DVD Collectors Online

Seven Men From Now, a review by Rogmeister

Seven Men From Now (1956   76m   Director: Budd Boetticher   Screenplay: Burt Kennedy
Cast: Randolph Scott, Gail Russell, Lee Marvin.

The basic plot: A former sheriff (Randolph Scott), haunted by the loss of his wife in a Wells Fargo robbery, hunts for the seven men responsible for her death. Along the way, he assists a couple travelling west from Kansas City to California, and is forced to deal with another former outlaw (Lee Marvin) he had once sent to prison.

This was an excellent film. The excellent cast included Gail Russell as the wife of the man driving the covered wagon that he meets up with. The director, Budd Boetticher, is one often associated with Randolph Scott and they made several superior westerns together. Burt Kennedy wrote it and Andrew V. McLaglen, who directed many John Wayne movies, served as one of the producers. The film was made by Wayne's own Batjac company. The DVD has an excellent crisp print that shows off it's fine color photography (the film being shot by another Wayne veteran, William Clothier). It moves along crisply though still has time for a few quiet moments. I'm mainly familiar with Miss Russell from her films with John Wayne (including the underrated Angel and the Badman) but she is quite excellent here as well. Lee Marvin is menacing in an early role without being over the top. And of course, Randolph Scott is properly heroic and shows an inner fire of a man bent not only on justice, but on revenge.

DVD extras include an audio commentary, documentary on Budd Boetticher, profile of Gail Russell and the original theatrical trailer.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film.  Perhaps it's not quite the classic that Hondo or Rio Bravo is, but it's mighty fine viewing all the same.  I would heartily recommend Seven Men From Now.  (Oh yes, the cover of the DVD calls this film "7 Men From Now" but in the actual screen titles, it's "Seven Men From Now", spelled out instead of using the numeral method they did on the cover.)

(From Roger's Ongoing Westerns Marathon on June 24th, 2009)

To The Last Man, a review by Rogmeister

To The Last Man (1933)
Directed by Henry Hathaway
Cast: Randolph Scott, Esther Ralston, Noah Beery, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Barton MacLane

This is an early sound western and, like many westerns of the time, it is almost totally devoid of music except for the opening titles and a bit at the end.  The credits are unlike I've seen in any movie...they give the title of the music, wrier and director and all that but don't show the cast credits right away.  What they do is when each person makes his or her first appearance, then their credit is shown with them...thus, at 28 minutes into the movie when Randolph Scott finally appears, you finally get to see his name on screen.

The film is based on a Zane Grey story and deals with two feuding families who come from Kentucky and wind up the same region out west.  The Colbys, angered because the father spent 15 years in prison after the Hayden patriarch went to the law instead of the usual feuding alternative, go to work rustling all the Hayden livestock.  It's at this point that Lynn (Randolph Scott) comes home and he winds up falling for the daughter of the evil Colby (the daughter played by the fetching Esther Ralston).  While the film moves rapidly along (it's only about 70 minutes long), it has the old type western fights with lots of apparently sped-up action which seems even more odd with no accompanying music.  Also of note is that this movie features the film debut of Shirley Temple as one of the grandchildren of the Hayden patriarch.  It has an overall familiar cast and most, including Scott, do well for this 76 year old film.

This was a Paramount film but apparently the movie has fallen into the public domain as there are a lot of copies out there by different companies.  My own copy is from VCI Entertainment and it's a pretty decent copy...a nice sharp print with clear sound...but, as is usual with such cases, no extras to speak of. 

(From Roger's Ongoing Westerns Marathon on July 6th, 2009)

Tom's TV Finales marathon, a review by Tom

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The Black Adder (1983/United Kingdom) IMDb | Wikipedia (United Kingdom) Length: 195 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 1 Subtitles: Danish, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Norwegian, Other, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish

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Plot:
Set in England at the end of the War of the Roses, we soon find out that the history we know is a Tudor fiction. In fact, Henry VII did not actually win the battle of Bosworth Field; he lost and though Richard III died in the battle, his nephew King Richard IV (who certainly was not smothered while still a boy in the Tower of London) reigned on for some years. The story focuses on Richard IV's younger son Prince Edmund, a sniveling coward who calls himself the 'Black Adder'. Assisted by his grungy servant Baldrick and the moronic Lord Percy, Edmund plots his rise to greatness.


Black Adder
Series 1.06 The Black Seal
Writer: Richard Curtis (Writer), Rowan Atkinson (Writer)
Director: Martin Shardlow
Cast: John Carlisle (Murdered Lord), Bert Parnaby (Cain, A Blind Beggar), Roy Evans (Abel, A Blind Beggar), Forbes Collins (Trusting Father), Des Webb (Person of Unrestricted Growth), John Barrard (Retired Morris Dancer), Mad Gerald (Himself), Perry Benson (Pigeon Vendor), Paul Brooke (Friar Bellows), Big Mick (Jack Large), Roger Sloman (Three Fingered Pete), Patrick Malahide (Guy of Glastonbury), John Hallam (Sir Wilfred Death), Patrick Allen (The Hawk), Ron Cook (Sean, The Irish Bastard), Robert East (Harry, Prince of Wales), Elspet Gray (The Queen), Brian Blessed (King Richard IV), Rowan Atkinson (The Flat Adder), Tony Robinson (Baldrick), Tim McInnerny (Percy, the Poisoner)

Still my least favorite Blackadder series. At is a good ending though.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Finales marathon on February 9th, 2013)