John Ford is widely considered the greatest director of westerns,
but his early silent films have been largely neglected. Take 1917's
Straight Shooting and 1918's Hell Bent, both of which are coming to UK blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment
in a double edition set. Both films have been treated to 4k
restorations.
Straight Shooting & Hell Bent: Two Films by John Ford is
on UK blu-ray from April 19th. The set comes in a limited edition slipcase
with a collector's booklet featuring writing by Richard Combs, Phil Hoad, and Tag Gallagher.
Bonus features include newly composed scores; feature commentaries
by film historian Joseph McBride; a new interview with film critic and author Kim Newman; two video essays by
Tag Gallagher; archival audio interview from 1970 with John Ford by Joseph McBride;
a short fragment of the lost film Hitchin’ Posts (dir. John Ford, 1920)
preserved by the Library of Congress.
Check out Eureka's new trailer and artwork below.
Straight Shooting is landmark in the history of the Western. The first feature directed by Ford, it revived the career of Harry Carey who gives a rough and tumble performance here as a hired gun who turns on his employers to defend an innocent farmer and his family.
In Hell Bent, ‘Cheyenne Harry’ (Harry Carey playing the same character from Straight Shooting) flees the law after a poker game shootout, and arrives in the town of Rawhide, where he becomes friendly with local cowboy Cimarron Bill (Duke Lee) and dance hall girl Bess Thurston (Neva Gerber). When gang leader Beau Ross (Joseph Harris) kidnaps Bess, Harry goes to desperate lengths travelling across the deadly desert in order to free Bess from the hard-bitten Ross.
