Blood Alley

Starring:Lauren Bacall, George Chan, W.T. Chang, David Chow, Anita Ekberg, Paul Fix, Chester Gan, Lowell Gilmore, James Hong, Joy Kim, Berry Kroeger, Eddie Luke, Mike Mazurki, Henry Nakamura, Walter Soo Hoo, Victor Sen Yung
Director: William A. Wellman
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

The long-awaited emergence of Nightmare Alley into the light of DVD should achieve two things: make a legendary film noir available to a new generation, and restore the horrific charge to the lately watered-down term geek, a concept that once had the power to give people very bad dreams indeed.

To his lasting credit, Tyrone Power--20th Century Fox's extraordinarily handsome but not terribly interesting star of the '30s and '40s--begged for the chance to play Stan Carlisle, the predatory charmer who snakes his way through this bracingly unwholesome story. A spieler for--and lover of--carnival mind reader Zeena (Joan Blondell), he displays uncanny skill at "reading" the susceptible rubes, including a tough sheriff who turns to jelly after Stan psychs him out. Once Stan's mastered the intricate code used in Zeena's act, he's set to dump her for the younger, sexier Molly (Coleen Gray) and go bigtime as nightclub psychic "Stanton the Great." After that, it's only a blasphemous bank shot to superstardom as a miracle worker with his own tabernacle and radio show.

Few '40s films ventured as deeply into cynicism as Nightmare Alley, or dealt so frankly with sexuality (with ripplings of polymorphous perversity yet) and power-tripping. The movie's rhythm is uncertain and Jules Furthman's screenplay telegraphs things, but the overall tone is remarkable, as are individual sequences: the freaky forced marriage of Stan and Molly in accordance with carny morality, and a creepy night scene in a park when Stanton the Great raises a ghost for a high-society client. Cinematographer Lee Garmes's chiaroscuro creates a relief map of the carnival world and what passes for life there. As for the geek... well, you'll find out what geek means. Stan does. --Richard T. Jameson

Description

In this engaging melodrama, Stanton Carlisle (Tyrone Power) is a lowlife working in a carnival. Knowing a good con when he sees one, he learns the tricks of a mind-reading act from Zeena (Joan Blondell), then tosses her aside. In time, he becomes ?The Great Stanton,? star attraction of swanky nightclubs and the darling of society. But with all his notoriety built on lies, it?s only a matter of time before exposure brings Stanton?s world crashing down around him.

Customer Reviews:

AND NOW, IT'S FEEDIN' TIME..............2007-06-30

Somehow I saw this film when I was 8 years old and it scared the hell out of me. I have never forgotten it and was very glad when the DVD was released.
Now that I am 51 years old, and know the subtle pleasures of the noir genre, I can only say that this movie has improved like a fine wine: not the rotgut swill that The Stanton the Great eventually accepts as his pay. Tyrone Power is at his best, Joan Blondell is a perfectly bitchy carny queen, and all the rest are equally terrific.
Without adding any spoilers, I'll just say that this movie explores a side of human depravity rarely seen in the majority of films---today or during the forties.
It is ironic to me that I accepted a position as Executive Chef for Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus from 1998 to 2001. No, we did not have any carnival geeks, but we had many, many crackhead zombies in the lower unskilled crews. Who else is going to stand behind an elephant with a shovel?
And believe it or not, you can still catch a carnival geek performance in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia!

One of the Film Noir Greats.......2007-02-01

"Nightmare Alley" was released by Twentieth-Century Fox in 1947, the same year that another film noir classic, "Out of the Past", was released by RKO. Neither film touched off the kind of immediate box office sparks that each movie deserved, but in the manner of classics, it often takes time to appreciate these rare gems but as time elapses the positive responses multiply.

An old personal friend, Mike Mazurki, experienced some of his proudest moments of his career in "Nightmare Alley" along with another noir favorite of his from the same period in which he appeared, "Murder, My Sweet." Mike, who was juggling his acting career alongside headlining wrestling cards in the Los Angeles area in arenas such as Olympic Auditorium, Hollywood Legion Stadium, and Ocean Park Arena, had mixed feelings when he retrospectively looked back on working alongside Tyrone Power in "Nightmare Alley."

