Certainly hope these come out as seperate releases, as I already own 'They Were Expendable', '3 Godfathers', and 'She Wore A Yellow Ribbon'. I also own 'Stagecoach' and 'The Searchers', but I'll double-dip to get the 2-disc SE versions...

The box set should have She Wore a Yellow Ribbon in a keepcase at the very least (if not an altogether new edition). So that's one less snapper to blight my shelves.

That John Wayne set sounds great. I've never seen Long Voyage Home, They Were Expendable or Wings of Eagles - can anybody tell me how good they are? Are they worthy additions to a DVD collection? Thanks in advance!

the wings of eagles is a fantastic movie. john wayne, maureen o'hara, ward bond, john ford...you can't go wrong.

Actually, I have to say that I find "Wings of Eagles" rather dull. It's a loving biopic of Frank "Spig" Wead, who wrote a number of screenplays for Wayne's and Ford's movies, including "They Were Expendable." Wead was paralyzed from the waist down due to a freak accident, and it tends to oversentimentalize the whole road to recovery routine. That's purely my opinion, though. (And it does have Ward Bond doing a great impersonation of "John Dodge," a.k.a. John Ford.)

"They Were Expendable" and "Long Voyage Home" are superb, though. "TWE" is one of the best and most authentic war movies made during WWII, thanks to Robert Montgomery's own personal knowledge of pt boats. And Eugene O'Neill adored "LVH" -- which is a compilation/adaptation of a set of short one-act plays he wrote. "LVH" also features incredibly rich camerawork from Gregg Toland.

Good analysis of the films. I would disagree with you on 'Wings Of Eagles' though. Anyone who says John Wayne was a one-dimensional actor should watch this film...

great news...so now I pass on 3 godfathers, and the double feature they were expendable/flying leathernecks

looks like 06.13.06 for the searchers

From the HTF, we have a date:

USA Today has a blurb in the Life section about the John Wayne/John Ford Collection from Warner coming on June 6th-SRP $80. Will include 2 disc SE The Searchers; 2 disc SE Stagecoach; Long Voyage Home; They Were Expendable; She Wore A Yellow Ribbon; Fort Apache; Three Godfathers and Wings of Eagles.

Warner press release:

THE JOHN WAYNE-JOHN FORD COLLECTION

THE SEARCHERS: ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S EDITION
(Newly Remastered and Restored from VistaVision Film Elements)

STAGECOACH: TWO-DISC COLLECTOR'S EDITION
(Newly Remastered from Best Available Film Elements)

FORT APACHE - THE LONG VOYAGE HOME - WINGS OF EAGLES (New to DVD)

SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON ~ THEY WERE EXPENDABLE ~ 3 GODFATHERS

Collection Arrives June 6 Loaded with Bonus Materials including Introduction by Patrick Wayne, John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker & the Legend, the New Feature Length American Masters Retrospective Profile, Expert Commentaries and Additional New Featurettes

Burbank, Calif. March 6, 2006 - One of the greatest director-star combinations in the history of Hollywood gets the Warner Home Video deluxe DVD treatment with the June 6 release of The John Wayne-John Ford Collection, a ten-disc set featuring eight of the team's finest collaborations. Anchoring the Collection, and arriving just in time for Father's Day, is The Searchers: Ultimate Collector's Edition which includes a Two-Disc Special Edition DVD with extensive all-new bonus features, plus a full color 36-page press book, a 36-page reproduction of the original Dell comic book, filmmaker memos and correspondence, several behind-the-scenes photos and a mail-in theatrical poster.

The collection also features Stagecoach: Two Disc Special Edition, newly remastered and restored from original VistaVision film elements and loaded with new bonus content and three titles making their DVD debuts: the classic western Fort Apache, and the stirring war films The Long Voyage Home and Wings of Eagles. Rounding out the set are the timeless classics She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and They Were Expendable (in new Amaray packaging) plus 3 Godfathers, which is available for the first time in wide release with this Collection.

The Searchers will be available individually in both the 50th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition for $26.99 SRP and the Ultimate Collector's Edition priced at $34.92 SRP. The Stagecoach: Two-Disc Special Edition will be available for $26.99 SRP and the single disc titles will sell individually for various prices from $12.97 - $19.97 SRP. The price for the entire ten-disc Collection is $79.92 SRP.

