John Wayne’s Batjac Productions: The Suspense Collection Box Set (Man In The Vault, Plunder Of The Sun, Ring Of Fear, Track Of The Cat)

 

Picture:     Sound: C+     Extras:     Films: B- each

 

Plunder Of The Sun (1953)   C+/C+

Ring Of Fear (1954)             C+/D

Track Of The Cat (1954)       B-/C+

Man In The Vault (1956)      B-/D

 

 

After years in B-movies and holding his own at Republic Pictures as their top star while maintaining creative control over the works baring his name that he usually starred in, John Wayne was still on top as the studio folded and its lots became a massive television production location.  Wayne stayed in business for himself and teamed up with Warner Bros. to produce several major films, followed by some time at R.K.O. before that studio folded.  His deal was so good that his estate and not the studios retained the rights to the films.  This may not have included The Searchers, but it included some other big projects, as well as some he did no even star in.  John Wayne’s Batjac Productions: The Suspense Collection Box collects four of those interesting films that have been out of circulation for a while.

 

 

Plunder Of The Sun (1953) has Glenn Ford in one of his best roles and performances in this Film Noir about an insurance adjuster (Ford) who gets more than he bargained for when stolen antiques and artifacts to be acquired at any price become the bounty.  John Farrow is better known for the Noir The Big Clock and shot the full color 3-D Wayne film Hondo around the same time.  It is a tight 81 minutes and I was surprised at how smart it was.  The 1.33 X 1 image is in fine shape, with little of the aging you would see on a Noir, with crisp black and white throughout, as shot by cinematographer Jack Draper, who later lensed the 1960 film Phantom Of The Operetta.

 

Ring Of Fear (1954) has Mystery/Gumshoe Detective writer Mickey Spillane playing himself in a wild WarnerColor, CinemaScope thriller about murder at a circus.  It is a weird, awkward production that has some interesting production values and also offers an early use of the scope frame that film fans will get a kick out of.  Turns out a psychotic killer is hiding in the circus and Spillane must find and stoop him before it’s too late.  Interesting time capsule of its time as well.

 

Track Of The Cat (1954) is another WarnerColor, CinemaScope thriller, but starring Robert Mitchum this time one of three sons living in a now-snowbound ranch.  A killer cat is on the loose and it needs to be hunted down and stopped before more animals and people are massacred.  A.I. Bezzerides wrote a decent screenplay, but some of the sets are obvious.  However, it makes for interesting viewing as Mitchum is joined by Teresa Wright and Diana Lynn in a solid cast.

 

Man In The Vault (1956) has William Campbell in a late Noir entry at R.K.O. in black and white, but at 1.85 X 1 framing as his locksmith character becomes entangled against his will into a crazy heist plot.  Karen Sharpe is his “good girl” girlfriend, while explicitly sexy Anita Ekberg is the bad girl moll to heavy Berry Kroeger.  This is one of the last serious, respectable films the studio ever made.

 

 

The latter three films are anamorphically enhanced, with the scope films being in the wider, original 2.55 X 1 aspect ratio before needed additional soundtrack space cut the ratio down permanently to the 2.35 X 1 (aka 2.4 by some measurements) aspect ratio we have today.  Color is sometimes muddy and plugged up, but the scope frame is a welcome sight.  As for sound, Plunder and Vault are Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, while the scope films have both Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with some Pro Logic surrounds and Dolby Digital 4.0 discreet mixes meant to duplicate the 4-track magnetic stereo on the 35mm scope prints.  Unfortunately, the 4.0s are on the weak side and barely better than the mono on the other films.  That is unfortunate, but maybe the Dolby is a culprit, or the tracks need more restoration work.  Too bad DTS was not offered in those cases.

 

The Batjac trailer is repeated on all four discs, while Plunder and Cat have additional extras.  Plunder offers stills, three featurettes (one on Ford, one on the film and one on actor Sean McClory), the original theatrical trailer and an audio commentary track by Peter Ford and Frank Thompson.  Cat has stills, four featurettes (including one on director William Wellman) and a commentary by William Wellman Jr., actor Tab Hunter and Frank Thompson again, who is a Wayne scholar.  All in all, that is a very satisfactory set of releases and interesting films that show the kind of quality film productions Wayne expected would make his company a success.  It worked.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo