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[C.R.]

The new Universal box set is a massive collection that is certainly tempting. A lot different from the proposed 20-film collection, this has 34 titles. It could be called the Best and the Worst of John Wayne -everyone agrees that "The Conqueror" is his worst and most ridiculous film - and "Jet Pilot" was deemed so bad that it was held up for 7 years and released when it was thought that Wayne's popularity would sell it to the general public ( it didn't ). But on the credit side, we have six of the best films that Wayne made with John Ford and some of his best war pictures ( "Flying Tigers," " The Fighting Seabees" "Back to Bataan" and "Sands of Iwo Jima" plus some of his best Westerns of the 1940s
"Dark Command," "Tall In The Saddle" and "War Of The Wildcats."
But also some stinkers like "The Fighting Kentuckian" - which has Oliver Hardy as the hero's unlikely sidekick. Every time Olly mounts his horse, he seems to be saying to Wayne "Here's another fine mess you've got
me into." But, again, there is powerful stuff like "Wake of the Red Witch"
and Wayne's first film in technicolor " Shepherd of the Hills" ( a strange tale but beautifully shot and Wayne's fight with Ward Bond is particularly good ). Then there's Cecil B. De Mille's "Reap The Wild Wind" ( also in technicolor with a terrific cast ). The Duke isn't too comfortable in "Seven Sinners" his first of three screen outings with Marlene Dietrich, But it does have good saloon brawl at the end. His next two "The Spoilers and" and "Pittsburgh" see him in better form trading punches with Randolph Scott.

Yes, there's a lot to consider here ( some making their DVD debut ) and I'm tempted. But with 34 titles will there be any extras ? I doubt it. And what will the quality be like ? Universal's previous releases of "Fort Apache" and "Rio Grande" haven't been exactly top notch. Will this be the case here ? I certainly don't want to pay £200 for a set of films that have been badly mastered.

It would be great if this Wayne collection was of the same high standard as Universal's excellent Hitchcock Box set Collection ( which had extras galore as well as beautifully restored versions of the films )
I would advise everybody to wait and see what the reviews are like before risking such a vast amount of money on such an unevenly selected batch of films.

[mgcroadster]

The official press release:

To commemorate the passing 25 years ago of a huge silver screen legend Universal are releasing John Wayne: The Collection on the 22nd of November.

Prior to this, four individual boxed sets which make up the collection will be released on the 15th of November which cover differing aspects of Wayne’s immense film career.

The son of a pharmacist Marion Michael Morrison who took his nickname from the family dog Duke put himself through college on a football scholarship until a shoulder injury forced him to consider other options. His summer job at the Fox studios meant he was eventually picked out to appear in films and it resulted in a career spanning 50 years and collaborations with many different directors. No matter whom he played he was always recognisably John Wayne, movie star.

The John Wayne: At War collection includes Sands of Iwo Jima, and all new to DVD The Fighting Seabees, The Flying Tigers, Back to Bataan, Jet Pilot and The Flying Leathernecks.

In The Flying Leathernecks directed by Nicholas Ray Wayne plays Major Dan Kirby who heads up a marine fighter squadron against the wishes of the more popular Captain Griffin(Robert Ryan).

Bonus materials are a new and exclusive interview with his son Patrick Wayne and an 8 page collector’s booklet.

John Wayne: Out West includes Dark Command, Tall in the Saddle, Angel and the Badman, The Fighting Kentuckian, The War Wagon and Rooster Coburn all new to DVD. Rooster Coburn was Wayne’s penultimate film in which he starred with feisty Katherine Heburn as Miss Eula Goodnight.

Bonus materials are John Wayne: the Early Years which focuses on his early career at Republic Pictures and an 8 page collectors booklet.

John Wayne: In Action features The Spoilers, Tycoon, Wake of the Red Witch, The Conqueror, The Magnificent Showman and Hellfighters. All except Spoilers are new to DVD. The Magnificent Showman sees Wayne appearing with Claudia Cardinale and Rita Hayworth in a tale of a circus beset with disasters.

