The Great Disappointment Collection
After waiting so long to see some of these great films in widescreen DVD, it is a major disappointment to see the quality of the transfers in this collection. As another reviewer has noted, Naked Spur is not good and Cheyenne Social Club looks like the entire film was transferred out of focus. Low bit rate to make two features fit on the (two sided) DVD? Who knows. Hard to believe the source material is marred in this way. I bought the collection; Cheyenne and Firecreek are available on their own as a two-disc set that may or may not be better. I've seen Warner features 30 years older that look much better. Shame on you Time Warner.
Terrific set - but beware
First off, what is with the "reviewers" at amazon. I'm sorry, but this is a DVD section and what do we find? Two "reviews" of films but not the actual DVD set, which neither of these two current "reviewers" have seen. What IS the point?
The set, for me, contains two great films - Anthony Mann's The Naked Spur, and Billy Wilder's The Spirit Of St. Louis. The latter is one of Mr. Wilder's most underappreciated films and I simply don't know why. It's grandly entertaining, has great Wilder dialogue (watch the scene with the young girl who gives him her compact with the mirror), wonderful direction, and Mr. Stewart is terrific. The transfer on Spirit (isn't that what people want to know about???) is excellent - very sharp, the color is accurate most of the time and the sound is great. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of The Naked Spur's transfer. It's not the worst I've seen, but it's close. The colors are okay, but it's clearly out of registration, which makes...
Not Jimmy's Best, but Enjoyable Collection...
No Hollywood star ever 'reinvented' himself as successfully as Jimmy Stewart, from the idealistic, 'Aw, Shucks' boy-next-door of the Golden Age, to the intense, driven loner of the Mann and Hitchcock films of the 50s, to everybody's favorite 'father figure' of the 60s and 70s...this collection, while certainly not his best films of the 1940s-1960s, offers one bonafide 'classic' ("The Naked Spur"), and five other titles definitely worth owning!
"The Stratton Story" (1949) - 6'4" Stewart and 5'1" June Allyson are so 'natural' together in their three films (they also made "The Glenn Miller Story" and "Strategic Air Command"), that you might honestly think they were married in real life! Based on a true story, of baseball pitcher Monty Stratton, who miraculously returned to the game after losing his leg in a hunting accident, it's the chemistry between the stars that makes this film work so well. Stewart has the will to make a comeback, but Allyson provides the 'heart' to make...
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