Search - Great American Western V.7, The on DVD

Gold Fever, A Mountie Gets His Girl, An Eastwood Wannabe, an

L. Shirley | fountain valley, ca United States | 12/02/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

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Platinum has so many of these oaters and off beat westerns available for the true western lover to choose from. There are somewhere around 3 dozen volumes out now. You can buy them singly or in packaged deals, from 2 to 10 discs in a set(each in their own keep case). The problem is that the titles of the films are usually not listed on the buying info. The earlier volumes(1,2,3, etc) are often 4 films of a specific actor, the later ones most often have some kind of theme running through them. It gets confusing as the multi packs as well as the singles are called Vol 1 or 2 etc, You can usually tell by the price how many discs, are in each volume, or sometimes the buying list the number of discs. Sometimes the multi packs are listed as plural; e.g. Great American Westerns instead of Western.

So this is the single volume 7, which I bought as part of a 2 disc pack with single volume 8. The 2-pack is Vol 5 of the multi packs(still with me?). The ASIN to enter in search to find the 2 disc set is B0000VJG1I. I have listed all the titles with a brief description in my review there.

Okay, that was the tough part(it is every time I review one of these), now onto the films.
Vol 7 has 4 films from 1946 through 1967. Three of them seem to have a do whatever it takes to get the gold(or money) theme, but don't feature any particular actor in all four. It's a fun mix though, as you can tell from my review title.

First up is "The Naked Hills"(1956). A young David Wayne gets gold fever. Everyone around him seems to be striking it rich except him. The more his dreams of the mother lode elude him, the more obsessed he becomes in his quest to find it. His beautiful wife, waits patiently for him, but after years and years, will she still be there for him? Will he ever get rich? Keenan Wynn also stars.

From 1977: "She Came To The Valley" (based on Cleo Dawson's Novel of the same name). A husband and Wife are going to start a new life, settling in the West. When she loses her husband,her hardships are chronicled, as she becomes embroiled in the turmoil of the of the Spanish-American war. Dean Stockwell, Scott Glenn,Freddy Fender (Pancho Villa), also star.

1946..."Northwest Trail"...This is a more modern Western(there is a car involved)A rough, gruff Mountie agrees to guide a woman through rough country.She's obstinate, quite a handful, and a royal pain in the butt, She also doesn't tell him the entire story. She's carrying thousands in payroll for her Uncle, and oops, somehow it turns up missing. Now our guy has quite a bit to deal with as they meet danger at every turn. Does a "Mounty always get his man"? Or in this case his woman? George Meeker, Bob Steele Ian Keith and Raymond Hatton.

Okay this one from 1967, "Any Gun Can Play"(rated PG13), is some kind of "Man With No Name" trilogy wannabe. A mysterious stranger(and that's what he is called through the film, "Stranger"), rolls into town and right away takes out three really bad guys(looking very much like the bad, the badder and the ugly), who happen to have their coffins all ready for them. A bit from each of the "Fistful" films is taken to make this story complete,including the famous camera shots of the faces) as an eclectic group, including a very cute Edd Byrnes("Kookie,Kookie,lend me your comb")of men with guns, are after three hundred thousand in gold pieces.(thus trumping, the "Good, Bad and Ugly" by fifty thousand). Sometimes it hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys.It won't go down in the annals as any classic, but a fun view none the less, that often uses humor to lighten things up. And and by the way this one is in widescreen. Gilbert Roland and George Hilton also star and although the back of the box says Maureen O"Hara, she is no where to be found.

The films are not pristeen, although Any Gun Can Play looks nice and clear. None would really be considered outstanding films, but they are enjoyable.

Saddle Up and Happy Trails....Laurie

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