Tweet B WESTERN RELEASES FROM WAC, 01/15/13

These vintage B westerns are most welcome.

George O'Brien's tenure at RKO did not produce his best work, but again, this release is most welcome.

The most interesting is The Marshal of Mesa City, which is actually a remake of an earlier Wyatt Earp adaptation.

I would be more interested in seeing the Zane Grey adaptations he made at Fox between 1930 and 1933. The Last of the Daunes and its sequel The Lone Star Rider (1930), The Golden West, The Rainbow Trail, Robbers' Roost (all 1932), Smoke Lightning (1933), Frontier Marshal (1934) and especially Riders of the Purple Sage (1931) were important, innovative, and well-crafted westerns, perhaps the most influential westerns of the decade up until Ford's Stagecoach (1939). Fox spent money on them, and they are stories well-told. That these films have vanished from the marketplace is tragedy. But that's Fox, not Warner Brothers. What are the chances, I wonder.

If you want to see an absolutely GORGEOUS transfer of a 35mm B-western, check out Olive Films new DVD releases of Republic westerns such as OVERLAND STAGE RAIDERS (1938) with the Three Mesquiteers and Louise Brooks.

As a former collector of 35mm films, Olive Films 35mm transfers look far superior to those old prints I used to have.

Now that digital projection is perfected, I don't miss films at all. (IMHO)