The Sons of Katie Elder Blu-ray

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

directed by Henry Hathaway
USA 1965

The Elder boys return to Clearwater, Texas for their Mother's funeral. John the eldest is a well known gunfighter and trouble follows him wherever he goes. The boys try to get back their ranch from the towns gunsmith who won it from their father in a card game with which he was shortly murdered there after but not before getting through the troubles that come with the Elders name.

Posters

Theatrical Release: July 1st, 1965

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Comparison:

Paramount - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Paramount - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Cover

	*Also available (very reasonably) in the John Wayne DVD Gift Set (The Shootist* / The Sons of Katie Elder/ True Grit/ El Dorado/ The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance)**
	OR available (super cheap!) in the John Wayne DVD Collection - Amazon.com Exclusive (10-Disc Set) (1965) El Dorado, Hatari!, In Harm's Way, Rio Lobo, The Sons of Katie Elder, The Shootist, Donovan's Reef, Big Jake, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, True Grit)
Distribution	Paramount Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC	Paramount (DE) - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	2:01:36	2:01:49.927
Video	2.25:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 4.73 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	2.35:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 47,724,847,094 bytes Feature: 16,755,369,984 bytes Video Bitrate: 16.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Bitrate: Blu-ray
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0), DUB: French (Dolby Digital 2.0)	Dolby Digital Audio English 224 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 224 kbps DUB: Dolby Digital Audio German 224 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 224 kbps
Subtitles	English (HoH), None	German, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Paramount Home Video Aspect Ratio: Original aspect Ratio 2.25:1 Edition Details: • Trailer (3:13) DVD Release Date: June 5th, 2001 (Repackaged - August 2005) Keep Case Chapters: 16	Release Information: Studio: Paramount (DE) 2.35:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 47,724,847,094 bytes Feature: 16,755,369,984 bytes Video Bitrate: 16.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • None Blu-ray Release Date: May 23rd, 2019 Standard Thick Blu-ray Case Chapters 12

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Paramount Blu-ray (June 2019): Paramount in Germany have transferred The Sons of Katie Elder to Blu-ray as part of a nine-film 3 BD boxset that includes True Grit (1969), Hondo, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, El Dorado, Posse, Three Violent People, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and Hud. They start with a Universal logo. The image here is, like the others in the set, uncomfortably soft. This also has a greenish tinge. Skin tones cool and there is some minor advancement in detail over the SD but it is, relatively, minimal.

On their Blu-ray, Paramount use a lossy Dolby 2.0 channel mono tracks in English and a German DUB option. There are typical western genre effects (guns and horses) but not as crisp as if it were in lossless. The excellent score from Elmer Bernstein (Midas Run, Report to the Commissioner, Kings of the Sun, Hud, To Kill a Mockingbird, Summer and Smoke) supports the film well. Paramount offer optional German subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Paramount Blu-ray Boxset has no supplements - just the nine films listed above.

The Sons of Katie Elder is a fabulous 'revenge' western - very traditional - strong characters - one of The Duke's most underrated roles. The HD presentation falls short in both video and audio and the only appeal is to have the other films in 1080P. Best if you have not seen the films - otherwise let's have patience for a better transfer and package.

Gary Tooze

ON THE DVD: This is the same transfer of the original Paramount release - exact same disc in fact. The DVD has simply been reissued and repackaged to be included in a few Boxset options (of which we recommend the 10-disc'er, exclusive to Amazon, if you don't own any part of these or just one or two already). The image appears to be un-manipulated - is quite dark but I'll wager pretty close to its theatrical appearance - original audio - those awful yellow subtitles and a trailer as the only extra, but the price is right - especially when bundled in one of the boxsets. For western fans this may fall short of Mann or Boetticher but its Wayne in prime form and one of his better efforts (and lets not forget Dino too!).

Gary W. Tooze

DVD Menus

Paramount (DE) - Region FREE - Blu-ray