James Stewart – The Signature Collection (Warner Bros.)

 

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

 

 

There is no doubt that Jimmy Stewart had one of the most enduring acting careers in Hollywood history, doing all kinds of films in all kinds of genres for several decades.  Some are classics, others are programmers, but his ability to adapt proves he was a better actor than some gave him credit for.  Warner Bros. has issued six of his films, including a few lesser-seen titles, in their new James Stewart – The Signature Collection DVD box set.  None are classics, but they are all unusual projects worth looking into.

 

The Stratton Story (1949) and The F.B.I. Story (1959) were the kind of serious biopic/”voice of God” films he wound up doing because of his perceived integrity.  The former is about the baseball player Monty Stratton, who lost his leg and fights back to be a pitcher again.  A typical sports biopic, helmed by longtime journeyman director Sam Wood (who goes back to the silent days, now viewable in Beyond The Rocks, reviewed elsewhere on this site) is a competent, formulaic film with June Allison, Agnes Moorehead and Frank Morgan among the cast that bring the film up in quality.  An Oscar winner, the film has dated a bit, especially after hundreds of post-Rocky feel good sports films.  It has a fairly good 1.33 X 1 black and white transfer, while The F.B.I. Story sports an interesting 1.85 X 1 anamorphically enhanced transfer, with color a little closer to three-strip dye-transfer Technicolor than the other films in this set.

 

The F.B.I. Story is actually even more dated, amusing and essentially a propaganda film down to an actual appearance by J. Edgar Hoover.  Stewart is reteamed with Vera Miles, his co-star from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man a few years prior.  Stewart’s character is essentially there for every major event that made the F.B.I. a permanent organization, in a sort of “Forrest Gump” for thinking people, even when some of the moments are problematic.  Particularly, the F.B.I. dealing with the Klu Klux Klan rings as inaccurately now as ever, though this would be repeated later in Alan Parker’s problematic Mississippi Burning from 1988.  Outside of the script, Mervin LeRoy is surprisingly aggressive in his directing and the look and use of color and production design in the film supercedes the narrative at times in interesting ways.  Film fans should look at this one.

 

Both sport passable Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono and feature their original theatrical trailers.   Stratton Story also has an audio-only radio version of the film with Stewart and Allison, Warner cartoon Batty Baseball and live-action Pest Control short.

 

The Spirit Of St. Louis (1957) is a biopic, but a big CinemaScope production directed by no less that Billy Wilder, in what remains one of the early favorite and effective uses of the scope frame.  Stewart plays Charles A. “Lucky Lindy” Lindbergh, the first man to fly around the world and an aviation innovator.  Especially interesting to see after Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator was such a critical and commercial success, you can see some influence and this too is a big production for its time.  It still has the usual biopic trappings, but is made to be a very big screen picture and has some comic touches like only Wilder could deliver.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2.55 X 1 image was shot by Robert Burks, A.S.C. and J. Peverell Marley, A.S.C., in “WarnerColor” which was a process that had issues.  The definition is lacking and color a bit plugged up in this version, but it still looks pretty good.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is based on the 4-track magnetic stereo from the original 35mm release prints and the sound is mostly in the front three channels, including much of Franz Waxman’s decent score.  Extras include the film’s spectacular premiere, original theatrical trailer, Warner cartoon Tabasco Road and Joe McDoakes live-action So Your Wife Wants To Work short.

 

The Naked Spur (1953), Firecreek (1967) and The Cheyenne Social Club (1970) were three very different Westerns he did in between more prominent films, yet it became an interesting cycle of his career usually only heralded by Western fans.  These films are not great, though he was one of the big early stars of the Revenge Western cycle and the latter films brought him into the counterculture/spaghetti era of Professional Westerns that he eventually saw fold with The Shootist.  Spur teamed him up with Anthony Mann in an MGM Technicolor production that co-stars Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan and Ralph Meeker.  Many consider this a great Western, though its imitation has watered down its impact more than expected.  The third of five films in the genre with Mann, it has its moments.  Extras include the original theatrical trailer, Pete Smith live action Things We Can Do Without short and MGM cartoon Little Johnny Jet by Tex Avery.

 

Firecreek and The Cheyenne Social Club were both Technicolor, Panavision, scope Westerns that paired him with Henry Fonda, playing on their Classical Hollywood chemistry and early examples of the Buddy Film not discussed much.  This is the first time both have been available widescreen and they too are interesting, even when they do not always work.

 

Warner hired the capable Vincent McEveety to helm Firecreek as bad guy Fonda might get stopped by lame lawman Stewart if he feels like doing something about him.  Calvin Clements’ screenplay is not a “happy” Western, but one that deals more realistically with the past and that world.  Gary Lockwood (just before Kubrick’s 2001), Ed Begley, Dean Jagger (in a non-Disney role), Jack Elam and Inger Stevens round out the cast.

 

Hoping for more success the second time around, The Cheyenne Social Club was actually released by National General Pictures, a shot-lived company that made some very interesting and ambitious film releases.  The duo has inherited land and intends to keep it for themselves, no matter who they have to fight and they will have to fight for it.  Directed by Gene Kelly, it is no Musical, but it has it share of comedy and when it runs into clichés, just goes with them instead of doing something with them.  The result leans more towards Xanadu than Blazing Saddles, but it was shot for the big screen and that is a plus upon playback.  Shirley Jones, Sue Ane Langdon and J. Pat O’Malley also star.

 

Both films are anamorphically enhanced 2.35 x 1 transfers, but the glory of the three-strip dye-transfer Technicolor is just not showing in either case.  Both films are Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono, which sounds good, but not great and the only extras are trailers for both films.

 

Overall, an unusually interesting set of films that do not always work, the James Stewart – The Signature Collection DVD box set is worth a good look from times when Hollywood was more ambitious, even when the old studio system was giving way to massive changes.  Stewart rode that wave and endured.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo