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Disc 1: Garden of Evil (1954) Feature Film Disc 2: The Gunfighter (1951) Feature Film Disc 3: Rawhide (1951) Feature Film

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Format

Box set, Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC

Number of Discs: 3

Running Time: 272 minutes

Languages

English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)

Man of the West

The Westerner

The Man with the Gun

The Day of the Outlaw

Only the Valiant

« A trio of terrific westerns » Nowadays, the Western is almost a dead genre, a far cry from the days in which it dominated the movies. Of course, even in its heyday, it had various stages. Earlier Westerns tended to focus on adventure, with cowboys and Indians and bank robbers. Around the 1950s, a new subgenre began to appear, the so-called Adult Western. These Westerns tended to focus more on character and less on action. The Fox Western Classics features three such movies. The Gunfighter is considered to be one of the first Adult Westerns, with Gregory Peck has the title character. He is a man considered the best gunfighter of his era, a title that he is forced to defend. He takes refuge in the town of Cayenne, where an old friend is marshal and his estranged wife is living under another name with their son. Even here, however, danger lurk. Rawhide is perhaps the least "adult" of the three movies. Tyrone Power is working at an isolated stagecoach station and is taken hostage by a band of robbers planning on robbing an incoming, gold-laden stage. Complicating matters is Susan Hayward and her infant niece who are trapped at the station also. Hugh Marlowe leads the band of robbers, but it's Jack Elam who provides the real danger. Hayward and Marlowe are also in Garden of Evil, also directed by Rawhide director Henry Hathaway. This is the epic of the three, with Gary Cooper and Richard Widmark leading the cast and a young Rita Moreno in one of her first (brief) roles. It is shot in Cinescope and scored by the great Bernard Hermann. Cooper and Widmark are a couple passengers on a California-bound steamer that is stranded in Mexico with engine problems. Stuck in port for weeks, they let themselves be hired by Hayward, who needs them to rescue her husband (Marlowe) who's stuck in a mine. Getting there is an arduous enough trip, but getting back may be more perilous, with Apaches dogging their every move. In quality terms, these are all four-to-five star movies, and there are enough extras - including commentaries and featurettes - to make this a top notch set. If you enjoy Westerns, this is a trio of near classics that is worth viewing. .:. Rating: 5 / 5

« The Western Classic » Love it. Have also shared with professor who teaches The Western here at the college where I work. .:. Rating: 5 / 5

« Among the Best in Black And White. » If you've never seen "The Gunfighter," you've never seen the best western ever. I believe it to be a really good movie to show to young men, just so they know. These movies are more than simple westerns. .:. Rating: 4 / 5