Product Description

Tall Randolph Scott is every inch a hero in three bullet-laced Westerns. The secessionist fervor of the 1850s comes to California, and undercover Army officer Scott aims to thwart the separatist passions in The Man Behind the Gun (Side A). There's Thunder over the Plains (Side B) and lightning in Scott's holsters in the second film. He portrays an army captain assigned to a lawless area of Texas after the Civil War. Next, Scott is Riding Shotgun (Side B) and heading into a whirlwind of trouble: a mob bent on vigilante justice wrongly suspects him of robbing a stagecoach. An action bull's-eye all the way!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9857 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-11-07
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 238 minutes

Amazon.com
This terrific triple-feature of Randolph Scott "B-movie" Westerns shows how Scott's image as a quiet, reliable gunman grew more refined and complex as the 1950s progressed. Scott is best remembered for the definitive Westerns he made with director Budd Boetticher in the late '50s (under the imprimatur of his Ranown production company, co-owned with producer Harry Joe Brown), and Hollywood historians would later speculate on Scott's allegedly intimate relationship with closeted gay star Rock Hudson, but the Warner Bros. Westerns on this DVD represent a period of transition, as Scott's screen persona underwent a fascinating and resonant makeover. Under the direction of Felix Feist (who would soon migrate to a prolific career in television), Scott plays an undercover Army officer in The Man Behind the Gun (1953), a standard-issue oater that pits Scott against secessionists in 1850s California, with a cast that includes Patrice Wymore (as Scott's schoolteacher love interest) and future Gilligan's island skipper Alan Hale Jr. Thunder Over the Plains (1953) and Riding Shotgun (1954) are two of the six Westerns that Scott made with one-eyed director Andre de Toth, signaling a maturity that would continue to deepen his screen persona. In the former, Randy's a Texas Ranger whose loyalties are tested when he's charged with capturing a carpetbagger (Charles McGraw) who's threatening to overrun the state. Riding Shotgun finds Scott doing just that, guarding stagecoaches and defending himself against a vigilante mob that suspects him of robbery.

All three films deal with Scott defending his honor in a lawless land where honor (and expert handling of a six-gun) is all that a man can claim for his own. As action-packed B-movie programmers they can hardly be called classics, but this is sturdy, well-crafted entertainment, bolstered by the efficient Warner Bros. stable of contract artists including veteran cinematographer Bert Glennon and composer David Buttolph, whose work on all three films is characteristically superb. And while Warner Home Video hasn't lavished their full restoration process on this two-sided DVD (resulting in Technicolor films that look good but still show signs of mild fading, scratches, etc.), the budget pricing and triple-feature capacity make this an irresistible bargain by any standard. If you're going to buy this disc, you shouldn't hesitate to add its tandem partner that includes another Randolph Scott triple-feature of Fort Worth, Colt .45, and Tall Man Riding. If you're a Western buff seeking a greater appreciation of Scott's laudable career, you simply can't go wrong. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

It's been a long wait
Randolph Scott's contributions to the western from 1945-1962 are second to none. His teaming with producer Harry Joe Brown from 1947 produced several superior programmers for Columbia up to 1959, many of them directed by solid craftsmen like Ray Enright and Gordon Douglas but the best of them helmed first by the intelligent and talented Andre De Toth, then by Budd Boetticher, whose Ranown series of virile, lean chamber works (justifiably acclaimed as miniature masterpieces) provided, along with Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country an ideal book end to Scott's honorable career. Reprehensibly, apart from the beautifully restored Paramount/Batjac release of Seven Men from Now, none of the Boetticher-Scott westerns is presently available on DVD.

Columbia have nevertheless released a steady flow of the Scotts, for which we must be thankful. It has certainly been great to have titles like Man in the Saddle, A Lawless Street, and Hangman's Knot in the DVD catalogue.

These 2 new Warner Triple Bills are terrific news for the legions of Scott fans: the Warner Scotts, never before surfacing on DVD, contain some of the most enjoyable entries including the tough Colt 45, some well-directed De Toths like Riding Shotgun and Thunder Over the Plains and the traditional but highly entertaining Tall Man Riding. Indeed the taut, suspenseful Riding Shotgun is one of the very best "wrongly accused holed-up in a hostile town" westerns with superbly staged action. Scott is excellent as always, but Wayne Morris lends sterling support as the hapless sheriff caught up in the middle of a conflict he'd rather be out of. I hope Warner issues another set-the sooner the better-that contains some of its remaining Scotts like The Bounty Hunter, Sugarfoot and Westbound (the last film in particular, directed by Boetticher, is a genuine curiosity).

The Warner Brothers' Randy Scotts....at last
Perhaps it has been the success of other, recent Randolph Scott Westerns being released this past year on DVD, but now Warner Brothers is releasing in very reasonably priced triple-headers two 3-film packs of classic Scott Westerns from the 1950s, and it is indeed great news for fans of the classic "little A" Western, and of Randolph Scott, who in many ways epitomized the Western star of the 1940s and '50s. These three titles can be purchased together with three more in another set for a pitance. Although the Warner Scotts were not generally superior to the Columbia products, they were still superior Westerns and very entertaining, filled with action and the kind of dramatic adventure so treasured by fans of the genre. Several, including COLT.45, FORT WORTH, and RIDING SHOTGUN, are very good. Here's hoping that Warner will release CARSON CITY (one of the best from the early 50s), SUGARFOOT, and THE BOUNTY HUNTER...and if they have it, WESTBOUND, one of the seven Budd Boetticher directed Scott films. I'd even enjoy seeing the much-maligned SHOOT-OUT AT MEDICINE BEND (with a young James Garner)!
Thanks, Warner Brothers!

Solid Collection of Randolph Scott Westerns
Another of two three film collections of Randolph Scott Westerns features three solid examples of his work, although Ride Shot gun is by far the best of the three.
The Man Behind The Gun has Scott as an undercover Army officer who is investigating a plot in California to steal the water supply to force the state to be pro-slavery. Alan Hale Jr., Morris Ankrum, Roy Roberts, and Phil Carey lend dignity to the proceedings, and even if it's not one of Scott's best, it's still fairly entertaining. Rating - Three out of five stars.

Thunder Over The Plains - In this film, Scott again plays an army officer, this time trying to keep law and order in post Civil-War Texas, as renegades steal from carpetbaggers. As Scott deals with the tension of being a symbol of tyranny to his fellow Texans, he also has to deal with a young, brash subordinate, played by Lex Barker, who fancies Scott's wife. This film is entertaining, and better than most of Scott's non-Budd Boetticher films. Rating - Four out of five stars.

Riding Shotgun - This standout of the three included films features Scott in his tried and true posture as a man set on revenge. Scott plays a shotgun rider for a stagecoach line who's pursuing the men that killed his sister and nephew. The gang waylays Scott and robs the stagecoach he is supposed to be on as a ruse to draw a posse out of the town that the stagecoach is heading for, all with the purpose of robbing the town casino with all of the able-bodied men out of town. Scott gets free, and heads to the town, where he tries to warn the townspeople of the impending robbery, but is regarded with suspicion as having been an accomplice to the stage robbery and the murder of the man riding shotgun in Scott's place.

Scott and the cast is entertaining, and Charles Bronson (using his real name of Buchinsky) is great as the gang leader's chief lieutenant. This has many of the elements of Scott's best films, and is thoroughly enjoyable. Rating - Five out of five stars.