one. Remade in 1938 as BROADWAY MUSKETEERS.

Average customer rating:

"Abilene Town (1946) ... Randolph Scott ... United Artists Classic Western"

Abilene Town
Starring: Randolph Scott; Ann Dvorak; Edgar Buchanan
Director: Edward L. Marin
Manufacturer: Miracle Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Westerns | Genres | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Seven Men From Now (Special Collector's Edition)
Hangman's Knot [Region 99]
The Desperadoes [Region 99]
The Stranger Wore a Gun [Region 99]
Albuquerque

ASIN: B0002CR7ZW
Release Date: 2005-05-15

Product Description

In the years following the Civil War, the town of Abilene, Kansas is poised on the brink of an explosive confrontation between the homesteaders and the cattlemen. Randolph Scott portrays a genial town marshall who is determined to bring about a peaceful solution and restore calm.

Customer Reviews:

"Abilene Town (1946) ... Randolph Scott ... United Artists Classic Western".......2007-04-01

United Artists presents "ABILENE TOWN" (1946) (89 mins/B&W) (Dolby digitally remastered) --- Starring Randolph Scott, Ann Dorvak, Edgar Buchanan, Rhonda Fleming & Lloyd Bridges --- Directed by Edwin L. Marin and released in January 11, 1946, our story line and film following the Civil War in the town of Abilene, a delicate peace is inadvertantly shattered when a group of homesteaders lay down their stakes on the cattlemen's side of town, upsetting the balance that had existed thus far and sparking an all-out war between the farmers, who want the land tamed and property lines drawn, and the cowboys, who want the prairies to be open for their cattle to roam. Into the mix walks a patient sheriff - guess who! ... from the book "Trail Town" by Ernest Haycox --- From 1945 until 1962 when he retired, Randolph Scott made a series of good adult themed westerns, some of them considered real classics

Under Edwin L. Marin (Director), Jules Levy (Producer), Ernest Haycox (Book Author), Harold Shumate (Screenwriter), Victor Heerman (Cinematographer / Editor), Otho Lovering (Cinematographer / Editor), Louis Clyde Stoumen (Cinematographer), Nathaniel W. Finston (Musical Direction/Supervision), Albert Glasser (Composer (Music Score), Kermit Goell (Songwriter), Fred Spielman (Songwriter), Duncan Cramer (Art Director), Peter Tuesday (Costume Designer), James Barker (Makeup), Sammy Lee (Choreography) - - - - the cast includes Randolph Scott (Dan Mitchell), Helen Boyce (Big Annie), Ann Dvorak (Rita), Edgar Buchanan (Sheriff Bravo Trimble), Rhonda Fleming (Sherry Balder), Dick Curtis (Cap Ryker), Lloyd Bridges (Henry Dreiser), Howard Freeman (Ed Balder), Richard Hale (Charlie Fair), Jack Lambert (Jet Younger), Hank Patterson (Doug Neil), Earl Schenck (Hazelhurst), Eddy Waller (Hannaberry), Walter S. Baldwin (Train Conductor) --- take note some veteran character actors Edgar Buchanan, Hank Patterson and Eddy Waller all familiar to the oaters of Hollywood - - - - Randy Scott had a quiet gentleman nature about him which is not seen in the films of today ... Randy took his job and his responsibility to his audience very seriously, would not settle for anything less than his best ... same was true in his personal life.

SPECIAL FEATURES BIOS:
1. Randolph Scott (aka: George Randolph Scott)
Date of birth: 23 January 1898 - Orange County, Virginia
Date of death: 2 March 1987 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California