Mazurki was delighted to be in the film, and happy that this time he was not playing a ruthless criminal, even though he acknowledged that he had no complaints playing Moose Malloy in "Murder, My Sweet" opposite Dick Powell and Claire Trevor. While he remained forever proud of "Nightmare Alley" as a great film, one memory about the film saddened him.

"Ty Power was so great in `Nightmare Alley,'" Mike exclaimed, "but he never even got an Oscar nomination after turning in such a great performance. Edmund Goulding did a great job in directing Ty and all of us."

Mazurki knew how the business operated. Twentieth was placing its promotional dollars and emphasis elsewhere and as a result Power did not receive the kind of build-up deemed essential to gain recognition in the competitive Academy Awards sweepstakes.

One year earlier, in 1946, Power appeared in "The Razor's Edge," an adaptation of a Somerset Maugham novel, which Edmund Goulding also directed. The British director, who began as an actor in silent films, provided the kind of attentive care to Power and other performers in "Nightmare Alley" to produce a milestone film. Twentieth-Century Fox boss Darryl Zanuck put more money into promoting "The Razor's Edge" and Anne Baxter walked off with a Best Supporting Actress statuette on Oscar night.

Power, as one of the screen's matinee idols, fought to overcome an unfair "pretty boy" tag when he was far more than a handsome face and proved when given the chance to be an accomplished actor. "Nightmare Alley" provided him with such a chance as he performs with virtuoso skill in a challenging role of a con artist and glib pitch man along the order of Burt Lancaster in "Elmer Gantry," for which the muscular Hollywood veteran received a Best Actor Oscar.

While Mazurki attempts to warn young and vulnerable Coleen Gray about linking her heart to Power, a man he sees as flaw-ridden, the opportunistic con man finds more common ground with the more experienced Helen Walker. When Power cuts loose with his routine audiences get the chance to see a screen craftsman on display.

As a superb dramatic vehicle for Tyrone Power, "Nightmare Alley" stands alongside Rouben Mamoulian's bullfighting gem "Blood and Sand," when the actor teamed up with Twentieth beauties Rita Hayworth and Linda Darnell, and "Alexander's Ragtime Band," where he played opposite the studio's stunning blonde box office champ, Alice Faye.

Zanuck knew the value of Tyrone Power. He apparently erred, however, in not marshalling more publicity effort into "Nightmare Alley." This is truly convincing film noir at its peak and this DVD comes along at a time when the genre is riding high.

A Geek through A Glass Darkly.......2006-10-18

I don't know how I got through life without seeing this one before. Ty Power is a fledgling carny barker. He sets up the mind-reading performance of Zeena (Joan Blondell), who is married to a drunk, named Pete, who used to do a mentalist act in Vaudeville with her. A sophisticated code was used which allowed the mentalist to 'read' people's minds.

The carny atmosphere adds to the seediness of it all. Ty is a heel and a cad. He thinks of no one but himself. He wants that code so he and Blondell can be headliners again.

Mike Mazurski is the Carny strongman Bruno, who is jealous of his girl Molly's attentions to Stan (Tyrone Power). There are all kinds of female diversions around for Stan, but he is intent upon getting the code that kept Blondell and her hubby aloft in vaudeville.

Thematically at the center of the story is a horrendous, half animal human being called the Geek. He's the headliner of the sideshow. He's not actually shown at this juncture. Another practiced carny barker with a straw boater and a bamboo cane touts his qualities to an audience while tossing the Geek two live chickens to gobble.

Stan accidentally kills Pete by grabbing a bottle of wood alcohol from the prop trunk, which he thought was the bottle of moonshine he had bought from the Carny bootlegger. He is mortified to learn he is responsible for Pete's death, but he takes the trouble to retrieve the moonshine bottle still in the prop trunk and hide it.

Stan is soon caught by Zeena and Bruno romancing Molly, Bruno's girl, and somehow the two of them leave the circus and take a mentalist show onto the nightclub circuit.

Zeena has read Stan's fate in her Tarot cards. It is the same as her husband Pete's fate. Stan keeps struggling with this.

