Western Horizons: Universal Westerns of the 1950s

Turner Classic Movies and Universal Studios Home Entertainment proudly present Western Horizons: Universal Westerns of the 1950s, an unprecedented collection of five big-budget, Technicolor Westerns featuring many of the finest actors and directors the genre has ever known. Presented for the first time on DVD, these five films have been re-mastered to their original Technicolor glory. HORIZONS WEST (1952) Robert Ryan and Rock Hudson star as brothers on opposite sides of the law in post-Civil War Texas. Neil Hammond (Hudson) returns from the war to his life of ranching, while older brother Dan (Ryan) returns with ambitions as outsized as the Lone Star State. When Dan loses his business seed money to gambler Cord Hardin (Raymond Burr), he turns to rustling. But ill-gotten gains prove tenuous, and Dan's empire begins to crumble when brother Neil is named the new Marshall. Directed by Budd Boetticher, the film boasts a stellar supporting cast. SASKATCHEWAN (1954) AlanLadd and Jay Silverheels (television's Tonto) are blood brothers whose bonds are tested when marauding Sioux Indians cross the border to enlist the peaceful Cree in a battle against the Great White Father. Canadian Mountie Thomas O'Rourke (Ladd) and hismen must lead the sole survivor of a Sioux massacre, Shelley Winters, to safety across the border in Montana. Director Raoul Walsh and cinematographer John F. Seitz set the tense tale against a stunning widescreen, Technicolor vision of the Canadian Rockies. DAWN AT SOCORRO (1954) This spin on the oft-filmed Gunfight at the O.K. Corral stars Rory Calhoun as cardsharp Brett Wade, whose friendship with sibling peacekeepers Harry (James Millican) and Vince McNair (Scott Lee) puts him in the crosshairs of outlaw Tom Ferris (Stanley Andrews) and his three sonsincluding the fierce and vengeful Earl (Lee Van Cleef). Piper Laurie plays a saloon girl Wade aims to save along the way in this action-packed Technicolor adventure directed by George Sherman. BACKLASH (1956) Hard-bitten wanderer Jim Slater (Richard Widmark) rides the range seeking to avenge his father's death. Along the way he meets frontier widow Karyl Orton (Donna Reed), who is being hunted by gunslinger Johnny Cool (William Campbell). The unlikely duo endures various hardships as Slater comes to suspect his father died from something more sinister than an apparent Apache ambush. Director John Sturges (who would later helm Bad Day at Black Rock and The Magnificent Seven) lends this serpentine tale of revenge a heavy does of atmosphere. PILLARS OF THE SKY (1956) First Sergeant Emmett Bell (Jeff Chandler) faces off with Apache chieftain Kamiakin (Michael Ansara) in this nuanced portrayal of racial tensions between Native Americans and white settlers in 1860s Oregon Country. Bell must lead his men and civilian charges (including Dorothy Malone and Ward Bond) on a mad dash to federal sanctuary. Directed by George Marshall (Destry Rides Again, How the West Was Won), this tale of frontier survival is truly an action thriller set against widescreen western horizons.

DVD Details

>Rated: NR
>Runtime: 5 hours, 47 minutes
>Video: Color
>Encoding: Region 1(US & Canada)
>Originally Released: 1952, 1954, 1956
>Label: Turner Classic Movies

Starring: Robert Ryan, Julia Adams, Rock Hudson, John McIntire, Judith Braun, Raymond Burr, Alan Ladd, Shelley Winters, Robert Douglas, J. Carrol Naish, Hugh O'Brian, Richard Long, Rory Calhoun, Piper Laurie, David Brian, Kathleen Hughes, Alex Nicol, Edgar Buchanan, Mara Corday, Roy Roberts, Skip Homeier, Richard Widmark, Donna Reed, William Campbell, Barton McLane, Edward C. Platt, Harry Morgan, Jeff Chandler, Dorothy Malone, Ward Bond, Keith Andes, Lee Marvin, Sydney Chaplin, Floyd Simmons, Michael Ansara