Warner Bowing Largest-Ever John Wayne DVD Boxed Set
24 Feb, 2014 By: Erik Gruenwedel
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment May 20 releases the largest-ever John Wayne-themed DVD boxed set, featuring 40 movies from Warner Bros. and Paramount.
John Wayne: The Epic Collection ($149.98 SRP) contains 38 discs, including 1956's The Searchers, once called one of the most influential movies in American history, and 1969's True Grit, the film for which Wayne won his Best Actor Academy Award, .
Other titles in the set include Big Stampede/Ride Him Cowboy/Haunted Gold (1932); Telegraph Trail/Somewhere in Sonora/Man from Monterey (1933); Allegheny Uprising (1939); Reunion In France (1942); Tall in the Saddle (1944); Back to Bataan (1945); They Were Expendable (1945); Without Reservations (1946); Tycoon (1947); Fort Apache (1948); The Three Godfathers (1948); She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949); Flying Leathernecks (1951); Operation Pacific (1951); Big Jim McLain (1952); Trouble Along the Way (1953); Blood Alley (1966); The Sea Chase (1955); The Wings of Eagles (1957); Rio Bravo (1959); Hatari (1962); The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962); How the West Was Won (1962); Donovan's Reef (1963); In Harm's Way (1965); The Sons of Katie Elder (1965); El Dorado (1966); The Green Berets (1968); Chisum (1970); The Cowboys (1972); Cahill: U.S. Marshall (1973); The Train Robbers (1973); McQ (1974); and The Shootist (1976).
The collection comes packaged in a coffee table book format featuring a chronological presentation of Wayne films and photographs. Special features include commentaries, documentaries, featurettes, vintage shorts and classic cartoons. The special John Wayne collectibles include personal correspondence, script pages/covers, pages with Wayne’s notations and behind-the-scenes artifacts.
Wayne’s legacy will also be celebrated at the fourth annual John Wayne Film Festival in Dallas from April 24-27. The four-day festival will feature screenings of some of Wayne’s classic feature films, Q&A sessions with Wayne family members and co-stars, and parties celebrating the John Wayne heritage and legacy. All the proceeds from the festival will benefit the John Wayne Cancer Foundation.
“Thanks to our recent strategic alliance with Paramount and their catalog titles, we’re able to offer this number of titles representing such a broad range of Wayne’s work,” Jeff Baker, EVP and GM of theatrical catalog for WHV, said in a statement. “For more than a quarter century [Wayne] was one of the tops at the worldwide box-office. This collection will certainly be a ‘must have’ for loyal John Wayne fans and, hopefully, will have an equal appeal to younger folks who want to learn more about him.”