Home Entertainment
March 5, 2007
"John Wayne's 100th Birthday Collection" From Warner Home Video
(March 05, 2007 - Burbank, CA) – Warner Home Video (WHV) and Paramount Home Entertainment (PHE) will join forces on an unprecedented initiative to honor the great John Wayne on May 22 -- the week that would have been ‘The Duke’s’ 100th birthday. The studios will pool their DVD sales and marketing resources, digging into their vast libraries for a total of 48 Wayne popular classics. The lead titles in the promotion are "Rio Bravo" in both a Two-Disc Special Edition and Ultimate Collectors Edition, "The Cowboys" as a Deluxe Edition and "True Grit" as a Special Collector’s Edition.
WHV also will debut the "John Wayne Film Collection," a six-disc set (also available individually) featuring six films never before on DVD: "Allegheny Uprising," "Reunion in France," "Tycoon," "Without Reservations," "Trouble Along the Way" and "Big Jim McLain." A total of 34 Wayne films are now available from WHV.
PHE has a total of 14 Wayne titles on DVD, highlighted by an all-new Special Collector’s Edition of "True Grit" along with three DVD collections: the "John Wayne Century Collection" which features 14 films including "The High and the Mighty Special Collector’s Edition," "Island in the Sky Special Collector’s Edition," "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," "The Shootist" and "Big Jake," the "John Wayne Western Collection" which features nine films including "Hondo Special Collector’s Edition," "McLintock! Special Collector’s Edition," "El Dorado" and "Rio Lobo" and the "John Wayne Adventure Collection" which features five films including "The High and the Mighty Special Collector’s Edition," "Island in the Sky Special Collector’s Edition" and "In Harm’s Way."
PHE orders are due April 10; WHV’s order due date is April 17. Please see end of release for complete pricing and list of titles from both studios.
To further heighten visibility, TCM (Turner Classic Movies) will feature the actor in the month of May, inspiring current and new fans by broadcasting the indelible images Wayne created on film.
Said George Feltenstein, WHV's Senior Vice President Theatrical Catalog Marketing, “This unprecedented teaming of Warner Home Video and Paramount is a true testament to the power of Wayne's enduring appeal. By joining forces we’re able to bring greater importance and attention to the 100th birthday, which benefits both retailers and consumers alike.”
“John Wayne continues to be an American icon and we’re very pleased to be teaming with Warner Home Video to celebrate his film legacy in a way that is befitting of ‘The Duke’,” said Michael Arkin, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Paramount Home Entertainment.
The Man
The man who became the embodiment of the great American western hero was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa. John Wayne first worked in the film business as a laborer on the Fox lot during summer vacations from U.S.C., which he attended on a football scholarship. He met and was befriended by John Ford, a young director who was beginning to make a name for himself in action films, comedies and dramas. It was Ford who recommended Wayne to director Raoul Walsh for the male lead in the 1930 epic Western "The Big Trail," and, although it was a box office failure, the movie showed Wayne's potential.
For the next nine years, Wayne worked in a multitude of B-Westerns and serials in between bit parts in larger features. Wayne’s big break came in 1939, when Ford cast him as the Ringo Kid in the adventure "Stagecoach." Wayne nearly stole the picture from his more seasoned co-stars, and his career as a box-office superstar began. During his 50 year film career, Wayne played the lead in 142 movies, an as yet unsurpassed record, and was nominated for three Academy Awards®, winning the Best Actor award in 1970 for his performance in "True Grit."
The Films
"True Grit: Special Collector’s Edition" (PHE)
This classic cinematic masterpiece features Wayne in a larger-than-life performance as the drunken, uncouth and totally fearless one-eyed U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn. The role won him his only Academy Award® for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the age of 63 after 40 years of making films, and Wayne himself said that it was “my first chance to play a character role instead of John Wayne.” Called “one of the most delightful, joyous and scary movies of all time” (Roger Ebert), "True Grit" is a glorious adventure and American odyssey lead by Wayne, whose screen presence fully embodies his status as a star and legend. Directed by prolific filmmaker Henry Hathaway, the film also features enchanting performances by Kim Darby, Glen Campbell, Robert Duvall and Strother Martin.
