Search - The Outlaw on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Movie Release: 1943 DVD Release: 10/26/1999 Format: DVD - Pan and Scan Audio Tracks: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 3 hrs 48 mins Studio: Roan Archival Group Members Wishing: 4 Genres: Western, Biopic [feature], Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film, Psychological Western See Also: The Outlaw [Collector's Edition], The Outlaw [Collector's Edition], The Outlaw, The Outlaw, The Outlaw, The Outlaw, The Outlaw, The Outlaw, The Outlaw [Collector's Edition], The Outlaw

Perhaps Hollywood's greatest success du scandal of the 1940s, this odd psychological Western became a box office hit largely thanks to the costuming of leading lady Jane Russell (or, more accurately, its relative absence). Billy the Kid (Jack Buetel) and Doc Holliday (Walter Huston) are close friends until lawman Pat Garrett (Thomas Mitchell) attempts to ambush Billy and put him behind bars. Doc brings Billy to his ranch to hide out, but when Billy meets Doc's mistress Rio (Russell), he's instantly attracted to the buxom beauty. An intense chemistry quickly grows between them, despite the fact that Billy murdered Rio's brother. Billy and Rio secretly marry, but their love runs hot and cold, and soon Billy, Doc, and Rio are fighting among themselves as they're chased through the desert by Garrett and his posse. Director Howard Hawks and screenwriter Ben Hecht both worked on The Outlaw, but they went uncredited after disputes with the legendarily difficult financier (and sometimes producer/director) Howard Hughes, whose battles with the censors resulted in the film spending three years on the shelf before finally gaining wide release in a cut version in 1946. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Jack Buetel - Billy the Kid
Jane Russell - Rio
Thomas Mitchell - Pat Garrett
Walter Huston - Doc Holliday
Mimi Aguglia - Aunt Guadelupe

The first hour of the Roan Group's DVD of The Outlaw looks extraordinary, especially in light of some of the wretched looking versions of this public domain movie that are in circulation, and the last hour looks good -- but in between are about 11 minutes of not-very-clear night material that is about average for this badly abused film. It's only another chapter in the picture's star-crossed history. The Outlaw was one of the most notorious movies of its era, a Western intended to scandalize and entice audiences. Made by independent producer Howard Hughes, it was rejected and revamped for years by the censors, so much so that it became a running joke in Hollywood. The Outlaw appeared at various times in editions running 103 and 95 minutes, but the Roan Group DVD is the first presentation of Hughes's uncut 117-minute version, which was never widely distributed. Much of this DVD looks as good as the digital discs of some of the greatest Westerns of the same period, Stagecoach and Red River, and may have better audio mastering than the latter. The irony is that even the trailers for Red River and Stagecoach are worth more cinematically than The Outlaw is as a movie; as a cowboy picture, it's at least a decade out of date in its handling of story and action. Cinematographer Gregg Toland does his job amazingly well, with some gloriously beautiful shots, but the direction by Hughes (and an uncredited Howard Hawks) often resembles that of a bad silent Western, while other parts are just plain amateurish, and the extended finale is interminable. Billy the Kid (Buetel) and Doc Holliday (John Huston) meet in Lincoln County, NM, where Pat Garrett (Thomas Mitchell) is sheriff, and contend with each other for a horse and then for a woman (Jane Russell). Apart from Huston's and Mitchell's presence in the cast, and the fact that Howard Hawks was fired off the picture, the movie could be ignored, but for the presence of Russell. From her first appearance 21 minutes in, the movie is groundbreaking in its treatment of her character (and physique). The prominence given her bosom in practically every shot she's in, and her character's raw sexuality, were unique in their time, and the production of this movie heralded the making of the higher profile, lust-drenched Western Duel in the Sun which, with The Outlaw, forever altered the role of the libido in cowboy movies. The Roan DVD is divided into 24 chapters, most of them useful and easy to navigate (although the last chapter, covering the impossibly talkie finale, is almost useless), but copies of this disc also had trouble making the dual-layer transition in some machines. The RKO trailer, dating from years after the initial 1943 attempt at a release, is included as a bonus. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide