Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Starring Joel McCrea, Vera Miles, Lloyd Bridges, Wallace Ford, Edgar Buchanan, Peter Graves, Jack Elam
Jacques Tourneur’s Wichita (1955) was an early DVD title from Warner Archive and we were all excited to see it turn up. Now it’s coming to Blu-Ray in August — and I’m probably more excited this time around, given what we’ve seen CinemaScope and Technicolor look like in high definition these days. Wichita is getting a 4K scan of the original camera negative.
But no matter how you’re looking at it, Wichita is terrific. Tourneur was one of Joel McCrea’s preferred directors and they always seemed to strike gold when they worked together. This one, with McCrea as Wyatt Earp cleaning up Wichita, Kansas, is one of their best.
Riding along with Wichita are two Tex Avery cartoons, Deputy Droopy and The First Bad Man (both 1955). The whole thing comes highly, highly recommended.
Thanks to Paula for the tip!