Bonus materials are limited to an 8 page collectors booklet.

John Wayne: The John Ford Collection is a collection of six films Wayne made with one of the greatest movie directors John Ford This collection features Wayne’s first starring role in Stagecoach available for the first time on DVD. This film based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant features an ensemble cast with Wayne playing the infamous Ringo Kid. The stagecoach must travel through Indian Territory and Geronimo is on the warpath.

Bonus materials are a new and exclusive interview with actor Harry Carey Junior and filmmaker and Wayne admirer Peter Bogdanovich; “The Making of Rio Grande” documentary and a 12 page collectors booklet.
The Long Voyage Home premiers with its dark tale of set aboard a cargo ship just as the clouds of World War II are looming

Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande form Ford’s cavalry trilogy in which Wayne plays various pivotal roles in films that address larger questions about how the West was won.

Finally The Quiet Man, filmed on location in the west of Eire sees Sean(Wayne) returning to his ancestral home and falling in love with the tempestuous Mary Kate(Maureen O’Hara)

Included in the complete box set is a special Bonus Collection not available elsewhere all of which are new to DVD The titles included are: Seven Sinners, Three Faces West , Lady From Louisiana, The Shepherd of the Hills, In Old California, Pittsburgh, Reap the Wild Wind, War of the Wildcats, Dakota, Flame of Barbary Coast.

Each of the individual collections will be priced at £49.99 and the Complete Collection including the Bonus Collection will be £199.99.

But I agree with you about the quality; Universal don't have the best of reputations and as well as the titles you mentioned The Quiet Man is just a plain awful transfer.

[Ken Barnes]

Although I initiated this collection, I did not continue it and what started out as a 20-title concept changed into something much bigger. I am pleased at the general layout of the set which roughly follows the original concept. I'm also pleased to see that the set contains some interesting extras - interviews, etc. But I have yet to see the quality of the transfers.

So I too will reserve judgement until I've had time to view it.

[B. Torrington]

I would certainly feel more confident about buying the new John Wayne Collection if it was a Ken Barnes-Laureate production - but my recent experience of Universal's so-called 50th Anniversary DVD of "Young At Heart" which did not deliver anything in the way of an anniversary and carried the most unhelpful chapter layout - makes me wary of spending so much money. Are they still going to use the same lousy transfers of "Fort Apache" and "The Quiet Man?"

The Doris Day Box was impressive enough on the outside ( although too big to fit into my shelf ) but the simulated chest of drawers inside was clumsy and irritating. No real chapter plan on the discs and no extras.

Yet the Fred and Ginger - the Road pictures and the Cary Grant collections offered everything that a film buff could desire. Let's hope that the Wayne package is of the same high standard. If it is, I'll buy it.

[T. Welling]

I have just purchased Universal's new John Wayne box set. The box is absolutely enormous but very attractive and well made. Disappointingly, there are no extras - just 34 films in five inner boxes. This is a lot of Wayne - and at £179.99 ( regular price £199.88 ) it ain't cheap. Personally, I would rather have had less movies and more extras. But if you like John Wayne ( and I do ) it's still a great package.

Has anyone else got this yet ? I wonder what Ken Barnes thinks of it.

[Michael Clayton]

I have just read William Gallagher's review on BBC teletext. ( page 548 ) He says " The films are well transfereed to DVD but there no extras."

[M. Warlow]

I bought this set last week and have been working my way through it, not in strict order but just picking out the movies that interested me. Most of the transfers seem good - although "The Fighting Seabees" (1944) has some disturbing audio problems that should have been cleaned up before release. Wayne's first technicolor film "Shepherd of the Hills" (1941) and it's follow-up "Reap The Wild Wind" have been beautifully mastered and look just great.