In the now well-established WHV DVD Classics tradition, The Searchers has been painstakingly remastered and restored from original VistaVision film elements. Also restored from original and best available elements are Fort Apache and Stagecoach and Wings of Eagles is newly remastered in 16x9 format, enhanced for widescreen televisions (1.85:1 aspect ratio). The Collection bonus materials include an introduction by Patrick Wayne (John's son), an all-new feature length documentary American Masters: John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker & the Legend produced by WNET/American Masters, commentaries by noted film director Peter Bogdanovich and Ford biographer Scott Eyman, several new featurettes, audio only segments plus John Wayne home movies.

John Ford was easily one of the greatest, most prolific and versatile directors Hollywood ever produced. Combined with a star of the caliber and magnetism of John Wayne and what emerges is pure cinematic magic.

John Ford was responsible for making John Wayne a star when he cast him in Stagecoach, but their friendship dates back to the silent era. Wayne was a former University of Southern California football player working as a prop boy at Fox, where Ford was one of their top directors. The two were friendly and Ford cast Wayne in bit roles in several of his films (i.e., Mother Machree, Salute, Four Sons). After the arrival of sound, Ford introduced the young actor to director Raoul Walsh, who put him in the super Western The Big Trail and changed his name to John Wayne (he was born Marion Morrison). The Big Trail was a box-office failure and Wayne spent the remainder of the '30s appearing in mostly "B" westerns, while Ford's career soared with such classics as The Lost Patrol, The Informer and The Hurricane.

When Ford purchased the rights to a Saturday Evening Post short story by Earnest Haycox entitled "Stage to Lordsburg," he developed the lead character with Wayne in mind. While Ford fought studio executives to cast Wayne in the role (the studio wanted a star name), their ensuing complicated relationship on the set baffled outsiders. Ford constantly browbeat his star, told him he was a lousy actor, said he walked funny and generally picked on him at every opportunity until Wayne's co-stars came to his rescue. Andy Devine later realized the cast had been fooled to prevent the name actors from being jealous of a newcomer.

Ford's infuriating treatment of John Wayne didn't end with their first film. Throughout Wayne's career -- and he made many films with Ford -- the director continued to taunt him on the set. In fact, he treated many of his actors this way. "If he liked you," Dobie Cary said, "he mistreated you. If he ignored you, then you'd probably never work with him again." The irony of it was that most of Wayne's finest performances were in the 13 films he and Ford made together: Rio Grande (1950), The Quiet Man (1952), The Horse Soldiers (1959), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), How the West Was Won (1962) and the titles included in this Collection.


The Searchers: Ultimate Collector's Edition & The Searchers: 50th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition (1956)

John Wayne and John Ford made The Searchers a landmark Western with an indelible image of the frontier and the men and women who challenged it. Although not nominated for any awards at the time of its release, the film has since been widely acknowledged as one of the supreme triumphs of the genre. The Searchers was placed on the National Film Registry in 1989 and ranked number 96 on the American Film Institute's list of "100 Greatest Movies."

Wayne plays an ex-Confederate soldier searching for his niece (Natalie Wood), captured by the Comanches who massacred his family. He won't surrender to hunger, thirst, the elements or loneliness. And in his five-year search, he encounters something unexpected: his own humanity. Beautifully shot by Winton C. Hoch (four-time Academy Award winner), thrillingly scored by Max Steiner (21 Academy Award nominations, 3 wins) and memorably acted by a wonderful ensemble including Jeffrey Hunter (King of Kings, The Longest Day), Vera Miles (The Wrong Man, Psycho), Natalie Wood (Rebel Without a Cause, Gypsy, West Side Story) and frequent Ford cast member Ward Bond (My Darling Clementine, The Quiet Man), The Searchers endures as "a great film of enormous scope and breathtaking physical beauty." (Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic).

Special Features:
Disc 1
Newly remastered and restored from original VistaVision film elements
Introduction by Patrick Wayne (John's son)
Commentary by Director Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, What's Up, Doc?)
Theatrical trailer
Disc 2
The Searchers: An Appreciation
A Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and The Searchers
Behind the Cameras
Meet Jeffrey Hunter
Monument Valley
Meet Natalie Wood
Setting Up Production


Stagecoach Two-Disc Special Edition (1939)

Nine disparate travelers are thrown together on a stagecoach destined for Apache territory...and movie immortality. In the lead role of the Ringo Kid, director John Ford cast a lanky veteran of 70 B-movies, serials and shorts named John Wayne. Each rifle shot and close-up rang out the news: a new star is born. This first collaboration between director and star made both their reputations as talents to watch in the Western genre yet focuses on carefully etched character studies. Marked by deft and efficient editing, as well as remarkable camera work, Stagecoach transcends the traditional shoot-'em-up.

