Search - John Wayne, Great American Western, 2 DVD on DVD

Laura P. from BRUNSWICK, GA
Reviewed on 12/15/2007...

Classic early John Wayne.

Films From The Lone Star Series and Other Oldies But Goodies

L. Shirley | fountain valley, ca United States | 11/01/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This review refers to the John Wayne 2- Pack(Great American Western Series/Platinum Disc Corp)

Platinum Disc has put together so many of these economic package deals for true Western lovers to choose from. There are, as far as I could tell, about 30 of the single volumes available. The singles volumes usually have 4 films on each disc. The earlier volumes (1, 2, 3 etc) all seem to have a main star. The later volumes mix em up but usually have some kind of theme. They can also be purchased in multi-packs from 2 to 10 discs(40 films here). Each disc in it's own case. The multi-packs also usually go by Volume number 1, 2 etc. So it could get a little confusing. Amazon still is not listing the titles, but they do list how many discs are in the package in the buying info, plus you can usually tell by the price.

Okay, so this one, to make things even more confusing, does NOT have a Volume number. It is though two discs, with a total of 9 films, all starring our guy John Wayne! And they do come in their own keep cases and both are in a slip case. I did not know what I would be getting, other then they were all films of The Duke. Here's what you get:

First up is acutally Volume 24 of Great American Western Series.
Five short films(all under an hour) from the thirties. Four are from the Lone Star series, directed by Robert Bradbury.
1934..."The Trail Beyond"
1933..."Riders of Destiny"
1934..."West of the Divide"
1935..."Texas Terror"
1936...Winds of the Wasteland"(Directed by Mack Wright)

The other DVD is not actually a volume of the GAW series. But there are 4 good old Wayne films for fans to savour. Not all are Westerns.
1935..."Rainbow Valley"..another Bradbury film
1933.."His Private Secretary" This was not a Western, but has our guy as a rich playboy.
1935.."Paradise Canyon"
1932...Shadow of the Eagle...This is a real treat. Running at more then 3 hours it is a complete 12 chapter mystery serial(although there are 8 chapter stops on the DVD).

With nine films, I decided just to list them. I will give brief synopsis' of the films when I review the individual DVDs. But fans should be pretty happy with selection of oldies but goodies, and also know from the titles what you are getting. If you are looking for a criterion like transfer, pass these by. These films are old, and they look it. But highly enjoyable, and for the price, I can hardly take any stars away from these treasures. Fans will find these a great way to spend a rainy afternoon!

Saddle Up With The Duke...and enjoy
"

John Wayne at his absolute worst!

Mr_No_Name | richmond, va usa | 10/25/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This 2-disc set offers nothing more than John Wayne's most outdated, horrible movies from the 30's. Almost all of these films feature a rather very young John Wayne in various westerns that were almost all made by the long-defunct Lone Star Pictures company. The main thing about these westerns is that they all tend to be almost too similar to each other and they all have very similar plots and almost none of these movies have aged well at all. Of all these movies, Only Lawless Frontier was watchable [Mostly because of Earl Dwire's decent performance as the mexican/indian villain], Angel & The Badman wasn't that bad neither [Being that i actually can't stand romantic westerns]. All of the rest of these movies are extremely boring [Even for their very short running times, All under an hour a piece], Suffer from a lack of action and coherent plotting and thus this 2-disc set is simply not worth owning. Prior to ''Stagecoach'', John Wayne wasn't in too many good movies and this set does nothing but to further prove that claim right by offering this sorry batch of movies. If you can, I'd reccomend you trying to find Lawless Frontier as a seperate title at a very cheap price [No more than $6] and avoid this and other cheap John Wayne sets. For good John Wayne movies, Try these: Stagecoach, El Dorado, MCQ, The Green Berets [One of The Duke's most underrated movies], Mclintock!, The Shootist, Back To Bataan, Sands Of Iwo Jima, Or even The Alamo."