Its a thoroughly interesting movie, better than most produced today. The hallmark of a good movie is that it keeps you guessing about what's going to happen next.

Fox has polished this one up and served it as an example of Film Noir. Noir is so hot on DVD that every black and white drama before 1959 is being considered for the noir treatment. But this one doesn't qualify even if it is a good film.

Film Noir drifted out of pulp magazines of the thirties like Black Mask, where Hammett, Chandler and James M. Cain had flourished, into movies, beginning around 1940. Some argue the Maltese Falcon of John Huston was Noir, but the French defined Noir (black). Even though Hollywood filmmakers had created Noir, it was not recognized until Jean Luc Godard and others started writing about it in the French magazine Cahiers Du Cinema in the late fifties.

The shadows, action and music accompanying the black and white cinematography of that era were what made Noir Noir. The Maltese Falcon was too static and stagy to qualify as noir. The first good example of Noir by my definition is Out of the Past with Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas and the most outlandish series of landscapes ever stuffed into a single movie. A moment in Out of the Past captures what Noir is. Mitchum's face is seen in half shadow lighting a cigarette as he turns slightly to confront something happening behind him in the half-lit darkness. All Noir has the usual poisonous darkness of the central character, but that's not really enough. Real Noir has the shadowed faces and the Noir lighting at a moment when active violence is in progress or in the offing. Its a concoction of effects that stirs the viewer to just the right level of appreciation. Its something some of the better filmmakers tried to add to what the Hard-Boiled pulp writers had created between pages.

Tyrone Power at his darkest.......2006-10-07

Produced by none other than George Jessel, "Nightmare Alley" is a bizarre trip into madness and degradation.
Ty Power gives one of his strongest performances and is backed with a strong supporting cast.
The plot has been outlined in detail by other reviewers, so I won't go into that here.
This DVD was made from a good print and the transfer is excellent. It also contains some bonus extras.
All-in-all, a "must see" for film noir fans.

A Really Creepy Film.......2006-10-05

This is one of the darkest, most depressing and creepy films I have ever seen. After watching this, I almost wanted to take the dvd outside my house and set it on fire.

However, it does seem to support very well the old (and true) saying that "Booze is the Nuclear Weapon of the Devil"

The characters portrayed in this movie are in serious need of Christ's Salvation

Average customer rating:

John Wayne vs. Chinese Communists
:)
Blood Alley
John Wayne does The African Queen--in China
Blood Alley

Blood Alley
Starring: Lauren Bacall , George Chan , W.T. Chang , Anita Ekberg , and Paul Fix
Director: John Wayne , and William Wellman
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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The Sea Chase
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The Train Robbers

ASIN: B000O599XU
Release Date: 2007-05-22

Description

An American merchant marine captain ferries a group of Chinese refugess down the Yangtze River to escape the Communists.

Customer Reviews:

John Wayne vs. Chinese Communists.......2007-06-14

In the 1950s, patriotic, conservative actor John Wayne joined the bandwagon of those who believed that Communism was a serious threat to the U.S. These were the days of the cold war and McCarthyism. While some, such as Senator McCarthy, used the "Red Scare" for political purposes, there were those, such as Wayne, who were sincerely concerned about Communist threats. Historians are still debating whether the threats were real or not. It didn't matter to John Wayne or studio head Jack Warner, who agreed to make a series of films dealing with the perceived dangers of Communism.

Some of the anti-communist films Wayne made for Warner Brothers, such as "Big Jim McLain," seem very dated and even silly at times, but "Blood Alley" remains a good action adventure film with some real twists. Wayne again worked with veteran director "Wild Bill" Wellman, who had directed one of Wayne's most popular films, "The High and The Mighty," the previous year (1954). Wellman, who had directed the first film to win a Best Picture Oscar way back in 1927, "Wings," was nearing the end of his career. Although Wellman's energies were clearly diminishing, he still managed to put some exciting touches into the film, along with charm and humor, as he depicted how Wayne led a group of Chinese villagers to freedom on a battered, aging ferryboat, from the People's Republic of China to Hong Kong (then still a British crown colony).

Wayne was paired for the first time with Lauren Bacall, who was then married to the legendary Humphrey Bogart. (Years later, they again worked together in John Wayne's final film, "The Shootist.") While the romantic elements are shaky in the film, they clearly worked well together. Bacall often played strong, determined women and this is one of her better performances. Wayne and Bacall were joined by a mostly Chinese cast, along with an emerging young actress named Anita Ekberg, who would later achieve some notoriety in her famous wading scene in "La Dolce Vita." Try and spot Ekberg in the film; she is heavily made-up as a Chinese villager. Another non-Chinese actor in the film is beefy Mike Mazurki, who often played heavies or sidekicks in films; this is one of Mike's more likeable characters, as he assists Wayne on the ferryboat.

Of all of Wayne's anticommunist films, "Blood Alley" is probably the best because it is entertaining and exciting. Underscoring the action is a very enchanting musical score by Roy Webb, who benefited from the excellent Warner Brothers studio orchestra.

:).......2007-04-10

This is so cheesy and hammy, that I love it. Also, it helps that is was shot quite beautifully. "The bleeding heart of China--you can pin one on me, baby." Or something to that effect. Delightful cheese.

Blood Alley.......2007-02-12

I enjoyed the movie, even though I have seen it many times, it is still an excellent movie to watch. Lauren Bacall and John Wayne are some of my favorite actors.

John Wayne does The African Queen--in China.......2006-06-20

This is probably one of Wayne's lesser-known films, but it's still a good thrilling adventure. He plays Tom Wilder, an "old China hand" who has been knocking around the seacoast of China in just about anything that will float for most of his adult life--until the Chinese Communists took over, confiscated his old freighter, and imprisoned him for two years. All that has kept him sane and unbrainwashed is his imaginary companion, "Baby," to whom he talks throughout the film. Without warning he gets a mysterious note advising him on escape. Provided with a Russian uniform and a handgun, he slips out of the prison and is ferried by sampan to the village of Chiku Shan, whose people, led by elder Mr. Tso (Paul Fix) and their American friend Cathy Grainger (Lauren Bacall), daughter of a doctor who has recently been shanghaied off to treat an important commissar, have made up their collective mind to defect en masse to Hong Kong. What's more, they have a plan: hijack an ancient sternwheel ferryboat (on which Tso's nephew, the American-trained Tack (Henry Nakamura), is Chief Engineer) that plies the straits to Amoy. But, with no charts, they need a captain/navigator, and that's where Wilder comes in.

The creativity with which Wilder and the villagers carry out their program is perhaps the best part of the film. (Watch for the way they trap and cripple the local patrol gunboat to give themselves time to get away.) But even before they set out, there's peril from the Reds (a detachment of their soldiers searches the village for Wilder, who bayonets a straggler when he attempts to assault Cathy) and the necessity of working out from memory a crude chart of the course the boat will have to follow (which Wilder does on the back of one of Dr. Grainger's anatomical charts, furnished by Cathy's maid SuSu (Joy Kim)). There's also the issue of the Fengs, the local collaborationist family, who have to be taken along because the Reds would blame them for the escape of the village and probably kill them all--"even the little ones." The ferry herself--a 19th-Century vintage craft manufactured in Sacramento and named after their abandoned home by the villagers--is almost as much a character as any of the people, and they too make the movie worth a look: SuSu, who tries to get Wilder interested in "Missy Cathy" and, when he jokingly turns the tables on her and claims it's she who sets him afire, indignantly tells Cathy that "Captain Sailor-Man" is "clazy...full of ginger;" Tack, a slangy, cigar-smoking expert who can make his ship do things she wasn't designed for and has trained a "black gang" (engine-room crew) consisting entirely of his own cousins right under the nose of his Communist captain; Old Feng, who persuades his family to poison the refugees' food supply; scholarly Mr. Tso; and tough, loyal Big Han (Mike Mazurki), whose cheerful presence brightens several scenes. There's an "African Queen"-ish sequence in which the villagers, male and female together, literally cordelle the ferry through the reed marshes like a keelboat in order not to betray her presence by burning fuel, and a thrilling battle in the wheelhouse in the midst of a raging thunderstorm when two of the Fengs try to overpower Wilder at the wheel, only to be foiled when Tack, in the engine room, hears the ruckus through the speaking tube and sends up a couple of his cousins as reinforcements. And the sequence in which the villagers come aboard--bringing with them all their goods and chattels, from pigs and goats and poultry to carved furniture and golden household Buddhas to several small machine guns acquired Heaven-knows-how--is reminsicent of a similar scene in Heston's "Ten Commandments." Though no longer Politically Correct in these days of official recognition of "the Mainland," it's a good adventure film and one families can enjoy together.