Winner of two Academy Awards (Best Supporting Actor and Best Music, Scoring) and nominated for an additional five (including Best Picture and Best Director), Stagecoach was placed on the National Film Registry in 1995 and ranked number 63 on the American Film Institute's list of "100 Greatest Movies." In addition to a stellar performance by Wayne, Stagecoach boasts an unusually strong cast, including Claire Trevor (Best Supporting Actress winner for Key Largo), Thomas Mitchell (in his Oscar-winning performance), Andy Devine (Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves), John Carradine (The Grapes of Wrath, Satan's Cheerleaders) and silent star George Bancroft (Old Ironsides, 3 Bad Men, Underworld). This adventure ushered in a 30-year era of great Westerns, many featuring its top practitioners - Ford and Wayne.

Special Features:

· Newly remastered from best available film elements.

· New feature-length American Masters: John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker & the Legend retrospective profile

· New documentary Stagecoach: A Story of Redemption

· Commentary by Scott Eyman, author of "Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford"
· Audio-only bonus: radio adaptation with Claire Trevor and Randolph Scott

· Theatrical trailer

· Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)


Fort Apache (1948)-FIRST TIME ON DVD

John Wayne and many familiar supporting players from master director John Ford's "stock company" saddle up for the first film in the director's famed cavalry trilogy (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande are the others). Roughhouse camaraderie, sentimental vignettes of frontier life, massive action sequences staged in Monument Valley - all are part of Fort Apache. So is Ford's exploration of the West's darker side. Themes of justice, heroism and honor that Ford would revisit in later Westerns are given free rein in this moving, thought-provoking film that, even as it salutes a legend, gives reasons to question it.

The stellar cast includes the distinguished Henry Fonda (The Grapes of Wrath, On Golden Pond), former child star Shirley Temple (reunited with her director from Wee Willie Winkie), Temple's then-current husband John Agar making his film debut and Ford regulars Victor McLaglen, Ward Bond and George O'Brien.

Special Features:

· Digitally remastered and restored from original nitrate elements

· New featurette Monument Valley: John Ford Country

· Theatrical trailer

· Subtitles: English, Français & Español (Feature Film Only)


The Long Voyage Home (1940)-FIRST TIME ON DVD

Director John Ford and screenwriter Dudley Nichols adapted four Eugene O'Neill one-act dramas into this compelling, lyrical look at men at sea that O'Neill considered his favorite of all his filmed works. As his sailors, Ford cast members of his so-called "Stock Company": Thomas Mitchell (Gone with the Wind), Barry Fitzgerald (Academy Award winner for Going My Way), Arthur Shields (How Green Was My Valley), Ward Bond (It's a Wonderful Life), John Qualen (Casablanca) and the star of the previous year's Stagecoach, John Wayne. As sunny, sweet-natured Ole Olsen, Wayne does winning work in an atypical role that required the stalwart star to sport a Swedish accent. Nominated for an impressive six Academy Awards incuding Best Picture, The Long Voyage Home is a journey to remember.

Special Features:

· New featurette Serenity at Sea: John Ford and the Araner

· Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)


Wings of Eagles (1957)-FIRST TIME ON DVD

Cmdr. Frank "Spig" Wead was a pioneer aviator, renowned screenwriter (whose work included John Ford's They Were Expendable) and a man of war. The skies beckoned Spig to action; a crippling injury ultimately left him powerless to act, propelling him to discover the power of his pen. He was talented, driven, flawed, a friend of Ford -- and the subject of this compassionate biography.

John Wayne plays Spig and Ford directs The Wings of Eagles, which also offers a fascinating glimpse into the ways and world of Ford. Ward Bond plays moviemaker John Dodge, a role modeled on Ford. Maureen O'Hara, Wayne's five-time co-star (including Ford's The Quiet Man), and Dan Dailey (of Ford's 1952 What Price Glory?) play Spig's indomitable wife Min and cigar-chomping sidekick "Jughead" Carson.

Special Features:

· Newly remastered in 16x9 format, enhanced for widescreen televisions (1.85:1 aspect ratio)

· Theatrical trailer

· Languages: English & Français

· Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)


3 Godfathers (1948)

John Ford remade one of his classic silent Westerns 3 Bad Men (1926), a story of three bandits who come upon a dying mother and child while escaping the law. Two of them die trying to get the child to town and safety. Starring John Wayne (in the role originated by George O'Brien), the cast also features Pedro Armendáriz (The Fugitive, Fort Apache), perennial Ward Bond, the luminous silent star Mae Marsh (Birth of a Nation, Intolerance), who frequently appeared in uncredited roles in Ford's films and, making his screen debut, Harry Carey, Jr. (son of Ford's "stock company" regular Harry Carey, in whose memory the film is dedicated).

