Just in time for Father’s Day, Universal brings out a collection of five John Wayne films sure to entertain in John Wayne – An American Icon Collection. Happily, the set can be found for under $20 online either for Dad or the John Wayne fan.
Love him or hate him, John Wayne is without a doubt a Hollywood Icon and a legend of the silver screen. This collection brings together three films never released on DVD (Seven Sinners, The Shepherd of the Hills, and Pittsburgh), and two films previously released (The Conqueror and Jet Pilot). The set shows Wayne's range in film genres (from drama to western to war) and offers fans of "The Duke" a good look at some of his early work.
Seven Sinners (1940): Where Bijou (Marlene Dietrich) goes, riots follow. One such riot gets her deported from a Pacific island. She and Ed “Little Ned” Finnegan (Broderick Crawford), a tough sailor with a Bijou crush, and Sasha (Mischa Auer), a pickpocket and a magician, grab the next ship out of Dodge.
They arrive at the island of Boni Komba and Bijou sets up shop at the Seven Sinners night club. Much to the annoyance of the owner Tony (Billy Gilbert), who’s had previous experience with how Bijou can wreck a club.
However, things are not looking good for Bijou since the sinister Antro (Oskar Homolka) is around and he knows how to expertly throw a knife. Lieutenant Brent (John Wayne) is part of the Navy attachment on the island and falls hard for Bijou - much to the shock of both, the Navy and the governor’s daughter (Anna Lee).
Since this is Bijou there’s a climatic riot at Tony’s club, but will Brent survive the attentions of Antro (who also wants Bijou for himself) and what will ultimately happen to Bijou.
Seven Sinners is a fun flick and is really a Marlene Dietrich vehicle with Wayne playing second fiddle. There are quite a few character actors in good parts in this one. I especially liked Mischa Auer as the con-man magician. Oskar Homolka provides just the right amount of menace as the villain of the piece. It’s also fun to see Billy Gilbert “pretend” that he’s the boss and that Marlene is not.
If I was reviewing this film by itself, Seven Sinners would easily get three stars and a recommendation to fans of Wayne’s films.
The Shepherd of the Hills (1941): Directed by Henry Hathaway, based on the novel by Harold Bell Wright, and Wayne’s first Technicolor film.
In the Ozark Mountains, Matt (John Wayne) has sworn a blood oath to kill his father, who abandoned his mother. Matt’s a moonshiner and has to deal with those pesky revenuers.
Only two sinners in this picture
One day a stranger, Daniel Howitt (the legendary Harry Carey), walks into the mountain community. Mr. Howitt helps out Jim Lane (Tom Fadden) and asks no questions as to how he was shot (running from those pesky revenuers) and both he and his daughter Sammy (Betty Field) are grateful. Howitt saves a little girl’s life and he brings her back to her parents like a “good shepherd.”
Howitt approaches Old Matt Mathews (James Barton) and Aunt Mollie (the equally legendary Beulah Bondi and giving Margaret Hamilton a run for her money) to buy the land know as Moanin’ Meadow (the locals feel it full of spooks and cursed). Unbeknownst to everyone, Mr. Howitt’s secret lies in Moanin’ Meadow. Look for Marjorie Main (Ma Kettle) and Marc Lawrence (later known for gangster roles) in parts that are much different than what they would be typecast as in later years.
The film has a passel of character actors - Ward Bond, John Qualen, Henry Brandon (look at the Mathews dinner table), and Charles Middleton (the Blacksmith) to name a few.
Shepherd of the Hills is really a fine film and features excellent performances from both Wayne and Carey. The supporting cast is populated by many character actors and some you have to look hard to spot (Brandon and Middleton). Also, as I said before it’s nice to see some actors in parts that in later years they would not even be considered to play (Mains and Lawrence). I thought the Technicolor print of the film looked wonderful. Beulah Bondi is pretty nasty as the sour Aunt Mollie.
Shepherd of the Hills easily gets four stars, and is worth watching if you are a fan of Wayne or any of the many character actors in the film.
Pittsburgh (1942): We start the movie in the 1940s and flash back to the 1920s. Charles “Pittsburgh” Markham (John Wayne) and John “Cash” Evans (Randolph Scott) are coal miners. One night they decide to go out on the town and they go to the local tailor (Shemp Howard) to get new suits, but don’t have any money to pay him and he doesn’t take credit. They go across the street to a fight where if you last a round with the champ you get $100.
They run into Josie Winters (Marlene Dietrich) on the way to the fight. Her boyfriend is the one running the fight and tries to sabotage Cash’s chance at the money. They punch out the champ and the boyfriend and then hear that there’s been a cave-in at the mine, which is under their buddy “Doc” Powers’ (Frank Craven) house. In their haste, they take Josie’s car and she just happens to still be in the back seat.
When they arrive they find that “Doc” is in the mine helping out. They rush into the mine because they hear “Doc”, while trying to help out, is trapped under a beam. Josie tries to help get “Doc” out and earns the nickname “Hunky.” “Pittsburgh” has big plans and his ambitions soon make him, along with Cash and Hunky, wealthy. Will “Pitt” let his ambitions and quest for wealth lose him his girl and his best friend and how will failure remake him? Thomas Gomez and Paul Fix also have parts in this movie.
John Wayne with Harry Carey in the background
Pittsburgh is not too bad, but does have a rally round the flag boys theme running throughout. Scott, Wayne, and Dietrich make a fine team. Maybe in a bit of karmic revenge for Seven Sinners, Dietrich is pushed to the back in Pittsburgh and it’s more Wayne’s show.
