The Proud Rebel Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

The Proud Rebel Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 16, 2025

Take a look at the key art for The Proud Rebel included above this review. Remind you of anything, specifically maybe another pretty legendary film starring Alan Ladd? The art's emphasis on a man and young boy will probably immediately bring Shane to mind, though kind of saliently in this case the little boy in the art is Alan Ladd's actual son, David, making his film debut in this sweet feature which offers the Ladds as father and son. The film is admittedly on the saccharine side at times as it details the travails of a former Confederate solider named John Chandler (Alan Ladd), whose young son David (David Ladd) has gone completely mute after witnessing the horrifying death of his mother at the hands of Union soldiers. John is on the hunt for a "cure", something that brings him north and west to Illinois, where he's almost immediately caught up in that venerable plot trope of Westerns, a villainous type, Harry Burleigh (Dean Jagger), attempting to engineer a land grab from a feisty widow, Linnett Moore (Olivia de Havilland, once again "deglammed"). Hmmm. . .troubled vet widower with equally troubled little boy meets and helps a no nonsense widow — you can probably guess the rest. The film has another hugely enjoyable supporting cast in a western from this general era, including stalwarts Cecil Kellaway, John Carradine, and a very young Harry Dean Stanton (still credited as Dean Stanton).

The Proud Rebel had a previous release on Blu-ray just last year courtesy of Reel Vault (evidently on BD-Rs). Svet Atanasov's The Proud Rebel Blu-ray review provides more plot information and an opportunity for those interested to compare screenshots between the versions. That release offered a different commentary than the one on this release, for those stacking up comparisons between supplements on the two discs.

The Proud Rebel Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Proud Rebel is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ClassicFlix with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Some prefatory text before the main feature offers the following technical information:

ClassicFlix spent over 300 man-hours to restore Michael Curtiz' poignant Technicolor western, which was sourced from a 4K scan of an IB Tech print preserved at the Library of Congress.

While the source material has some missing frames, as well as some severe damage and persistent scratches which could only be mitigated in restoration, the special dye transfer process used to produce the IB Tech print for The Proud Rebel has strongly preserved the film's original deep and rich color which moviegoers saw during its theatrical release in 1958.

Svet wasn't especially excited about Reel Vault's release, and while I haven't seen that version, I can't help but feel this ClassicFlix edition tops it easily, which is not to say that this version doesn't have some issues, some of which are alluded to in ClassicFlix's own verbiage, above. The biggest difference many will probably note in a cursory comparison of screenshots is how much darker the ClassicFlix version is, something that helps to accentuate a probably better accounting of the Technicolor values, but which also can point up some very thick and gritty grain. Color temperatures can vary somewhat, especially during some of the frequent opticals like dissolves, but on the whole things look quite nice, especially in some of the brightly lit outdoor material. The location photography in my birth state of Utah is quite evocative a lot of the time (I might jokingly suggest that commentator Alan K. Rode learn how to pronounce "Kanab" in a traditionally Utahn manner). The restoration comparison shows how shoddy the condition of the source element was at times, and this is another heroic effort on the part of ClassicFlix that may not have been able to completely ameliorate age related wear and tear, but which has made a big step in the right direction. (A brief side note: while the Reel Vault presentation was in 1.85:1, it sure looks to me like the frame was actually zoomed a bit for that transfer.) I'm scoring this at 4.0 at least in part due to that effort if not completely consistent results, and some may feel a 3.5 is more appropriate.

The Proud Rebel Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Proud Rebel features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono audio. Svet was pretty enthused about the LPCM 2.0 Mono track on the Reel Vault release, but I'm perhaps more of a curmudgeon. The track is decently balanced and provides a showcase for another memorable Jerome Moross score (also presented in lossy audio on an isolated track), but it can't quite escape some of the boxiness either of its recording technology or the curation of the master element. Otherwise, though, the track offers good support for effects and dialogue as well as music. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Proud Rebel Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Alan K. Rode


• Alan K. Rode interviews David Ladd (HD; 24:23) is a really fun and interesting sit down, with Ladd detailing biographical tidbits in addition to background on the film.


• Isolated Music Track is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and listed as "mostly intact" on the back cover. This is another great Jerome Moross score, perhaps not quite at the level of his more famous 1958 western, The Big Country.


• Restoration Comparison (HD; 4:15)


• Original Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:57)

Trailers for several other releases from ClassicFlix are included, and the keepcase insert features an inner print of a photograph with the three principal stars.

The Proud Rebel Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're averse to having your heart strings tugged on pretty vigorously, this is probably not the film for you. Little David Ladd is quite engaging as the mute youngster, and the elder Ladd and de Havilland make for an extremely appealing focal pair. Technical merits are generally solid, and better than the Reel Vault release, and the supplements very engaging. Recommended.