Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Only "Virginia City" has an A-film feel about it with Michael Curtiz directing and notable Warner costars. The other three are B Westerns in my opinion, but Flynn's presence always made any film much better. His performances in all of these films are very good, he just doesn't always have the best material with which to work, and in some cases he is working with some very bizarre casting. The extra features bring this package up to four stars in my opinion, but I don't understand why WHV just didn't go ahead and add "Silver River" to the set and make it the usual five film classic box set. Someone else has already done an excellent job of summarizing each film. So I'll just mention the extra features for the set, the director in each case, and my personal rating of each film on a five star scale:
Montana (1950) directed by Ray Enright. (3/5)
The weakest of the four films in the set.
Extra Features:
Vintage Newsreel
Warner Night at the Movies 1950 Short Subjects Gallery
Joe McDoakes Comedy Short: So You Want a Raise
Classic Cartoon: It's Hummer Time
Trailers of Montana and 1950's Chain Lightning
Bonus Gallery of Santa Fe Trail Series Western Shorts: Oklahoma Outlaws, Wagon Wheels West and Gun to Gun
Rocky Mountain (1950) directed by William Keighley (3.5/5)
Begins well, ends well, but the middle does sag a bit, which is unusual for a Flynn film of any genre.
Extra Features:
Commentary by biographer Thomas McNulty [McNulty looks at Flynn's career, his unique qualities as a Western hero and his romance with costar Patrice Wymore.]
Warner Night at the Movies 1950 Short Subjects Gallery
Vintage Newsreel
Trailers of Rocky Mountain and The Breaking Point
Bonus Gallery of Santa Fe Trail Series Western Shorts: Roaring Guns, Wells Fargo Days and Trial by Trigger
Classic Cartoon: Two's a Crowd
Joe McDoakes Comedy Short So You Want to Move
San Antonio (1945) directed by David Butler (3.5/5)
Extra Features:
Warner Night at the Movies 1945 Short Subjects Gallery:
Vintage Newsreel
Oscar-Nominated Vitaphone Varieties Short Story of a Dog
Vintage Shorts: Frontier Days and Peeks at Hollywood
Classic Cartoons: A Tale of Two Mice and Wagon Heels
Trailers of San Antonio and The Corn Is Green
Virginia City (1940) directed by Michael Curtiz. (4/5)
How weird to see Humphrey Bogart playing his role of the bandit with some of the oddest diction ever. Not nearly as good as Dodge City but still good.
Extra Features:
Commentary by historian Frank Thompson [Thompson discusses this all-star collaboration with Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Randolph Scott and Miriam Hopkins, and the challenges faced by director Michael Curtiz throughout production.]
Warner Night at the Movies 1940 Short Subjects Gallery
Vintage Newsreel
Technicolor Shorts: Cinderella's Feller and The Flag of Humanity
1936 WB Short: The Light Brigade Rides Again
Classic Cartoons: Cross Country Detours and Confederate Honey
Trailers of Virginia City and A Dispatch from Reuters
Recommended for the Errol Flynn completist. If you haven't got them already, get the excellent two volumes of Errol Flynn's Signature Collection. They are a very good introduction to Flynn's work - especially volume one - and should give you a better idea if you would like this set.
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ERROL FLYNN WESTERNS COLLECTION - DVD Movie
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