There are also quite a few character actors in parts in this film, a few of them are from Seven Sinners and even appear in Shepherd of the Hills. The film suffers to a degree from a large chunk of narration by Doc, who is telling the flashback story of how our three heroes came to be where they are in the 1940s
I would give Pittsburgh three stars if I was reviewing it by itself. It is worth watching if you are a fan of Wayne, Scott, or Dietrich.
The Conqueror (1956): John Wayne IS Genghis Khan!?! In some circles this movie is known as the film that killed John Wayne (more on that in a minute). Temujin (John Wayne) is a Mongolian warlord who goes to war with the rival tribe that killed his father. He falls for the captured Bortai (Susan Hayward) and woos her and fails but she falls for him later.
She immediately wins the disapproval of Temujin’s mother (Agnes Moorehead). Bortai also tries to use his brother Jamunga (Pedro Armendariz) against him. Thomas Gomez, who was in Pittsburgh, is also here in the role of the emperor Wang Chan and a thin (compared to his bulk later in life) William Conrad appears as Temujin’s other brother Kasar. He wins many battles and is known thereafter as Genghis Khan. John Hoyt, Lee Van Cleef, and Leo Gordon also star.
People say that this movie killed Wayne, not because he’s horribly miscast, but that it was filmed near nuclear testing grounds and Wayne and several other players and crew members died of cancer (Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendariz, Agnes Moorehead, Thomas Gomez, and director Dick Powell).
The Conqueror suffers from a miscast Wayne and the entire cast of (mostly) Caucasians dressed up to look like Mongolians. Wayne looks awful in his Fu Manchu mustache and slanty eye makeup, hell everybody does.
It seems that everyone is playing their characters over the top to me - maybe they know that they were in a dog. Supposedly, Howard Hughes was so guilty for exposing the cast to radiation that he bought up all the existing prints of the film and kept it out of view for 17 years until 1974. Odd duck that Howard. He also produced Jet Pilot.
I would give The Conquerors two stars because it is far from Wayne’s best performance. The Conqueror is also available separately at Amazon . Visit the DVD’s database more information.
Doc, Pittsburgh, Hunky, and Cash
Jet Pilot (1957): Air Force Colonel Jim Shannon (John Wayne) is waiting on Major Rexford (Paul Fix) to land when Rexford escorts in a Russian plane. All are shocked when the Russian pilot turns out to be a lady, Lt. Anna Marladovna Shannon (Janet Leigh).
Who knew that the Rooskies were into women’s lib, not the mention that Anna speaks very good English, but seems to not know what bologna is or the pleasures of having a hot shower. Shannon takes escorting duties away from Rexford, he is a married man after all, and escorts her to be interrogated. Shannon is assigned to keep and eye on Anna and soon they’re flying U.S. aircraft together (trusting lot those Air Force fellows).
They decide to deport Anna so Shannon decides to marry her. Later, they’re going to put her in prison so Shannon decides to defect to Russia (which looks like the village set in those old Universal horror movies). Who’s spying on who? Hans Conried shows up as a oily Russian Colonel later in the flick.
Jet Pilot is sort of a schizophrenic film. It wants to be an espionage thriller but has so much comedy and unconvincing Russians that it doesn’t really work as one. It does have some nice flying and showing off of the technology of the time, turn off your brain and enjoy.
Although it is not one of Wayne’s better films, I would give Jet Pilot two and a half stars, and recommend it to fans of “The Duke.” Jet Pilot is available separately at Amazon . Visit the DVD’s database for more information.
Duke Manchu
All the films in this collection look very good to my untrained eyes. Before the studios realized that there was a market for their back catalogue movies, they farmed out both the Conqueror and Jet Pilot to Goodtimes for DVD release. I never got the Conqueror, but do have Jet Pilot. I think that the colors are brighter and there’s less grain on the Universal version. Not to mention, the Universal version is enhanced for 16x9 televisions and the Goodtimes version was not (the Goodtimes Conqueror was not enhanced either).
Seven Sinners, Shepherd of the Hills, and Pittsburgh are presented in fullscreen. Conqueror is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and Jet Pilot in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) - both enhanced for 16x9 televisions.
Special features for the collection include trailers for 4 features, no trailer for Jet Pilot. They’re spread across the two discs somewhat oddly. Seven Sinners and Shepherd of the Hills are on one side of disc one. The other side is blank - literally no artwork or data.
Pittsburgh and Conqueror are on side A of disc two and Jet Pilot is on side B. I guess that Universal had some sort of preference for odd numbers. I think they could’ve made this a six movie set and shifted one movie to the blank side and added another title to the set (Spoilers (1942) maybe which also had Wayne, Scott, and Dietrich). Maybe they’re thinking of another Wayne set somewhere down the line.
I encountered no problems with playback on these two sided discs (some Universal DVD-18s had playback issues awhile ago, I think that these are DVD-9s) but again have to complain about these picking up scratches and fingerprints more easily than regular one sided discs.
The disc labeling is bold enough to read the titles for my eyes, but some folks still might have trouble reading it. Oddly, they don’t label the side with Jet Pilot on it. The menu (and box) informs you that Jet Pilot is on side B.
Likee soupski
John Wayne - An American Icon Collection is really a no brainer. You get five films for under $20. You can either imagine that you pay $4 apiece for each or if it suits you better you can pretend that you paid $5 apiece and got the Conqueror for free…..priceless. It’s a bargain, in my opinion, anyway you cut it.
John Wayne - An American Icon Collection is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD’s database for more information.
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