The set offers five widescreen films from the 1960s and '70s and the mastering on three of these is questionable. "The Conqueror" (1956) - easily Wayne's most embarassing film - is presented in its theatrical 2.35:1 ratio BUT with no anamorphic enhancement. The same goes for "Hellfighters" (1968). "The Magnificent Showman" (1968) aka "Circus World" was shot in 70 mm Technirama but is mastered here in awful pan & scan - and is really frustrating to watch. The two remaining widescreen films "The War Wagon" (1967) and "Rooster Cogburn" are presented correctly in their original 2.35.1 enhanced for anamorphic 16.9 viewing. These last two are a pleasure to look at.

Obviously this set has been handed out to different authoring sources. Some were professional enought to know what they were doing while others worked in a couldn't-care-less manner. Apart from the variable quality of the authoring, this also shows in the chaptering, most of which is annoying in that it gives no idea of where to find key scenes.

Unlike the great Chaplin box of last year - which was elegantly designed, perfectly chaptered and thoroughly informative - this Wayne package has been monstrously mishandled. True, there are extras. But the packaging and the literature give no indication of their existence and I simply stumbled across them by accident. There are three interviews: Harry Carey, Jr. ( interesting), Peter Bogdanovich ( adequate) and Patrick Wayne ( pleasantly nostalgic ). None of these interviews have been expertly edited and, in the case of the latter, the viewer has to suffer a series of pointless fade-outs and fade-ins jumbled together with some irrelevant and overlong film clips. And why didn't they get Maureen O-Hara ? ( her work on the American DVDs of "Rio Grande" and "The Quiet Man" are lively and informative. In addition to these interviews there are also two bought-in documentaries from the chirpy American film critic,
Leonard Maltin - both of which are of a much higher professional standard.

The booklets are nicely designed but the notes by Tom Charity are not quite up to the standard one expects for a set of this size and price. Also, he's got a lot of his facts wrong which I'm sure will irritate alot of Wayne aficionados.

Am I satisfied with the set as a whole ? Definitely not. But it does give me five of my favourite Wayne films that are unavailable anywhere else. So I'll hang on to it for that. The list price is £199.99 - but you can get it from Amazon for £50 off. It's still a lot of money to pay for just five films.
But, what the hell, I'm a Wayne collector.

To the casual buyer looking for something representative of John Wayne, I would say look elsewhere. Most of the films here can be obtained ( in much better versions with lovely extras too ) from the USA. And with the dollar rate as favourable it is right now, you'll get better value for money.

[R. Featherstone]

Even though I had most of these films in one form or another, I decided to splash out and get this enormous box set. While it is well packaged and the mastering ( for the most part anyway) is good, it is something of a disappointment. Of the 34 films, six were shot in widescreen - and only two of these( The War Wagon and Rooster Cogburn ) have been correctly mastered in anamorphic 16.9 mode. Of the remaining four, two ( The Conquerer and Hellfighters ) have been presented in their original 2.35:1 BUT with no anamorphic enhancement ( which leaves an unnecessary amount of black above and below the image ). The same goes for Jet Pilot - which appears to have been shot in 1.85:1 - except that the black bars are not so intrusive. But they could haveen eliminated completely in 16.9. Much worse than the previous five films is the clumsy
presentation of The Magnificent Showman. Originally shot in 70 mm Technirama, this looks like it's been transferred from an old U-Matic 1 inch that was intended for VHS. Not only does this make nonsense of the director's framing, it also delivers a horrible washed-out image that is very frustrating to look at. Obviously, the people at Universal simply chucked this one into the package to make up the number.

The programme notes in each of the five booklets gives no indication of Special Features - which comprise of three badly edited interviews with Harry Carey,Jr., Peter Bogdanovich and Patrick Wayne ( Carey's is the most interesting ) and two documentaries - or where to find them. I came across them quite by accident. Just another example of Universal's slipshod production standards.