Blood Alley.......2006-03-23

One of John Wayne's best. If you like "The Quite Man," this should be part of your collection too!

Average customer rating:

Two Unusual John Wayne Adventures of the 1950s...

Blood Alley / Sea Chase
Starring: War Double Feature
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000BPL2FG
Release Date: 2006-01-31

Description

"Powder your nose, Baby, we're coming into Hong Kong!" John Wayne, joined by fellow screen icon Lauren Bacall, braves dangerous waters and pursuing soldiers as he steers Chinese refugees to freedom's shore in Blood Alley. William A. Wellman (The Story of G.I. Joe) directs. Another femme movie legend - Lana Turner - teams with Wayne in the search-and-destroy adventure The Sea Chase, directed by John Farrow (The Big Clock). Wayne plays naval officer Karl Ehrlich, renegade commander of a German freighter trapped in perilous circumstances at the outbreak of World War II. Catch him if you can!

Customer Reviews:

Two Unusual John Wayne Adventures of the 1950s..........2006-01-19

Both only recently released on DVD, 1955's "Blood Alley" and "The Sea Chase" are now available together in a single package, at a very affordable price. Each film offers a view of John Wayne's film work away from the western genre, and are interesting, if not entirely successful, 'period' adventure tales.

The older of the pair, "The Sea Chase", has a novelty value uniquely its own, as the Duke plays a GERMAN sea captain, at the start of WWII! A decorated veteran of WWI, Wayne hates Hitler and the Nazis, but when ordered to return his freighter and crew to home port, he feels honor-bound to comply, despite a British mandate to 'stand down'. Joined prior to departure by a mysterious spy (Lana Turner, in her only teaming with the Duke), Wayne gets his aged ship out of the harbor, and is quickly pursued by a British force, headed by his old friend, Commander Jeff Napier (David Farrar). The story becomes a cat-and-mouse tale, as the freighter attempts to elude British sea power, and reach Germany, safely.

Produced and directed by John Farrow (who had directed Wayne in 1953's "Hondo"), "The Sea Chase", despite earnest performances, never really builds much suspense, and there is a marked lack of chemistry between Wayne and Turner, which sabotages their romantic scenes. Still, the cast includes young Tab Hunter, and many lifelong Wayne friends (including James Arness and Paul Fix), that helps establish an air of camaraderie. Wayne, suffering from a severe ear infection throughout the shoot, makes no effort to adopt a German accent or persona, which gives the film a somewhat surreal 'feel'.

All in all, "The Sea Chase" is, at best, an interesting misfire!

Far more entertaining and successful, "Blood Alley", director 'Wild Bill' Wellman's final collaboration with Wayne (preceded by "Island in the Sky" and "The High and the Mighty"), is not only a rip-roaring 'sea chase' adventure, but another of Wayne's many films endorsing his conservative political ideology. Produced by Wayne, himself (who'd initially hoped to get Robert Mitchum or Humphrey Bogart for the lead), this tale of a sea captain, rescued from the Communist Chinese to transport an entire Chinese village to safety on a broken-down steam ship, never drags.

