DVD Review: James Stewart – The Signature Collection

By Patrick Luce Aug 24, 2006, 0:18 GMT

The Spirit of St. Louis - Biography of Charles Lindburgh from his days of precarious mail runs in aviation\'s infancy to his design of a small transatlantic plane and the vicissitudes of its takeoff and epochal flight from New York to Paris in 1927. The Naked Spur - A bitter Howard Kemp heads westward to the Rockies from Abilene, Kansas on the trail of murderer Ben Vandergroat and the $5000 reward ...more

Fans of James Stewart will want to invest in the new Warner Bros.’ James Stewart – The Signature Collection, but I was a little disappointed the set didn’t come with a few better films and a lot more special features.

The set includes 1949’s The Stratton Story, 1953’s The Naked Spur, 1957’s The Spirit of St. Louis, 1959’s The FBI Story, and a double feature disc of 1968’s Firecreek and 1970’s The Cheyenne Social Club.

The films (which are all available on DVD separately) are presented on single disc DVDs with moderate special features at best. This was a bit of a disappointment given some of the very nice box sets Warner Bros has been releasing that are loaded with the kind special features that fans of classic Hollywood love.

The Stratton Story (which would be Wood’s last film to direct before his death in 1949) sees Jimmy Stewart taking on the role of Chicago White Sox pitcher Monty Stratton. The film was directed by Sam Wood, based on a screenplay by Douglas Morrow and Guy Trosper. The film also stars Frank Morgan, June Allyson, Agnes Moorehead, and Bill Williams.

Stratton is an upcoming pitcher – who is perfect on the field, and a generally nice guy outside of the game. He is a husband, father, and a devoted to son to his mother who lives on the family farm in Texas. During the off-season, Stratton returns home to Texas with the family to help get the family farm in shape. In between working on the farm, Stewart surprises his wife with a night of dancing (he took lessons and told her that he was going to press conferences so it would be a surprise). Everything is going fine until he goes hunting for some rabbits and accidentally shoots himself in the leg.

After he develops an infection from the wound, doctors have to remove the leg, and it looks like Stratton’s baseball career is at an end. Brokenhearted, Stratton falls into despair that last several months, but eventually he begins to snap out of his depression – mostly thanks to his wife and mother who refuse to give up on him. After a few sessions of tossing the ball back and forth with the wife, Stratton decides he has to find out if he might be able to take the mound one more time.

Stewart studies the game

In the movie, Stewart plays the same “affable” type of character that would become his trademark, and delivers a good performance even if it is a bit of cliché for what you expect out of the actor.  I enjoyed the film, but not as much as some of the other films included in the set, and I personally didn’t care for the film’s ending.

The DVD’s special features include an audio-only bonus radio show with Stewart and Allyson which was fun to listen to, but not much there. There is also a vintage featurette called “Pest Control,” and a classic cartoon “Batty Baseball” – which probably wouldn’t be too politically correct by today’s standards. The DVD also includes the film’s theatrical trailer.

1953’s The Naked Spur finds Stewart teaming up with director Anthony Mann for his third of five westerns with the director (why can’t we get a box set of all five!). Since I am a huge fan of Stewart’s westerns and his team-ups with Mann, this was by far my favorite movie in the set. The film also stars Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, and Ralph Meeker. Like most Mann westerns, the plot is pretty straight forward, but there is more to it if you take the time to watch.

In the film, Stewart plays a “relentless” bounty hunter out to get murderer Ben Vandergroat (Ryan) so he can bring him in and collect the $5000 reward. Stewart wants the money so that he can buy back the ranch that he lost during the war. After tracking the killer from Abilene to the Rockies, Stewart is forced to take on a couple of partners to help him bring Vandergroat in for the reward. He is also forced to deal with Vandergroat’s girlfriend (Leigh).

More problems begin to haunt Stewart as he is wounded in a fight with Indians, and begins to question just how trustworthy his new “partners” really are. He also has to deal with a new love interest that is developing with Leigh. Of course, she could just be using Stewart to get Ryan free, and his own history with women makes it hard for Stewart to trust her.