The booklet notes written by someone called Tom Charity are bland and badly researched. Which is another black mark for Universal.

Finally, the inclusion of such awful turkies as Jet Pilot, The Fighting Kentuckian, The Lady From Louisiana ,the ill-structured In Old California
and that most embarrassing of all Wayne's films, The Conquerer ( ugh!) drag this package down to the very depths.

My advice is to save your money and buy the best of these films in their Region 1 versions which are more sensitively presented Especially
The Quiet Man and Rio Grande ( both of which have audio commentaries by Maureen O'Hara as well as documentaries ) and Reap The Wild Wind
( which carries some nice production notes and is intelligently chaptered ).

[Ken Barnes]

Well, it certainly looks like R. Featherstone isn't pulling any punches.

I recently purchased this mammoth collection and, while I agree with Mr. F's criticisms, I don't think the set is a total failure. True, Universal could have done a better and more professional job, this is still a phenomenal collection that rates, let's say, seven out of ten.

[Pat Mellor]

The Complete John Wayne Collection is a monster set with many virtues that will appeal to dedicated Wayne collectors like myself. But, as R. Featherstone pointed out, it has many flaws. The chaptering in most cases is just awful and not the least bit helpful in trying to find key scenes.

It's too bad that Ken Barnes wasn't involved. His approach to chaptering is the clearest and most helpful that I've ever come across. Also the programme notes would not have contained the errors that we have to put up with in this set.

Two of my friends have also bought this set and they feel - as I do - that it could have been very much better.

[M. Pender]

While there is certainly a lot wrong with Universal's Complete John Wayne Collection, it's still worth having. The worst thing about it is the awful chaptering which gives the buyer little or no indication of where the best scenes are to be found. Almost everything has been slapped together in a wishy-washy manner that smacks of total disinterest on the part of the compilers. But, on the credit side, it's a handsome box that sits well on any shelf big enough to accomodate it. Size matters - or so Universal thinks.

If you're a Wayne fan, you just might want to take a chance on this. It offers a lot of movies - some are quite dreadful but there's enough good stuff here to justify the price tag. Just don't expect perfection.

[Paul Janner]

I got the huge John Wayne box over Christmas and I've just finished working my way through it. My final impressions are that, while the packaging is magnificent and there are some excellent films here, the whole enterprise has been so badly mishandled and so laden with mistakes and lousy chaptering that, at times, I found myself so angry that I wish I'd never bought it the damn thjing. What's wrong with it ? Here's a list:-

1. The chaptering. This has been done in a variety of styles - which indicates that the jobs were farmed out to different studios with little or no instructions. Some films are better chaptered than others but none is perfect. Easily the worst is "Wake of the Red Witch." A good movie,yes. But the chapters, which are not named and consist of a series of clumsy frame grabs that make no sense at all, offer no clue to any of the key scenes. Try to find the sequence where Wayne battles a giant octopus and when you think you've located the spot where it might roughly be, you find yourself in the middle of the sequence. This is frustrating as hell. It's the same with the climactic fight scene in "The Spoilers" - you call it up and find that the four and a half minute fight between Wayne and Randolph Scott is almost over. Who the hell was responsible for this ?

2. The mastering. Again, some films are better than others. But, with a little care and some attenbtion to grading, many of the films could have looked better than they do. But of the six widescreen features only two have been properly presented for anamorphic viewing, three have been rendered in their original aspect ratios ( which must look terrible on a 4.3 screen ) and one is presented in pan and scan and looks like it was mastered for an old VHS release.( Incredible in this day and age of enlightened DVD technology) This is not only slapdash production, it shows a blatant disregard for the consumer's pleasure. Whoever was responsible for this should have been fired.