The film has many 'pluses'; leading lady Lauren Bacall, both beautiful and tough, has terrific chemistry with the Duke (and became a lifelong friend, co-starring in his last film, "The Shootist", over 20 years, later); Wayne's character, 'Tom Wilder', has equal shares of bravura and madness (he talks, frequently, to an imaginary girlfriend, created to help him withstand being tortured), and the Duke obviously enjoyed the role; longtime friend Paul Fix, in Oriental make up, gives one of his better film performances, as a kindly old doctor; and the film is extremely well paced, with tension building as the Communists relentlessly pursue the tiny ship. On the negative side, the politics are stridently right-wing, some of the Chinese characters are stereotypes, and several definitely non-Oriental actors have key 'Chinese' roles (including Mike Mazurki, and an unrecognizable but certainly not Chinese Anita Ekberg). Nonetheless, after fifty years, the film continues to 'hold up' as a very entertaining adventure!

At a 'budget' price, this double feature is certainly worth including in your 'John Wayne' collection!

John Wayne Legendary Heroes Collection (Blood Alley / McQ / The Sea Chase / Tall in the Saddle / The Train Robbers)

Average customer rating:

McQ
John Wayne Legnndary Collection
It's good, but not great.
TALL IN THE SADDLE Stands Out
Problems with Blood Alley

John Wayne Legendary Heroes Collection (Blood Alley / McQ / The Sea Chase / Tall in the Saddle / The Train Robbers)
Starring: John Wayne
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( J ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Action & Adventure | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B0007P0XDC
Release Date: 2005-05-03

Description

The John Wayne Legendary Heroes Collection features five classic films from the larger-than-life American hero, including Blood Alley, McQ, The Sea Chase, Tall in the Saddle and The Train Robbers, all available on DVD for the first time.

Born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, John Wayne first worked in the film business as a laborer on the Fox lot during summer vacations from U.S.C., which he attended on a football scholarship. He met and was befriended by John Ford, a young director who was beginning to make a name for himself in action films, comedies and dramas. It was Ford who recommended Wayne to director Raoul Walsh for the male lead in the 1930 epic Western The Big Trail, and, although it was a box office failure, the movie showed Wayne's potential. For the next nine years, Wayne worked in a multitude of B-Westerns and serials in between bit parts in larger features. Wayne's big break came in 1939, when Ford cast him as the Ringo Kid in the adventure Stagecoach. Wayne nearly stole the picture from his more seasoned co-stars, and his career as a box-office superstar began. During his 50 year film career, Wayne played the lead in 142 movies, an as yet unsurpassed record, and was nominated for three Academy Awards., winning the Best Actor award in 1970 for his performance in True Grit. Blood Alley (1955) - An American seafarer patrolling the South Seas is asked by the daughter of a missionary doctor killed by the Communists to help transport the citizens of a small Chinese town to freedom in Hong Kong. This action-adventure based on A. S. Fleischman's novel, marks the first on-screen pairing of movie legends John Wayne and Lauren Bacall. DVD special features include: Newsreel footage (The Hollywood Foreign Press Honors John Wayne, Crusade for Freedom, John Wayne and The Legion Poppy Sale (silent clip), Air Force Honors the Cast of Blood Alley), 1955 Promos on Blood Alley (Wayne discusses how he made it into the movies; "the monster" of movie land; the Mitchell BNC camera and his use of his home movie camera to capture scenes while on Blood Alley), John Wayne trailer gallery

McQ (1974) - John Wayne forcefully enforces the law in this high-velocity thriller that's a revenge western set in the big city. Police Lieutenant Lon McQ (Wayne) investigates the killing of his best friend and uncovers corrupt elements of the police department dealing in confiscated drugs. Directed by John Sturges (Ice Station Zebra, The Magnificent Seven), McQ also stars Eddie Albert (Roman Holiday) and Colleen Dewhurst (Annie Hall, Dying Young).

The Sea Chase (1955) -John Wayne and Lana Turner are a formidable romantic team in this harrowing adventure directed by Academy Award-nominee John Farrow (Wake Island). Sea captain Kal Erhlich (Wayne) is an anti-Nazi German freighter captain at the outset of World War II attempting to sail his ship from Australia to the North Sea rather than risk internment. Both Allied and German ships follow in pursuit, while Erhlich battles storms, sharks, and romances.

Tall in the Saddle (1944) - In this fast-paced entertaining western, John Wayne stars as Rocklin, a cowboy who upon arriving at a ranch to work as a cowhand finds his employer was just murdered. Although he has no friends, and no money, Rocklin stays in town, intent on tracking the killers and uncovering a plan to inherit the dead employer's riches.

