The Deadly Companions

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Not Peckinpah's greatest film but one with plenty to like about it, The Deadly Companions is getting reissued by VCI in a 'Cary Roan Signature Edition.'



Release date is 2/5/12.

"Yellowleg (Brian Keith) escorts Kit Tilden (Maureen O'Hara) through hostile Apache territory to bury her son, who he accidentally shot while trying to stop a robbery. A couple of shady characters, Turk (Chill Wills) and Billy Keplinger (Steve Cochran), are recruited to ride along for reasons only Yellowleg knows. Director Sam Peckinpah s first feature, The Deadly Companions (1961) was shot in 21 days at Old Tucson Studios. Brian Keith had appeared in Peckinpah s TV series The Westerner, and had recently costarred with Maureen O Hara in The Parent Trap. Peckinpah was not allowed to rewrite the script or supervise the editing (it was produced by O Hara s brother), but his direction is assured, his strong visual stamp is already evident, and his typical themes front and center. (Toby Roan)"

Bonus Features: Western Trailers

Products Specs: DVD5
Dolby Digital 2.0
RT - 93 minutes
B&W
Aspect Ratio - 2.35:1 / 16x9
Year - 1961
SRP - $14.99

Figured this might be of interest to some as I don't know of any domestic releases in anamorphic widescreen.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

Thanks for this alert. I'm buying it. I'm a Peckinpah fan and I like this low-budget, independent debut film. I have a region 2 edition from Denmark, anamorphic widescreen with restored picture and sound. Looks lovely, but it's one of those PAL discs in which the 4% speed-up hurries normal motion into abnormal motion and turns baritones into falsetto's. Everybody has a strangely high voice. So I welcome a domestic release in good quality and in a lower pitch. Assuming that's what it is. You can never tell with VCI. Their version of JANE EYRE (1970) is the worst "remastered edition" of that title I've seen.

THE DEADLY COMPANIONS was owned by Charles Fitzsimmons, brother of Maureen O'Hara, who financed it. It was shot entirely at Old Tucson Studio and the surrounding cactus park. I used to work for the producer who had bought the remake rights. The film is still in copyright despite all the cheap public-domain editions on DVD. It's good of VCI to release a film that's already available.

[Randy G Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Randy G]

Strangely never seen this even though I'm a huge fan of Peckinpah.

[Andrew Monroe Pallid Hands Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew Monroe]

This is going to be on TCM in about an hour - 1:15 pm eastern.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

VCI's claimed that ONE-EYED JACKS was remastered and widescreen as well. But it turned out to be the same port of the laser-disc as all the other public domain editions. So I wait and see what the reviews say about THE DEADLY COMPANIONS.