The Great American Western, Vol. 18

"This is an entertaining package of four Western movies, ranging across 30 years of film production, starting with the United Artists release of William McGann's American Empire (1942), in a somewhat soft, rough 16 mm print with scratches and other flaws, including a somewhat noisy soundtrack. The other three movies are all made-for-television productions from the early to mid-'70s, two of them recut episodes of the modern Western series Cade's County, starring Glenn Ford, and one the made-for-television feature The Hanged Man (1974), starring Steve Forrest. The Marshal of Madrid (1972) looks okay, with fair color and decent focus and detail, and surprisingly few flaws or blemishes, though obviously a proper transfer off of a negative source would yield far greater resolution; Sam Cade (1972), by contrast, is filled with horizontal scratches and suffers from missing frames. The Hanged Man, directed by Michael Caffey, is mastered from a very bright print that also has a fair degree of resolution -- there are some small blemishes and scratches, but overall this presentation looks at least as good as this reviewer remembers the movie from its original prime-time ABC run. The cinematographer, Keith C. Smith, apparently tried for a deliberately archaic look reminiscent of the photographs of the period, which translates well in this mastering. Each movie has been given ten chapters, which are listed on an opening menu for each movie, which must be accessed separately and is a little awkward to use until one gets accustomed to it. In keeping with the pre-1953 or television origins of all four titles, each is presented in a full-screen (1.33:1) aspect ratio."