6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
As a youngster John Wyatt saw his parents killed and his brother kidnapped. On a wagon train heading West he meets his brother who is now a spy for the gang which originally did the dirty work. He and his brother both fall for Mary Gordon.
Starring: John Wayne, Sheila Bromley, Frank McGlynn, Jr., Glenn StrangeWestern | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
History | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
When perusing the years perhaps overly optimistically called Hollywood’s Golden Era, film historians and film lovers alike tend to focus on the major studios, those glamour factories that churned out an incredibly high level of product that often blended art with commerce in unexpectedly excellent ways. Looking at the histories of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures or Warner Brothers from the 1930s through the 1940s is like seeing the entire gamut of Hollywood’s proclivities in microcosm. Stars were made (and destroyed), new kids on the block became respected directors and writers, thousands of largely unrecognized technicians plied their crafts in relative anonymity but with unerring genius, while over it all intense autocrats like Louis B. Mayer, Adolph Zukor, Darryl F. Zanuck or Jack Warner lorded the power like a feudal king surveying his fiefdom. But there’s just as much, if not more, to be learned by investigating the so called minor studios, many of which were frequently gathered under the rubric “Poverty Row”. One of the most interesting of the minor studios, Republic Studios, was in fact created out of a coalition of other “Poverty Row” outfits in what was proposed by entrepreneur Herbert J. Yates as an innovative way to pool resources, production facilities and signed talent to create more viable product. Yates’ initial intention was to let the former independent studios now under his command operate as more or less standalone entities, but Yates soon fell victim to “warlord syndrome”, alienating the former executives who had been in charge of their own little fiefdoms before joining forces as Republic Pictures. Republic had a rather long history, at least as far as minor studios go, lasting for well over two decades and pumping out an amazing amount of films, many of which are now being released on Blu-ray by Olive Films. Among these are a lot of relatively early John Wayne entries. Though one of Republic’s acquisitions had already previously signed Gene Autry, Wayne came aboard courtesy of Monogram Pictures and was, with Autry, one of Republic’s semi-established names. According to the liner notes on the Blu-ray release of Westward Ho, this was the first ever film to be released by Republic Pictures and therefore began a long relationship between Wayne and the fledgling studio, one that would continue in one form or another for many more years, even after Wayne had made his name with the majors.
Westward Ho is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. The elements here have their fair share of minor damage, with occasional blemishes and a few negligible scratches along the way, but overall things look quite good, especially considering the age of the film. The biggest problem here is somewhat variable contrast, though the vast bulk of the film boasts extremely strong and consistent contrast. Some scenes, however, are slightly milky and washed out looking. The image is suitably crisp and decently well detailed, though as with most product churned out during this era on the cheap, there are few close-ups that could offer abundant fine object detail.
Westward Ho's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track does what it can with its source elements, but there's not much depth or nuance that can be squeezed out of these stems. There's a fair bit of distortion in the midrange here, with the high end also coming in for some lack of clarity from time to time (try as I might, I could not understand one word that child actor Dickie Jones said in the opening sequence of the film). Despite these issues, the majority of the film isn't overly problematic given reasonable expectations. The singing elements suffer from some typical boxiness, but dialogue sounds decent if not fantastic.
No supplements are included on this Blu-ray disc.
Westward Ho manages to escape its "programmer" roots rather handily, and while some elements are simply ludicrous (including a singing John Wayne), the film is really rather artful, especially when one considers its less than fulsome budget and quick shoot. The film features some nice supporting turns (that's future Frankenstein's Monster Glenn Strange as the blacksmith whom Wyatt recruits to the Vigilantes early in the film) and it has a surprisingly scenic ambience with some really lush looking location photography. This Blu-ray offers generally excellent video but sometimes problematic audio. Recommended.
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