DVD REVIEW: THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF WYATT EARP: THE COMPLETE SEASON TWO
REVIEWED BY: CINEMA LATTE
GRADE: 2 out of 5 reels
UPC: 815300011294
RELEASE DATE: March 12, 2013
DISC INFORMATION: 5 discs, B&W, full screen
RUNNING TIME: 16 hours and 15 minutes
SPECIAL FEAUTURES: None
RATED: PG
GENRE: TV series/Western
STARRING: Hugh O’Brian, Mason Alan Dinehart, Denver Pyle, Hal Baylor, Gloria Talbott, Don Haggerty, Douglas Fowley, Margaret Hayes and Lloyd Corrigan
This complete set of the second season of “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp” contains all 39 episodes which aired during the 1956-57 television season. The series lasted 6 years and covered the tales of Wyatt Earp and his friends Bat Masterson and Doc Holiday as they tried to tame the West. The series follows his exploits in the likes of Dodge City, Tombstone, and Wichita.
The set includes:
- Wichita is Civilized
- Dodge Gets a New Marshal
- Fight or Run
- Double Life of Dora Hand
- Clay Allison
- Wyatt’s Love Affair
- Quite Day in Dodge City
- Almost Dead Cowhand
- Reformation of Jim Kelly
- So Long, Dora, So Long
- Bat Masterson Wins His Star
- Lonesomest Man in the World
- Take Back Your Town
- Nineteen Notches On His Gun
- The Hanging Judge
- Justice
- Shootin’ Woman
- Man Who Road With Custer
- Wyatt and the Captain
- Witness For the Defense
- The Sharpshooter
- The Siege at Little Alamo
- The Vengeance Trail
- Command Performance
- They Hired Some Guns
- Bat Masterson For Sheriff
- Hang Him High
- Vultures
- Young Gun
- The Nice Ones Die First
- Old Jake
- The Equalizer
- Wyatt Meets Doc Holiday
- The Beautiful Friendship
- Dull Knife Strikes For Freedom
- The Gold Brick
- The Wicked Widow
- They Think They’re Immortal
- Time For All Good Men
It’s definitely a very dated series. It’s very simple and corny with old views and norms. The acting is as hokey as the dialogue but what a cast! I love Wishbone (Paul Brinegar ) from “Rawhide”!
The stunt fighting and gunplay is as hokey as everything else in the show. It’s almost comical. Wyatt will charge a gunman and kick him somewhere between knee and waist with the side of his booth and the guy goes down in a heap and stays. The next gunman may be slapped by Wyatt and down he goes. Or Wyatt shoots someone and tells them to pick up their friends and get out of here. Again, very comical.
Although interesting and intriguing solely in the eyes of a film historian and a fan of some of the lost and forgotten performers of the time, this series is preachy, pretentious, and very hokey all the way through. For today’s audience, this series will not be well receptive. It’s slow and very dated.
For those film and television collectors, this is a wonderful, although hokey, collection of some of the best actors of the 50’s. Worthy of collectors, but not a high point of entertainment for others. This one is definitely only for the collectors and film historians at heart.
That’s my review and I’m sticking with it.