Stewart hunts a killer for money

While all this is happening, Ryan is in the background constantly stirring the pot, and trying to turn the partners on each other. Like all great westerns, the whole film is a pressure cooker that ends in one big gunfight that forces Stewart to come face to face with the man he has become – a man that hunts another human being simply for money.

While this isn’t the best Mann/Stewart collaboration (my personal favorite was Winchester '73), the film is a great western, and continues to hold up today – even if the Leigh/Stewart love story is a bit hokey.

Once again, the DVD lacks any real special features – a glaring error considering the director and star history – and consists of only a vintage Pete Smith Specialty Short – Things We Can Do Without; a cartoon classic “Little Johnny Jet;” and the film’s theatrical trailer. While the vintage short and cartoon classics are nice, they don’t really hold up as special features on a film with this many stars, and with Mann as the director.

The Spirit of St. Louis is no doubt the biggest of Stewart’s films included in the set. The film is almost as famous as the story it tells, and is filled with iconic images of Stewart and the character he plays. It is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book by Charles A. Lindbergh (who Stewart plays in the film), and was directed by the legendary Billy Wilder (who also co-wrote the film’s screenplay).

The film is the story of the early days of Lindbergh – from his mail runs to the design of a small Trans-Atlantic plane and its historical flight from New York to Paris in 1927. The flight changed the limitations of air travel, and cemented Lindbergh’s place in aviation and American history.

Stewart, who was already too old to really play the part, actively pursued the role for the film, and was even turned down by the studio at one time. The film demonstrated an actor’s ability to carry parts of a movie completely alone (before Hanks started talking to a ball on a beach), and saw Stewart become Lindbergh.

Wilder handles the use of flashbacks like a master, and keeps them from becoming too much for the audience to handle. He also keeps the film’s pace moving nicely so you never get a chance to become bored with Stewart’s “one man” performance for parts of the film. The movie even manages a few moments of tension thanks to the risky take-off for the Trans-Atlantic flight.

Stewart checks his distance

Here again, Warner Bros. drops the ball when it comes to the film’s special features. The DVD comes with a nicely remastered soundtrack now in Dolby Digital 5.1 and a new digital transfer from the restored picture elements, but lacks any real special features that demonstrate the importance of the film. Features on the disc include The Spirit of St. Louis Premiere – a nice look at the classic days of Hollywood; a vintage comedy short by Joe McDoakes called “So Your Wife Wants to Work” – which again is a little politically incorrect by today’s standards; and the classic cartoon “Tabasco Road.” The DVD also includes the film’s theatrical trailer.

The FBI Story is a detailed history of the bureau from its origins to the late 1950’s (roughly 35 years). The film has Stewart as Agent Chip Hardesty – one of J. Edgar Hoover’s best agents – who is sharing his history with the agency during a lecture. The film also stars Vera Miles, and Murray Hamilton. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy, and was based on the best selling novel by Don Whitehead.

In the film, Stewart plays the always believing and always right agent who builds an impressive career while detailing some of the agency’s most distinguished arrests. During the film, Hardesty is involved in tangles with the Ku Klux Klan; mobsters such as Baby Face Nelson and Ma Barker and John Dillinger; spies on Nazis during War World II; and makes smaller busts – such as a bomber who commits mass murder for the insurance money.

As Stewart devotes his life and time to the FBI, he is forced to find a way to balance a life at home with his wife and children. This comes in conflict with his goals as an agent more than once, and he even talks about quitting several times. Miles plays the perfect supporting wife, and through her we are able to see the sacrifice that Hardesty’s family endures for his job.

On the hunt for Nazis in The FBI Story

While the film is entertaining, it also gets very long at times. The film could also be used as a promotional reel for the bureau since they are never once seen in a negative way. Of course, you have to look at the time period that the film was made, and it is easy to understand why it has such support for the FBI.

Overall, I enjoyed The FBI Story, but it is far from my favorite Stewart film. The movie sees the actor once again playing the basic same kind of character that made him a star. He manages to balance some of his nice guy charm with some of the grit we see in his westerns, but the film’s pace may lose some viewer’s interest before the end.

