Tyrone Power Collection (The Black Rose/Blood &
Sand/The Captain From Castile/Prince Of Foxes/Son Of Fury)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Films: B-
Even in
the 1970s, the name Tyrone Power stood for big male movie lead, but that name
and reputation has been lost a bit with the decades that followed, so it is a
good thing that Fox has issued five of his best films in the new Tyrone Power Collection on DVD. Those films include:
Blood & Sand (1941) a huge Rouben Mamoulian
production with Linda Darnell, Rita Hayworth, Anthony Quinn and J. Carrol Naish
as Power plays a matador torn between his blood sport and women.
Son Of Fury – The Story Of
Benjamin Blake
(1942) is the melodramatic John Cromwell tale about an illegitimate man (Power)
fighting his way back to his birthright with Gene Tierney, George Sanders,
Roddy McDowall, Frances farmer, John Carradine and Elsa Lanchester.
The Black Rose (1947) pairs Power with Orson
Welles again as he plays a rejected and dejected man looking for success in The
Middle East, directed by Henry Hathaway.
Prince Of Foxes (1949) is an earlier Power/Welles
pairing as a warrior finds himself in the middle of a battle for land in
Italy. Henry King directed this smart
drama also starring Everett Sloane.
The Captain From Castile (1950) is another big Henry King
hit not seen as much in recent years with Power as Pedro De Vargas, who leaves
Spain behind during The Spanish Inquisition to find The New World. Jean Peters, Cesar Romero, and Lee J. Cobb
are among the supporting cast.
I was
more impressed with the films where Welles shows up than not, as the rest of
the films are more melodramatic in an interesting way than you might
expect. To appeal to his female fans but
keep the male audience, the melodrama is hidden in the story more deeply and
that became the formula for his films in his peak years. As this grew thin and Fox and Power wanted to
go new places, they got more artistic and the result was some growth. However, this is the kind of stagy “talk-at”
school of acting I am not a big fan of and that puts some age on the films. You can also see that it was his appeal that
overcame some of these film’s shortcomings and shows the genius of the
Classical Hollywood system. Good thing
they have been fixed up so nicely.
The 1.33
X 1 image on all five films is consistently good, thanks to preservation and
restoration efforts by Fox. Blood, Captain and Black were
originally issued in three-strip Technicolor and these prints all have their
moments where they reflect that, while the other two are in solid black and
white. All can show their age at times,
as is the case with the Dolby Digital 2.0 audio, in Mono or Stereo.
Extras on
all five include mini lobby cards inside the slender cases, a slim booklet on
the set, stills sections and theatrical trailers. Blood
adds a restoration comparison and audio commentary by Richard Crudo, a Director
of Photography who was also president of the ASC (American Society of
Cinematographers) from 2003 – 2005. He
offers a terrific commentary that covers so much you need to know about the
artform. However, you may be surprised
to hear a serious defense of cinematographers and how seriously he takes the
craft and art, defending it against recent changes in the industry (which can seem
out of place and will for those who might find some comments sudden) that are
part of a simmering debate. All serious
filmmakers need to hear this one, whether they agree or not.
Fury, Captain, and Foxes add
isolated music score tracks fans of composers and movie music will love, Fury also has a behind the scenes
featurette, Castile has a featurette
on Power and audio commentary by film historians Rudy Behlmer, Jon Burlingame
and Nick Redman that is not bad. Foxes also has a related Movietone News
piece and Rose adds the featurette Tyrone Power: Family Reunion.
- Nicholas Sheffo