Bonus features:
• Commentary by Jeb Rosebrook, Bob Boze Bell and J. Stuart Rosebrook
• "True Writing"
• "Working with the Duke"
• "Aspen Gold: Locations of True Grit"
• "The Law and the Lawless"
• Theatrical trailer "Rio Bravo: Special Edition and Ultimate Collectors Edition" (WHV) Director Howard Hawks lifted the Western to new heights with Red River. He does it here again, capturing the legendary West with a stellar cast in peak form. Wayne is Sheriff John T. Chance, a small-town lawman enlisting the help of a ragtag team to hold a murderer in jail until the state marshal can arrive. On one side is an army of gunmen dead-set on springing the murderous cohort from jail. On the other are Chance and his two deputies: one a recovering drunkard (Dean Martin), the other a crippled codger (Walter Brennan). Also in their ranks are an unseasoned, trigger-happy youth (Ricky Nelson) and a woman with a past (Angie Dickinson) – and her eye on Chance. "Rio Bravo" will feature a new digital transfer from restored picture and audio elements. DVD Special Features: Disc One • Remastered feature film
• Commentary by John Carpenter and Richard Schickel (Renowned director Carpenter and film critic Schickel explore how this legendary Western was an extension of Hawks’ own personality and why it’s considered such an influential classic today)
• Wayne trailer gallery Disc Two • "The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks" (1973 documentary) • Two All New Featurettes: • "Commemoration: Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo"
• "Old Tucson: Where the Legends Walked" "Ultimate Collector’s Edition" includes everything in the "Rio Bravo Special Edition" plus the following collectible memorabilia: • Press book
• Dell comic book
• Lobby cards "The Cowboys: Deluxe Edition" (WHV) This deluxe edition has been newly restored and remastered, and features a new cast/director featurette. "The Cowboys" gave Wayne one of his juiciest roles as a leather-tough rancher who, deserted by his regular help, hires 11 greenhorn schoolboys for a cattle drive across 400 treacherous miles. When the dust settled, Wayne had given one of his best performances. “In The Cowboys,” Rex Reed wrote, “all the forces that have made him a dominant personality as well as a major screen presence seem to combine. Old Dusty Britches can act.” Co-starring the equally memorable Roscoe Lee Browne, Colleen Dewhurst and Bruce Dern, "The Cowboys" was directed by Mark Rydell ("On Golden Pond"). DVD Special Features: • Commentary by Mark Rydell (Director Rydell discusses how he helped his young, inexperienced cast work with screen legend Wayne)
• "The Cowboys: Together Again"
• "The Breaking of Boys and the Making of Men"
• Theatrical Trailer "Allegheny Uprising" (WHV) Only months after his "Stagecoach" breakthrough, John Wayne brings his one-of-a-kind line readings and presence to the real-life role of colonial man of action James Smith. The place is Pennsylvania a decade before the American Revolution. Joined by like-minded frontiersmen, Smith intercepts trade shipments, besieges forts and risks the certain-death charge of treason against the king. Another "Stagecoach" alumna joins the Duke: Claire Trevor, playing a fiery barmaid eager to join the scrap against the redcoats. Special Features: • "The Bill of Rights" [1939 WB short]
• "Land of the Midnight Fun" [1939 WB cartoon] "Big Jim McLain" (WHV) All 6’4” of John Wayne plays the title role, a federal agent ferreting out subversives in Hawaii. Rallying to the cause are co-stars Nancy Olsen and Veda Ann Borg. And 6’7” James Arness (whom Wayne would later recommend to star on TV’s “Gunsmoke”) is McLain’s war-hero partner, Baxter. The documentary-style story moves swiftly, with good-natured humor peppered throughout. Pre-statehood Hawaii locales range from elite resorts to a Shinto temple and from the sunken remains of the battleship Arizona to a Molokai leper colony. Special Features: • "So You Want to Enjoy Life" [1952 WB short]
• "The Super Snooper" [1952 WB cartoon]
• Theatrical Trailer "Reunion in France" (WHV) John Wayne is in straight-up heroic mode as a fugitive RAF pilot on the run from the Gestapo, and Joan Crawford (in haute couture despite the war) is Michele, the spoiled, high-society Parisian who discovers her own patriotism as she helps the airman escape his Nazi pursuers. This glossy, briskly paced thriller also stars Philip Dorn as Michele’s fiancé, an industrialist she suspects of collaborating with the Germans. Special Features: • "We Do It Because" [1942 MGM short]
• "War Dogs" [1943 MGM cartoon]
• Theatrical Trailer "Trouble Along The Way" (WHV) This sports comedy-drama is directed by Michael Curtiz ("Casablanca"). John Wayne tackles the role of Steve Williams, a former top football coach who has been banned from the major conferences for his inability to conform and is making ends meet as a bookie. When he receives a call from likable Father Burke (Charles Coburn) with an offer to establish a football program – fast- in a last-ditch effort to save his tiny St. Anthony’s College from bankruptcy, Williams sees it as a way to prove to a Children’s Court officer (Donna Reed) that he’s a fit parent as he fights for custody of his 12 year old tomboy daughter. Of course, there’s bound to be "Trouble Along the Way." Special Features: • "So You Think You Can’t Sleep" [1953 WB short]
• "Muscle Tussle" [1953 WB cartoon]
• Theatrical trailer "Tycoon" (WHV) A tumultuous love story (with co-star Laraine Day), a dynamite supporting cast, horizon-spanning location filming and brilliant Technicolor make "Tycoon" exciting entertainment. But the biggest thrill is watching Wayne as a bold, bare-knuckled railroad honcho high above an Andean gorge in a breathless grand finale that involves a half-built bridge, an onrushing wall of water, and a locomotive with the Duke at the controls. Special Features: • "Hollywood Wonderland" [1947 WB short]
• "Red Hot Rangers" [1947 MGM cartoon "Without Reservations" (WHV) Claudette Colbert and Wayne are a double delight in this playful, romantic comedy. Colbert plays Kit Madden, a novelist who’s heading to Hollywood to turn her bestseller about a handsome pilot into a film. On the train she meets real-life marine pilot (John Wayne), and thinks he’s the perfect man to portray her screen hero…except he thinks the whole thing is “a lot of hooey.” Their comedic rapport becomes more captivating with one misadventure after another as they make their way cross-country. Adding to the fun are surprise walk-ons from stars like Jack Benny, Cary Grant, Louella Parsons playing herself, and director Warner LeRoy. Special Features: • "I Love My Husband, But!" [1946 MGM short]
• "Holiday for Shoestrings" [1946 WB cartoon] With operations in 90 international territories, Warner Home Video, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace. Warner Home Video's film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment. Paramount Home Entertainment (PHE) is part of Paramount Pictures Corporation, a unit of Viacom (NYSE:VIA, VIA.B), a global entertainment company that produces and distributes filmed entertainment through the Paramount Motion Picture Group. PHE is responsible for the worldwide sales, marketing and distribution of home entertainment products on behalf of various parties including: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, CBS, PBS and Hasbro and for providing home entertainment fulfillment services for DreamWorks Animation Home Entertainment.# # #
• "True Writing"
• "Working with the Duke"
• "Aspen Gold: Locations of True Grit"
• "The Law and the Lawless"
• Theatrical trailer "Rio Bravo: Special Edition and Ultimate Collectors Edition" (WHV) Director Howard Hawks lifted the Western to new heights with Red River. He does it here again, capturing the legendary West with a stellar cast in peak form. Wayne is Sheriff John T. Chance, a small-town lawman enlisting the help of a ragtag team to hold a murderer in jail until the state marshal can arrive. On one side is an army of gunmen dead-set on springing the murderous cohort from jail. On the other are Chance and his two deputies: one a recovering drunkard (Dean Martin), the other a crippled codger (Walter Brennan). Also in their ranks are an unseasoned, trigger-happy youth (Ricky Nelson) and a woman with a past (Angie Dickinson) – and her eye on Chance. "Rio Bravo" will feature a new digital transfer from restored picture and audio elements. DVD Special Features: Disc One • Remastered feature film
• Commentary by John Carpenter and Richard Schickel (Renowned director Carpenter and film critic Schickel explore how this legendary Western was an extension of Hawks’ own personality and why it’s considered such an influential classic today)
• Wayne trailer gallery Disc Two • "The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks" (1973 documentary) • Two All New Featurettes: • "Commemoration: Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo"
• "Old Tucson: Where the Legends Walked" "Ultimate Collector’s Edition" includes everything in the "Rio Bravo Special Edition" plus the following collectible memorabilia: • Press book
• Dell comic book
• Lobby cards "The Cowboys: Deluxe Edition" (WHV) This deluxe edition has been newly restored and remastered, and features a new cast/director featurette. "The Cowboys" gave Wayne one of his juiciest roles as a leather-tough rancher who, deserted by his regular help, hires 11 greenhorn schoolboys for a cattle drive across 400 treacherous miles. When the dust settled, Wayne had given one of his best performances. “In The Cowboys,” Rex Reed wrote, “all the forces that have made him a dominant personality as well as a major screen presence seem to combine. Old Dusty Britches can act.” Co-starring the equally memorable Roscoe Lee Browne, Colleen Dewhurst and Bruce Dern, "The Cowboys" was directed by Mark Rydell ("On Golden Pond"). DVD Special Features: • Commentary by Mark Rydell (Director Rydell discusses how he helped his young, inexperienced cast work with screen legend Wayne)
• "The Cowboys: Together Again"
• "The Breaking of Boys and the Making of Men"
• Theatrical Trailer "Allegheny Uprising" (WHV) Only months after his "Stagecoach" breakthrough, John Wayne brings his one-of-a-kind line readings and presence to the real-life role of colonial man of action James Smith. The place is Pennsylvania a decade before the American Revolution. Joined by like-minded frontiersmen, Smith intercepts trade shipments, besieges forts and risks the certain-death charge of treason against the king. Another "Stagecoach" alumna joins the Duke: Claire Trevor, playing a fiery barmaid eager to join the scrap against the redcoats. Special Features: • "The Bill of Rights" [1939 WB short]
• "Land of the Midnight Fun" [1939 WB cartoon] "Big Jim McLain" (WHV) All 6’4” of John Wayne plays the title role, a federal agent ferreting out subversives in Hawaii. Rallying to the cause are co-stars Nancy Olsen and Veda Ann Borg. And 6’7” James Arness (whom Wayne would later recommend to star on TV’s “Gunsmoke”) is McLain’s war-hero partner, Baxter. The documentary-style story moves swiftly, with good-natured humor peppered throughout. Pre-statehood Hawaii locales range from elite resorts to a Shinto temple and from the sunken remains of the battleship Arizona to a Molokai leper colony. Special Features: • "So You Want to Enjoy Life" [1952 WB short]
• "The Super Snooper" [1952 WB cartoon]
• Theatrical Trailer "Reunion in France" (WHV) John Wayne is in straight-up heroic mode as a fugitive RAF pilot on the run from the Gestapo, and Joan Crawford (in haute couture despite the war) is Michele, the spoiled, high-society Parisian who discovers her own patriotism as she helps the airman escape his Nazi pursuers. This glossy, briskly paced thriller also stars Philip Dorn as Michele’s fiancé, an industrialist she suspects of collaborating with the Germans. Special Features: • "We Do It Because" [1942 MGM short]
• "War Dogs" [1943 MGM cartoon]
• Theatrical Trailer "Trouble Along The Way" (WHV) This sports comedy-drama is directed by Michael Curtiz ("Casablanca"). John Wayne tackles the role of Steve Williams, a former top football coach who has been banned from the major conferences for his inability to conform and is making ends meet as a bookie. When he receives a call from likable Father Burke (Charles Coburn) with an offer to establish a football program – fast- in a last-ditch effort to save his tiny St. Anthony’s College from bankruptcy, Williams sees it as a way to prove to a Children’s Court officer (Donna Reed) that he’s a fit parent as he fights for custody of his 12 year old tomboy daughter. Of course, there’s bound to be "Trouble Along the Way." Special Features: • "So You Think You Can’t Sleep" [1953 WB short]
• "Muscle Tussle" [1953 WB cartoon]
• Theatrical trailer "Tycoon" (WHV) A tumultuous love story (with co-star Laraine Day), a dynamite supporting cast, horizon-spanning location filming and brilliant Technicolor make "Tycoon" exciting entertainment. But the biggest thrill is watching Wayne as a bold, bare-knuckled railroad honcho high above an Andean gorge in a breathless grand finale that involves a half-built bridge, an onrushing wall of water, and a locomotive with the Duke at the controls. Special Features: • "Hollywood Wonderland" [1947 WB short]
• "Red Hot Rangers" [1947 MGM cartoon "Without Reservations" (WHV) Claudette Colbert and Wayne are a double delight in this playful, romantic comedy. Colbert plays Kit Madden, a novelist who’s heading to Hollywood to turn her bestseller about a handsome pilot into a film. On the train she meets real-life marine pilot (John Wayne), and thinks he’s the perfect man to portray her screen hero…except he thinks the whole thing is “a lot of hooey.” Their comedic rapport becomes more captivating with one misadventure after another as they make their way cross-country. Adding to the fun are surprise walk-ons from stars like Jack Benny, Cary Grant, Louella Parsons playing herself, and director Warner LeRoy. Special Features: • "I Love My Husband, But!" [1946 MGM short]
• "Holiday for Shoestrings" [1946 WB cartoon] With operations in 90 international territories, Warner Home Video, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace. Warner Home Video's film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment. Paramount Home Entertainment (PHE) is part of Paramount Pictures Corporation, a unit of Viacom (NYSE:VIA, VIA.B), a global entertainment company that produces and distributes filmed entertainment through the Paramount Motion Picture Group. PHE is responsible for the worldwide sales, marketing and distribution of home entertainment products on behalf of various parties including: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, CBS, PBS and Hasbro and for providing home entertainment fulfillment services for DreamWorks Animation Home Entertainment.