Special footnote, George Randolph Scott better known as Randolph Scott, was an American film actor whose career spanned the sound era from the late 1920s to the early 1960s ... his popularity grew in the 1940s and 1950s, appearing in such films as "Gung Ho"! (1943) and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" (1938); but he was especially famous for his numerous Westerns including "Virginia City" (1940) with Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart, "Western Union" (1941) with Robert Young and "Ride the High Country" (1962) with Joel McCrea (a coin was flipped to see whether Scott or McCrea would receive top billing, and Scott won despite having a slightly smaller role) ... his long fistfight with John Wayne in "The Spoilers" (1942) was frequently cited by critics and the press as the most thrilling ever filmed; they were fighting over Marlene Dietrich ... another smash hit film together that same year called "Pittsburgh" (1942) once again with Dietrich, Scott and Wayne --- Daniel Webster defines "Legend", as being a notable person, or the stories told about that person exploits --- well by the time Randolph Scott made his best films he had long established himself as a legend in the film industry --- they say practice makes perfect, if that is true by 1958 at 60 years of age he was the master with these oaters from the 50s ... "The Cariboo Trail" (1950), "The Nevadan" (1950), "Colt .45" (1950), "Santa Fe" (1951), "Sugarfoot" (1951), "Fort Worth" (1951), "Man in the Saddle" (1951), "Carson City" (1952), "The Man Behind the Gun" (1952), "Hangman's Knot" (1952), "Thunder over the Plains" (1953), "The Stranger Wore a Gun" (1953), "Ten Wanted Men" (1954), "Riding Shotgun" (1954), "The Bounty Hunter" (1954), "Rage at Dawn" (1955), "Tall Man Riding" (1955), "A Lawless Street" (1955), "Seven Men from Now" (1956), "Seventh Cavalry" (1956), "Decision at Sundown: (1957), "Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend" (1957), "The Tall T" (1957), "Buchanan Rides Alone" (1958), "Ride Lonesome" (1959), "Westbound" (1959), "Comanche Station" (1960) --- Scott's age seemed to matter little, they only came to see another Randolph Scott film and always got their money's worth --- Scott's films were good and getting better becoming classics --- so if you ever wonder "What Ever Happened To Randolph Scott", just rent or purchase one of his films and you'll see he's never left us.

2. Lloyd Bridges
Date of Birth: 15 January 1913 - San Leandro, California
Date of Death: 10 March 1998 - Los Angeles, California

3. Ann Dvorak (aka: Anna McKim)
Date of Birth: 2 August 1912 - New York, New York
Date of Death: 10 December 1979 - Honolulu, Hawaii

4. Edgar Buchanan
Date of Birth: 20 March 1903 - Humansville, Missouri
Date of Death: 4 April 1979 - Palm Desert, California

5. Edwin L. Marin (Director)
Date of Birth: 21 February 1899 - Jersey City, New Jersey
Date of Death: 2 May 1951 - Los Angeles, California

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc), Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") and Trevor Scott (Down Under Com) as they have rekindled my interest once again for Film Noir, B-Westerns and Serials --- looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s & '40s and B-Westerns ... order your copy now from Amazon where there are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure --- if you enjoyed this title, why not check out VCI Entertainment where they are experts in releasing B-Westerns and Serials --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 89 min on DVD ~ Miracle Pictures ~ (5/15/2005)

Average customer rating:

Great John Wayne experience
John Wayne In Different Form Here and it works
Wayne shows his versatility

Classics | Action & Adventure | Genres | VHS | Video

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | VHS | Video

General | Westerns | Genres | VHS | Video

General | Drama | Genres | VHS | Video

Dvorak, Ann | ( D ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Fix, Paul | ( F ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Frawley, William | ( F ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Grey, Virginia | ( G ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Lawrence, Marc | ( L ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Lease, Rex | ( L ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

London, Tom | ( L ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Norton, Jack | ( N ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Parker, Eddie | ( P ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Potel, Victor | ( P ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Schildkraut, Joseph | ( S ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Wayne, John | ( W ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Kane, Joseph | ( K ) | Directors | VHS | Video

Deals Under $8 | Today's Deals in Video | Features | VHS | Video

Dakota
A Lady Takes a Chance
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Dark Command
Legend of the Lost (1957)

ASIN: 6302353807
Release Date: 1998-01-01

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Great John Wayne experience.......2007-03-09

John Wayne In Different Form Here and it works.......2000-12-14

Wayne shows his versatility.......2000-08-05

Actress:

Actress

Actress