Review by Gary Tooze

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After the original director, Akira Kurosawa, bowed out of the project, Yordan handed the director's reins to Robert Siodmak. The German-born helmer who had been responsible for a raft of film noir staples from The Killers (1946) to Phantom Lady (1944) to Criss Cross (1949) had by the '60s been relegated to turning out unremarkable fare in Europe. His health was in decline, and his work on Custer of the West is perfunctory at best.

As a completed whole, Custer of the West suffers from a reduction of its original scope and concept. Shot with the intent of making the film one of the final releases in Cinerama, the film was almost exclusively exhibited in conventional widescreen. There were no less than three prolonged, point-of-view set pieces in the script--a driverless stagecoach's mountainside descent, a runaway railroad car's trek towards a doomed trestle, and a soldier's attempt to escape a Cheyenne ambush via a log flume--that had their potential thrill-ride impact diminished as a result.

Excerpt from CM located HERE

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

The single-layered Kino Lorber Blu-ray of Custer of the West looks exceptional.  This was one of two epics shot by Security Pictures (a division of Louis Dolivet and Philip Yordan) in the Cinerama process. It was in Super Technirama 70 and this 1080P image looks stunning. This Blu-ray image is tight, super-clean, very crisp and show impressive colors and detail. There is plenty of depth and the exterior shots in Spain are gorgeous. What an impressive video image.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kino Lorber use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track at 1559 kbps (16-bit) in the original English language. 70 mm prints used a 6-Track and it seems an opportunity was lost in not transferring in surround. I did suspect some dialogue-sync issues but I didn't find them intrusive onto the presentation. There are plenty of western-related effects in the film - as well as bold audio in the extended cinerama-induced sequences - with the effect of rapid motion. They carry some impressive, and loud, depth. The score is by Bernardo Segall (credited with the music in 10 episodes of Columbo and other films) and it supports the epic feel of the film with grand movements and orchestral support. There are optional English subtitles offered and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked.

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5 Trailers of other films.

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
Custer of the West was a Cinerama hopeful where excessive poetic license was given with regards to the historical content. It has similarities to Errol Flynn's They Died with Their Boots On from 1941. Unfortunately, it is a flawed film but has some positives with Shaw and the scope beauty of the image. This package would have benefited from a commentary but it's a long film. The bare-bones Kino Lorber Blu-ray offers a desirable presentation, but not much more. NOTE: At the writing of this review it is 45% OFF at Amazon.

Gary Tooze

August 15th, 2017