The Train Robbers (1973) - The action never stops in this western starring John Wayne, Ann-Margret and Ricardo Montalban. A gunhand named Lane (Wayne) is hired by a widow, Mrs. Lowe (Ann-Margret), to find gold stolen by her husband so that she may return it and start fresh. However, once they cross the border into Mexico to recover the loot, they discover two very different pursuers: a large group of bandidos and a lone horseman (Montalban), both of whom know their every move. DVD special features include: Two featurettes (Working with a Western Legend - an inside look at Wayne with stuntmen Jerry Gatlin, Dean Smith and Terry Leonard; The Wayne Train), John Wayne trailer gallery

Customer Reviews:

McQ.......2005-08-18

Excuse me but I don't speak english and I buy yours DVD only , when are subtitles in french. For this reason,I talk about McQ in french. C'est un excellent film policier réalisé par un director de talent, John Sturges dont j'apprécie toujours les films (The Magnificent Seven, Bad Day at Black Rock, Backlash, Gunfight at the OK Corral etc.) Il est aussi brillant dans les westerns que dans ses autres films d'action comme celui-ci. John Wayne qui a démissionné de la police, est embauché par un ami détective privé. Il va se lancer dans une passionnante enquête sur un trafic de drogue dont les commanditaires ne sont pas ceux que l'on croyait Malgrè l'âge et la maladie, John Wayne a beaucoup de présence dans ce film qui comporte une scène de poursuite très réussie

John Wayne Legnndary Collection.......2005-07-20

What can you say about movies with the Duke?
I love the Duke's movies.
I now have more than 75 Titeles in my DVD collection, Plus some colerized copies taken from TCM And AMC. I have edited the commercials out and burned them to DVD. I also have many of these on VHS tape.

It's good, but not great. .......2005-06-30

John Wayne, a legendary hero. This box set has some good movies, I really liked the Westerns, but the rest of the movies I didn't care for. Unless you're really into John Wayne this might be one Box Set you may want to rent rather than buy.

TALL IN THE SADDLE Stands Out.......2005-06-01

After "Stagecoach", it seems Duke finally started getting some decent scripts. "Tall in the Saddle" was written by his friend, Paul Fix who appeared in a lot of Westerns but is probably best remembered for TV's "The Rifleman" in the 50s and early 60s. "Tall in the Saddle" is a stand-out movie for the 1940s or for today. There is a real plot and lots of atmosphere with an eye-catching performance by Ella Raines. The other movies are only for John Wayne fans who will watch anything he is in. Of the others, I saw them all (except "The Sea Chase") when they were first released; I was always underwhelmed and remain so these years later. "Tall in the Saddle" is often on cable and can be taped; if you can manage to do that, you can save buying these other mediocre films.

Problems with Blood Alley.......2005-05-23

This is a great set. However, I've gone through four sets which were purchased/returned at Sam's Club!! Blood Alley is defective as it keeps on freezing or skipping. I've tried all four on three different machines. Has anybody had this problem? If the set from Amazon is alright, I'll buy it here.
Thanks!

Average customer rating:

John Wayne vs. Chinese Communists
:)
Blood Alley
John Wayne does The African Queen--in China
Blood Alley

Blood Alley
Starring: Lauren Bacall , George Chan , W.T. Chang , David Chow , and Anita Ekberg
Director: William A. Wellman
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007P0XCI
Release Date: 2005-05-03

Description

An American merchant marine captain ferries a group of Chinese refugess down the Yangtze River to escape the Communists.

Customer Reviews:

John Wayne vs. Chinese Communists.......2007-06-14

:).......2007-04-10

Blood Alley.......2007-02-12

I enjoyed the movie, even though I have seen it many times, it is still an excellent movie to watch. Lauren Bacall and John Wayne are some of my favorite actors.

John Wayne does The African Queen--in China.......2006-06-20

Blood Alley.......2006-03-23

One of John Wayne's best. If you like "The Quite Man," this should be part of your collection too!

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