· Theatrical trailer


She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949)

A masterpiece of mood and heroics, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, was the centerpiece in director John Ford's renowned cavalry trilogy (Fort Apache and Rio Grande bookend it) and features one of John Wayne's most moving performances as a cavalry officer in his final week of service on the frontier.

Under makeup aging him some 20 years, Wayne inhabits the role of a wily veteran who knows the sting of war and vows to make his last mission one of peace. The ritual of outpost life, the sweep of battle, the advance of the patrol beneath ominous skies: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, an Academy Award winner for its color cinematography, paints a memorable portrait of the honor, duty and courage in the finest tradition of the cavalry.

With Wayne in She Wore A Yellow Ribbon are Joanne Dru (Red River, All the King's Men), John Agar (Fort Apache), Ben Johnson (Mighty Joe Young, Shane), Harry Carey, Jr. (3 Godfathers) and Victor McLaglen (The Informer).

Special Features:

· John Ford home movies

· Theatrical trailer

· Languages: English & Français

· Subtitles: English, Français, Español & Português


They Were Expendable (1945)

Director John Ford's World War II tale knows its battle-scarred topic firsthand: Robert Montgomery (The Big House, Here Comes Mr. Jordan) was a Pacific PT-boat commander and a valorous Bronze Star recipient and Ford filmed the Academy Award-winning documentary Battle of Midway. John Wayne creates a portrait of patriotic resolve as only he can. They Were Expendable salutes all who dedicated themselves to the cause of freedom during some of the war's bleakest hours.

Supplies are dwindling. Troops are hopelessly outnumbered. But even in defeat, there is victory. The defenders of the Philippines -- including PT-boat skippers John Brickley (Montgomery) and Rusty Ryan (Wayne) -- will give the U.S. war effort time to regroup after the devastation of Pearl Harbor.

Special Features:

· Theatrical Trailer

· Subtitles: English & Français


JOHN WAYNE - JOHN FORD COLLECTION

Street Date: June 6, 2006

Pricing: $79.92 SRP

Thanks for the article on the upcoming releases FilmFanSea. Glad they will be available to purchase individually, as I already own three of these.

DVDTimes links for both The John Wayne-John Ford Collection and The John Ford Collection.

Fantastic - my poor wallet!

Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of The John Ford Collection for 6th June 2006. Celebrating one of the true masters of American cinema, Warner are honoring John Ford with this separate collection which goes beyond his best known Westerns and collaborations with John Wayne (showcased in The John Wayne-John Ford Collection). The John Ford Collection runs the gamut of genres and shows the diversity and genius of John Ford at his most impressive. Featured here will be the DVD debuts of five classic titles. The Lost Patrol, The Informer and Cheyenne Autumn will be available individually for $19.97 SRP. Mary of Scotland and Sergeant Rutledge will be exclusive to the five-disc boxed set which will sell for $59.92 SRP.

Ford is best known for his incredible series of classic westerns (Stagecoach, The Searchers); however, his impressive four Best Director Academy Awards® (The Informer, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, and The Quiet Man) were for work outside the western genre and remain somewhat overlooked today.

The Informer, for which John Ford earned his first Best Director Academy Award and star Victor McLaglen took home a Best Actor statuette, makes its DVD debut here, restored and remastered from the original camera negative. It’s included in WHV’s new Collection along with political drama The Lost Patrol (1934) also starring Victor McLaglen as well as Boris Karloff, and restored to its original theatrical release running time, plus the poignant and impressive epic Mary of Scotland which starred Katharine Hepburn and Fredric March. Rounding out the collection is Cheyenne Autumn, a 1964 widescreen epic, restored to its full roadshow length and glory with a new 5.1 soundtrack. It turned out to be Ford’s last Western which ranks as one of his most ambitious and moving works. And lastly is the cult favorite Sergeant Rutledge, another landmark Western notable for exploring racism in the West, starring Woody Strode in the title role.

Orson Welles referred to John Ford as the greatest “poet” movies have given us. Welles actually viewed Stagecoach 40 times before filming began on Citizen Kane (1941), noting that his directing style was influenced by the old guys, the “classical” film makers. When asked who, he replied, “John Ford, John Ford and John Ford.”

Ford's directing style was one of measured simplicity. His pace is slow and his shots unpretentious. He keeps the camera at eye-level with hardly a dolly-shot in site. Early in his career, Ford talked about what he called "invisible technique" or making an audience forget they were watching a movie. And though it’s possible to trace the much-vaunted lighting style and deep focus of Orson Welles Citizen Kane to Ford's earlier films, his later Technicolor works are just as visually imaginative.

