- Format: PAL
- Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: U
- Studio: Universal Pictures UK
- DVD Release Date: 6 Feb 2006
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B000C4ETGA
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 59,937 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Just maybe the most shamelessly enjoyable of Cecil B. DeMille's pseudo-historical epics, this rumbustious frontier saga offers a three-for-one Western legends combo--Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Calamity Jane, all cutting up in the 1870s, with George Armstrong Custer and Abraham Lincoln thrown in for good measure. (Wait a minute, Lincoln was assassinated in 1865--oh, never mind.) Truth to tell, Buffalo Bill doesn't really pull his weight, since (1) he is hopelessly distracted by virtue of having recently married and (2) he's played by James Ellison, an eternal juvenile normally relegated to second-banana duty in Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy series. However, Gary Cooper's Wild Bill and Jean Arthur's Calamity supply enough star power to light up the Dakotas and parts of Missouri.
Every once in a while, DeMille and his small army of writers stumble upon an actual historical fact. Bill Cody did fight to the death with an Indian chief named Yellow Hand. George Custer and James Butler Hickok did both buy the farm in the summer of 1876. (Custer's Last Stand is handled imaginatively, if cheaply, as a vision narrated by a wandering Cheyenne warrior--none other than C.B.'s son-in-law Anthony Quinn in one of his earliest screen appearances.) Jack McCall (veteran weasel Porter Hall) did find himself in Deadwood, South Dakota, at the same time Wild Bill was drawing aces and eights in a poker game ... though McCall was not necessarily affiliated with DeMille's favourite villain, Charles Bickford, in the business of running guns to the Indians. --Richard T. Jameson
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
EARLY BENCHMARK.,
By BUBS. "movie maniac" (south wales) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Plainsman (1936) [DVD] (DVD)
i suppose at the time 1936 this western would have been one on the top films of the genre and the benchmark upon which to improve . the storyline entwines the great characters and events of the wild west but not in a historically acurate order , the portrayal of the characters is done well and all the main events from the leading characters are covered , but with far less action {indian wars} than the cover leads you to expect . the film is also in black and white not coloured like the region 1 version states on the internet and the cover again leads you to believe .
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cecil B. DeMille's "The Plainsman",
This review is from: The Plainsman (1936) [DVD] (DVD)
This is a really good picture, if you don't take it too seriously of course. I showed it too my Grandad whose very picky and even he really enjoyed it. Please note if you watch it though that it's not mean't to be a history lesson.
In what can only be described as a fantasia of the lives of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill Cody,DeMille's film spans about ten years in about two hours and is a celebration of the vastness of the West. Different events are combined together to form a story arc. In this plot we've got Lincoln's assassination in 1865, there's a fight with Indians that looks very like the battle of Beecher's Island in 1868, Wild Bill's gunfight with 3 soldiers from the Seventh Cavalry in 1870, Custer's Last Stand in 1876 and of course Hickok's death at the hands of Jack McCall in Deadwood in 1876. The film flows along quite smoothly however and it was interesting to see how the plot links so much together. Gary Cooper stars as Hickok, minus the long hair and moustache but if you picture him with those he does carry a vague resemblance to the real man. James Ellison is a ringer for Buffalo Bill . Jean Arthur is a bit annoying as Calamity Jane. Charles Bickford plays the villain very well. You might also spot Gabby Hayes, Francis Ford and a young Anthony Quinn in his first film. If there is a problem with this film however it is its portrayal of Native Americans. They grunt, tear things apart and speak broken English. John Ford's Fort Apache was still ten years away and the Indians are still expendable villains with little or no personality. Despite it all DeMille made an epic film at a time when westerns were practically dead. There are good action scenes and the set pieces and clothing are realist. Some scenes are quite dramatic though but if you do not nit pick and look on the plus side and remember that it is from 1937 you should enjoy the film.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Riveting action,
By Michael Bo (Frederiksberg Denmark) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Plainsman [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] (DVD)
The new handful of Westerns that Universal has just released on DVD are not among the most well-known of their genre, but it is a joyful occasion all the same, all the more actually. Three out of the seven titles that I have seen are great, 'The Spoilers', 'No Name on the Bullet' and 'The Plainsman'. Not a bad average. The only really bad one is 'When the Daltons Rode'.Veteran epic director Cecil B. CeMille's 'The Plainsman' is a hugely mounted, dramatic and blazing Western with Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, Lincoln and Custer in one and the same movie! And add numberless scores of exotically feathered Indians and cavalry men. In this universe violence equals heroism, but the Sioux chief is given time to defend his people, and Jean Arthur's loveable Calamity has her own way of prevailing against the man she is seen chasing all through the film! Gary Cooper's Hickok is shy and awkward, and he is never quite made to kiss her. The action scenes are riveting, the sets are beautiful, the humanity in the picture is convincing, and in the end, as we see Hickok place himself with his villanous hostages with his back to the saloon door, everybody with even a feeble grasp of Western mythology know what is up ...
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