3. The programme notes. Credited to Tom Charity - who I've never heard of, so it may be a pseudonym. Whatever his credentials, Mr. Charity is no authority on the subject of John Wayne. Not that his writing is bad, it's uninformed and seems to be cribbed from the wrong sources. And this isn't good enough for a set that retails at a whopping £199.99. One has to wonder why Universal elected to employ this man for a job that he is patently unqualified for. The only answer I can come up with is that somebody was doing a favour for an old pal. A "Charity" case if ever there was one.

4. The Special Features. Yes, there are some special features but, as some critics have pointed out, they are hard to find. Universal, in their wisdom, have neglected to tell the consumer where they are or even that they exist. So you have to find them for yourself - which is rather like flying blind. There are three interviews with (a) Harry Carey,Jr ( the best and most interesting ),(b) Peter Bogdanovich ( who is certainly knowledgeable but, on this occasion, rather drowsy and almost non-commital. I've seen him in better form ) and (c) Patrick Wayne ( the Duke's son is likeable and speaks of his father with respect but he has his facts wrong more than once and his interview is interrupted by some irrelevant and overlong film clips that make no sense at all ). On the credit side, Universal have bought in a couple of documentaries
( probably made for U.S. TV ) hosted by film historian, Leonard Maltin
( who does know his stuff ) These, at least, have pace and energy and Maltin gives us a good insight into Wayne's early years as a B-picture jobbing actor. Overall, not the best set of features for such an expensive package.

5. The film selection. A total of 34 films broken down into 5 individual box sets, you have to wonder why this set contains so many bad films.
Who, in their right mind, would want to see "The Conqueror" ? ( Wayne's worst film, bar none ) and why do we have to suffer such awful films as
"Jet Pilot" " The Fighting Kentuckian" "Three Faces West" " Seven Sinners" " Lady From Louisiana" and the appallingly bad "In Old California" ? This set would have been much better - and easier on the pocket - if they had dropped at least a dozen of these stupid titles and given us better mastering on the good films and some thoughtfully-produced special features. Also one or two audio commentaries on the more interesting of Wayne's films would have added immensely to the value of the set. Then the whole package could have retailed at a more reasonable price of,say, £150 and would have had a much wider appeal.

I'm sure that's what we would have got if Ken Barnes had been at the helm. He is the only DVD producer in Europe who understands what the consumer wants.


Universal - you blew it !

[T. L.]

Wow! Paul Janner certainly knocked the stuffing out of this enormous box set - and it sounds like their was quite a lot of stuffing there to be knocked out of it. I was thinking of buying it despite the fact that it contains quite a lot of bad films that I would probably never play - well, maybe once. But is the set really as bad as Mr. Janner says it is ?

Does anyone else who bought this set feel the same way ?

[Ken Barnes]

My thanks to Paul Janner and T.L. for their notes on Universal's huge John Wayne set. Mr. Janner certainly made his feelings clear about the set's shortcomings and he is certainly not the only one to complain.

In response to T.L.'s request for other opinions on the set, well I bought it myself and while I agree and sympathise with Paul Janner's opinion on
its inadequacies, it does have certasin good points. For instance, this is the only release anywhere in the world, where you can get "Shepherd of the Hills" ( Wayne's first Technicolour film ), and "War of the Wildcats"
( one of his best Republic Westerns ) on DVD. Also the DVD debut of several lousy films. But while they may be stinkers to many of us who only want the best of John Wayne, they will be seen as "valuable" to
hard core collectors and completists. True, the mastering is not the best and I certainly agree with Mr. Janner about the chaptering and the booklet notes - but, on the credit side, the packaging is excellent and the box is very sturdy and looks pretty good on a bookshelf. Also, it's one way to collect a lot of John Wayne in a hurry and there are probably more good films than bad. So, if you're a Wayne fanatic you'll probably want to buy this in spite of its hefty price.

Personally, after looking at its sagging sales ratings on Amazon and its non-appearance in most stores, I think it would have been a far more commercial package if Universal had gone for less films and more special features. Having said that, I wouldn't want to be without it. So I wish them luck with it.