The DVD is bare bones on special features consisting of only the film’s theatrical trailer.

Finally we come to the worse insult to the Signature Collection set – The Cheyenne Social Club/Firecreek Western Double Feature DVD single disc. Make no mistake, I am not calling the films an insult to the set, but the way they are presented.

While both movies may not be Stewart’s greatest film roles (although I enjoyed both thanks to the team-up with Henry Fonda), the fact that they are included in a flip-disc double feature is simply wrong. This is the kind of double feature DVD package you find on the bargain bins at certain retail stores, and it would have been nice for Warner Bros. to package the two films separately if the studio really wanted to include them in the collection. With that said, both movies are great, and well worth taking the time to watch.

A gunfight is a bad time to run out of bullets

Firecreek, which was directed by Vincent McEveety, finds Stewart and Fonda on opposite sides of the law in a small town during the old west. The movie is basically a “High Noon” type of western with Stewart playing the town’s sheriff and a farmer who simply wants to get home to his wife – who is about to have a baby. Fonda plays a hired gunfighter who rides into the sleepy town with his gang and proceeds to push Stewart into a fight.

The movie is pretty standard from start to finish, and sees both actors playing characters that they had defined early in their careers. Fonda’s character has shades of his role in films such as The Tin Star, and Stewart has shades of characters from films such as Shenandoah and The Far Country (another favorite Mann/Stewart team-up).

The movie’s pace works well to keep the pressure building, but it suffers from a very predictable plot. We all know the fight is coming, and that takes some of the tension out of what Stewart is going through on screen. Fonda’s performance makes the movie worth watching.

Cheyenne Social Club is simply an entertaining, funny western with an aging Fonda and Stewart. The film was directed by fellow screen icon Gene Kelly, and written by James Lee Barrett. Along with Fonda and Stewart, the film starred a young Shirley Jones.

 The film’s plot saw the two stars teaming up to tell the story of two cowboys, John and Harley, who drift to up to Cheyenne after John (Stewart) receives word that his brother DJ has died and left his business to him. Stewart doesn’t know what the business is, but he instantly decides it has to be more respectable than punching cattle, and picks up to leave without saying a word. Harley (Fonda) sets out right behind his friend of ten years and proceeds to talk the entire trip from Texas to Wyoming (in what has got to be one of the funniest opening credits I have seen).

Once the two cowboys arrive, Stewart is shocked to find that the business his brother left him was a first class brothel called the Cheyenne Social Club. DJ was kind of a local celebrity of the town, and the city welcomes Stewart in – as do the ladies that work at the club. Everything changes when Stewart announces he plans to close the club and turn it into a hotel. Stewart’s plans change again when he discovers that he only owns the house as long as the girls stay, and after he kills a man that beat Jones.

This leads to a family feud between Stewart and the kin of the man he killed. Fonda is drawn into the middle of it since he doesn’t want to leave his friend – even if he doesn’t mind suggesting they should just head back to Texas.

The movie is filled with great dialogue between the two actors, a funny plot, and a pretty decent gunfight at the end. Stewart is starting to show his age with the movie, but still works in the role of just an average cowboy.

Harley has been talking since Texas!

The Double Feature DVD special features include the first time both films have been presented in the Widescreen format, and a vintage featurette for The Cheyenne Social Club. The DVD also includes both films’ theatrical trailers.

Again, the James Stewart Signature Collection DVD set is worth buying if you are a fan of the actor. If you only like one or two of the movies, I would suggest buying them separately since the set doesn’t have enough incentive to go ahead and purchase the other films. I enjoyed all the movies included, but wish there could have been more special features on a couple of the truly big Stewart films. I was also very disappointed in the “double feature” DVD for the last two films of the set. While there is nothing wrong with a flip disc (and I didn’t have any trouble with it), a double feature flip disc just doesn’t seem to belong in a Signature Collection.

James Stewart – The Signature Collection is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.