The Lost Patrol
Filmed in the scorching Arizona desert, John Ford guides this powerful tale of men and mortality set in World War I Mesopotamia. Victor McLaglen, who would claim the following year’s Best Actor (1935) Oscar® as Ford’s protagonist in The Informer, plays a stalwart sergeant who takes charge as he and his men try to escape the unseen snipers who felled their captain. Boris Karloff (Frankenstein) is a religious firebrand whose zeal turns to feverish madness. And the unforgiving terrain is as much an enemy as the snipers it conceals.

The Informer
John Ford earned his first Best Director Academy Award and star Victor McLaglen took home a Best Actor statuette for this searing four-time Oscar® winner set in 1922 Dublin. Timely in its portrait of murderous political strife between occupier and insurgent and timeless in its exploration of the tortured netherworld of human guilt, The Informer is filmmaking for the ages.

Special Features:
New Featurette The Informer: Out of the Fog
Theatrical trailer

Mary of Scotland
Directed by the legendary John Ford and adapted from Maxwell Anderson’s powerful play, Mary of Scotland gave Katharine Hepburn (Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story) one of her finest early roles. Both fierce and fragile as the headstrong queen, Hepburn is brilliantly matched by Fredric March (Anna Karenina, I Married a Witch) as her courageous lover Bothwell and by Florence Eldridge (March’s real life wife) as Elizabeth, who is everything Mary is not: physically plain, politically shrewd…and victorious.

Sergeant Rutledge
Ford crafts the story of Sergeant Rutledge (Woody Strode), a 9th Cavalry officer on trial for rape and murder in 1866. Lt. Cantrell (Jeffrey Hunter) defends Rutledge as witnesses give testimony (relived in flashbacks) revealing the sergeant’s gallantry – and the shocking truth behind the alleged crimes. Ford, who attacked racism in The Searchers, explores similar territory in this landmark Western, the power of which still rings out with uncommon force decades later.

Special Features:
Theatrical trailer
Languages: English & Français
Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only)

Cheyenne Autumn
The last Western from director John Ford ranks as one of his most ambitious and moving works. Ford outfits his Trail-of-Tears-like saga with a strong cast, stunning cinematography by long-time collaborator William Clothier and a stirring Alex North score. To play the Cheyenne nation desperately struggling to return to the Yellowstone homeland across 1,500 treacherous miles, Ford recruited hundreds of Navajo tribesmen, many of them veterans of Ford movies dating back to 1939’s Stagecoach. The location (which Ford used for the ninth time) is “John Ford Country” – the canyons, buttes and mesas of Monument Valley. Cheyenne Autumn is compassionate, epic artistry from one of Hollywood’s most revered filmmakers.

Its all-star cast was headed by Richard Widmark (The Alamo, How the West was Won), Carroll Baker (Baby Doll, Harlow), Karl Malden (On the Waterfront, Gypsy), Sal Mineo (Rebel Without a Cause, Exodus), Dolores Del Rio (Wonder Bar, The Fugitive), Ricardo Montalban (Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn, “Fantasy Island”) and Gilbert Roland (Our Betters, The French Line).

Special Features:
New digital transfer from restored roadshow length picture and audio elements
Archival behind-the scenes featurette Cheyenne Autumn Trail
Commentary by Joseph McBride
Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1
Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English, Français & Español (Feature Film Only)

:drool:

Wow, great stuff! I was really hoping to pick up Sgt. Rutledge individually, but it looks like it is exclusive with the pack. Do y'all vouch for the other flicks in this set? Oddly enough, I have seen almost all of the titles from the Wayne-Ford set, but haven't viewed as many from the Ford collection.

Great Scott! What a day that will be!!! :) :) :)

Apprears some of the artwork for this is up at DVDTimes

http://dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=60701

Great artwork for 'The Long Voyage Home'. Reminds me of a what an under-rated gem that picture is. It is funny to see a large picture of John Wayne on the front, knowing that he can't have more than a dozen lines in the film. I'm guessing that poster was a re-issue, after he started to become immensely popular (late 40s perhaps).

Looking forward to seeing how Warner does with the transfer of this title. I use to own the laserdisc of 'The Long Voyage Home', and it was in terrible shape. Think somewhere along the lines of a Madacy DVD release from today...

TCM showed a print of LVH a couple of months ago, and I presume it's the print they'll be using for the DVD. Anyway, it looked better than the old VHS tape I used to own. There's still significantly more damage than most Warner titles, but it was nowhere near the realm of PD/Madacy titles.

more artwork is up at dvdtimes