Irving Pichel's - Santa Fe - Randolph Scott - DVD Review Irving Pichel Santa Fe Randolph Scott DVD Review Irving Pichel Santa Fe Randolph Scott DVD Review Irving Pichel Santa Fe Randolph Scott DVD Review Irving Pichel Santa Fe

directed by Irving Pichel
USA 1951

I have a special liking for this film because I used to admire the Santa Fe beautiful passenger trains in the fifties and I made a fantastic trip at that time on the Santa Fe from New Mexico to Chicago. This is a colorful, entertaining film which tells the story of Randolph Scott and his brothers who were confederates and after the war is finished, get in a brawl with some nasty northern soldiers. To get away from a posse they jump into a train of the Santa Fe and Scott starts working in the building of the railroad. As his brothers become outlaws, he gets uncomfortable in his position at the railroad. Scott changes his westerns outfits quite often, I suppose because at that time the movie stills were published in a lot of magazines. A great moment is when an Indian chief complains that the train is making too much noise, so Scott allows him to drive the locomotive, to feel that he is in control. From "The Iron Horse" on, the building of the railroads was always a great theme for westerns and Santa Fe tell its story with plenty of good action scenes.

Excerpt from tmwest's review on IMdb located HERE.

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Theatrical Release: April 1st, 1951

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DVD Comparison:

Columbia Tri-Star - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC vs. Gaumont CTHV - Region 2- PAL

Thanks to Vincent L. for the PAL captures!

(Columbia Tri-Star - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC LEFT vs. Gaumont CTHV - Region 2- PAL RIGHT)

DVD Box Cover
Distribution	Columbia Tri-Star Home Video - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC	Gaumont Columbia Tristar Home Video - Region 2 - PAL
Runtime	1:26:54	1:23:32 (4% PAL speedup)
Video	1:33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.30 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.42 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Bitrate:
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0)	English 2.0 Mono, DUBS: French 2.0 Mono, Spanish 2.0 Mono, German 2.0 Mono
Subtitles	English, Japanese, None	English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Portuguese, Turkish, Serbian, Greek, none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Columbia Tri-Star Home Video Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Preview of other CTS releases DVD Release Date: September 6th, 2005 Keep Case Chapters: 12	Release Information: Studio: Gaumont Columbia Tri-Star Home Video Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • none DVD Release Date: November 23rd, 2005 Keep Case Chapters: 12

Comments:

ADDITION: - Gaumont - PAL Dec 05': Image quality looks exact to me - perhaps the NTSC is a shade grainer, but they are equally as sharp. In our system the PAL wins the audio with all the extras DUBs and the NTSC has some previews as extras where the Gaumont has none. Great film at a reasonable price. We recommend buying the where it is the most cost effective.

******

This looks pretty good, just some dirt occasionally. It looks like it would have benefited from a thorough cleaning, but I suppose that wasn't cost efficient. I'm thankful that the print is as acceptable as it is. Bare bones, as per Columbia's style for their latest treatment of older films, but that is okay as the price is right.

Again we ask - Where are the Scott-Boetticher films? (Comanche Station, Ride Lonesome, Buchanan Rides Alone, Decision at Sundown etc. ) These are just whetting my whistle for more!

Gary W. Tooze

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(Columbia Tri-Star - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC LEFT vs. Gaumont CTHV - Region 2- PAL RIGHT)

Subtitle Sample