DVD Corner

Louis L’Amour Western Collection

This three feature set from Warner is a mixed bag.  The stories are solid L’Amour adaptations, with big stars; Tom Selleck, Glenn Ford, Sam Elliot, Katherine Ross, Yul Brenner, Richard Crenna,Leonard Nimoy, Gilbert Roland, Ruth Roman and great western character actors Slim Pickens, Jack Elam and Gene Evans.  Two of the three films were originally produced for television by TNT; “The Sacketts” as a mini series, “Conagher” as a television movie and “Catlow”, which was made in the early 70’s as a feature film.  L’Amour introduces both “The Sacketts” and “Conagher.”

The strengths in all these films lies in the stories of authentic western grit from the staging and locations to the costuming.  The scripts reflect western life and doesn’t try to glamorize it. Viewers who are used to the John Wayne, John Ford westerns may have a difficult time with these but all of these stories ring true, much more than what Hollywood produced in its western hey day.

“The Sacketts” tells the story of a family of brothers who head west after the killing of their father and bride to be.  While revenge is on their minds, they need to survive and its when they meet up with other, simple characters, when the action starts.  Glenn Ford is great as the quiet, almost father like figure who is mysterious as well as competent in all the ways of the west.  Selleck plays it perfect as the big brother sent out to protect his brother from harm.

“Conagher” is a good old fashioned romance with true to life couple Sam Elliot and Katherine Ross.  Conagher sets up camp to help out the lady in the cabin and stays to protect her from the bad guys.  Nuff said.

“Catlow” is a real hoot of a film.  Brenner plays an easy going, less than honorable cowboy, who is wanted for a number of small crimes and is tracked by his old pal, sheriff Richard Crenna.  Leonard Nimoy plays the bad guy in this one, hired by the rich rancher to kill “Catlow” for interfering with his cattle rustling.  This film is a real change for Brenner, who usually played serious parts, but is down right joyous in this film, with a huge smile on his face most of the time.  His character is really enjoying life, usually at the expense of his buddy and nemesis, Crenna.  While this is no “Waterhole#3” or “Blazing Saddles”, the film is really light hearted in its approach and was refreshing to watch.

The colection comes in a nice slipcase containing four discs.

Now the bad-no extras on any of the films except for Louis L’Amour intros on some of them and trailers.  The films themselves are not in very good shape; lots of dirt and scratches run throughout all the films. Warner has all these films already available as separate titles and all they really have done is repackaged them into one set.  If you already own one of these films on dvd, you are not going to get any additional stuff or a remastered picture by purchasing this set.

The collection is a good sampling of L’Amour’s work, with some great performances and dynamite casting.  The films are not in good shape technically, need to be cleaned up and all are available as separate dvds.  However, if you are new to L’Amour’s work, this would be a good set to start with at a cheaper price for all three films.

June 4, 2010 - Posted by nicklyons1 | DVD review | Catlow, Conagher, Glenn Ford, Katherine Ross, Leonard Nimoy, Louis L'Amour Western Collection dvd review, Richard Crenna, Sam Elliot, The Sacketts, Tom Selleck, western, Yul Brenner