Hello!

Was looking through various online shopping sites hoping to beef up my John Wayne collection, and had a question I hope to get answered by the fellow Duke fans I found here. :)

Specifically, I notice there are numerous DVD versions of "Angel and the Badman", and was wondering if anyone could help with input on which is the best, highest quality version?

Also having a widescreen television, I usually discriminate towards the versions of the Duke's movies that are in anamorphic format (curses that I think The Longest Day is not). I notice many of the older films, even in so-called "collector's editions" are done in the full-screen aspect ratio(including the above "Angel and the Badman", and was wondering if perhaps this is normal for the much older movies?

Thanks for any help that can be provided.

More research indicates "The Longest Day" just might be anamorphic....most online shopping sites are very unclear with that information. :P

Edit: Or not, the site I saw that on listed as anamorphic movies that I know for sure are not. :rolleyes:

Tonitrus,

I just wanted to start out by welcoming you to the best message board in the world for John Wayne information.

As for your question about Angel and the Badman, it is one of several Duke movies that are in the pirate game of DVD's being illegally produced. Angel is released through Republic Pictures, and has not been officially released through them. Many other distributors without permission from Republic have released it. I am not sure what is going on with that issue. Republic Pictures folded over 40 years ago, and another distributor has taken over their rights. Somehow that movie slipped through the cracks, and has been released through many different production companies; 7 at my count. I think the quality is fair, but you may want to do some homework as to what distributor is better in line of the quality of film they use. I myself will not purchase any of them, but wait until I see the official release of that picture.

McLintock! has also been a victum of the same problem but with different circumstances.

For the older movies and the "B" movies from Duke, theaters were different back then, when most of those movies were made, and the screen ratio were more square. Movies released to video and TV was distributed for normal TV formats. That is what I read, and can't remember most of the details; it's been a long time since I read that, and can't remember where that came from. I could be wrong with this, but that is what my memory is telling me.

Take Care

Cheers, Hondo B)

The anamorphic format (Cinemascope) was developed by Darryl F. Zanuck for 20th century Fox. He soon had all the studios buy the lenses. These were the days when they had to find a new format to outdo Television. Fox had experimented with a Wide Screen format before, going back to the 1920s (Wayne's own Big Trail was released in an early Wide Screen process - the version which we haven't seen yet). "The Robe", I think in 1951, was the first one released in Cinemascope. With the exeption of Paramount everybody pitched in (note that Wayne's Paramount films are the exeptions in these years of his career: Liberty Valance, Donovan's Reef, Hatari were still done in the "flat" format).
So films prior to 1951 cannot be in WideScreen. The distributors however might cheat you: they just chop off the upper and lower part and make it appear WideScreen, trying to cash in with a video/DVD release ("first time in WideScreen, blablah). When Disney produced his popular Davy-Crockett-series for TV - and found the whole nation screaming for more, he did just that: bringing the film to the movie theaters and chopping off part of the film to make it fit on a WideScreen.
Today, most Wide Screen productions are made with Panavision lenses.
If you get a Full-Screen-Video from the Longest Day, it's probably an older release, when they still did pan&scan versions: using only part of the full image to fill the television picture - awful!

Roland,

Thanks for the info. I learned something new today, and I knew you would have that answer about the anamorphic format. I didn't know that it was introduced in the 1920's.

Cheers, Hondo B)

Thanks for the info. :)

I know, somewhat, about the rights issues with "Angel", which is why I was wary of purchasing any of them, not being sure who had the most "legitimate" rights, if at all.

Ditto with "McLinktock!", since I was aware of the "John Wayne Estate Approved" version. Not to mention the horrible reviews of the chop-job done on the DVD.

The version of "The Longest Day" I've seen for sale everywhere is "Widescreen", but from all the info I've been able to find(online reviews of the dvd and such), not "anamorphic", or made to fit widescreen televisions. Which is the case with the DVD of "Rooster Cogburn" and "The War Wagon". Though a few online shopping sites do claim "The Longest Day" as being anamorphic widescreen.

I despair at the proliferation of conflicting information. ;)

I wouldn't buy anything made outside of this country.

In checking out Ebay recently for JW films, I discovered there is quite an increase in the bojack versions being made in Singapore, Malaysia, you name it. They are very cheap and tempting, but you're definitely undercutting the industry in this country. I also suspect they are not very good quality, but having not bought any of them, I really cannot say.

Just my dos centavos . . . .

Chester :cowboy:

tonitrus,

welcome to the board and i have to agree with chester DON'T buy anything made in malaysia as they dont enforce the copy right laws there and the dvd's are burnt from and disc they may charge you $10 or more but they are truley only worth A$5. i know this as i have a friend you goes over there often to do just that get cheep dvd's and he told me they burn them at the store as you wait. so do as chester has suggested and stick with only those that you can prove where made in your country.

cheers smokey

No worries, I'm a fanatic about picture/audio quality in my dvd's, which is why I originally asked which version of "Angel and the Badman" was the best. I wouldn't touch foreign bootlegs either. I was simply ignorant if one of them was an "authorized" release, and since Hondo set me straight, I'll do like him and hold out for the real thing. ;)

On that note of dvd quality, I'd have to say of the ones I own, which is most of the post 1950 movies(I prefer his later films), I think "El Dorado" has the most superior looking video quality. Also one of my favorites as well. B)

The transfer to DVD (or any medium for that matter) and therefore the quality in which we see the film is of course not only dependent of the company - but of the original material. If the original 35mm is available at all it would depend if the film is in good form. Next to that, the film might have been grainy even when originally released which is true for lots of Wayne's B-movies, shot very cheaply and they cut costs in the labs as well.

Now in this conversation I wonder about the companies releasing those films: They're not all bootleg. I think Republic sometimes sells a title, or making it available for a limited time to other companies. So they can have their try with maybe a new marketing for an old film. So that would mean those companies use the same sources because giving the copyright in that case also means giving access to the 35mm copy. It happens with lots of companies. Even the older James Bond titles were sold from MGM to Warners, I think, just lately. So maybe you want to consider that when you wait for the original company to release a title. But to tell you the truth: I have long lost sight of who owns which title. You know what's funny? Go ask one of these companies, and most likely THEY won't be able to tell you if they are holding on to a copyright just now.