Against All s [1952] / The Rare Breed [1966] [DVD]

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Product Description ------------------- A double bill of classic Maureen O'Hara films; 'Against All s' (1952) is a classic Errol Flynn high seas swashbuckler in which he plays Brian Hawke, a valiant British naval officer fighting Madacar pirates. Hawke has himself made outcast in order to go under cover and infiltrate a notorious band of brigands known as 'the pirate republic'. So far so unlikely but it becomes doubly so when Hawke finds himself falling in love with what surely has to be the only female pirate captain in history, Spitfire Stevens (Maureen O'Hara). Their fledgling romance is jeopardized when Hawke rescues a young thing from a captured ship and she falls in love with him. Hawke keeps the lid on this love arsenal long enough to see in the big climax to his mission complete with demonic play, sail-sliding, close-confined chases, honour, gallantry and a dozen other piratical ingredients. 'The Rare Breed' (1966) is a western starring James Stewart and Maureen O'Hara, based on real-life events in the 1880s when Hereford cattle were first introduced to the American West. Martha Price (O'Hara) and her daughter Hilary (Juliet Mills) enlist the help of Sam 'Bulldog' Burnett (Stewart), a wandering ranch hand, to carry out the dream of Martha's late husband who died en route to America. His dream was to introduce Hereford by transporting a lone bull, Vindicator, to Texas to breed it with longhorn cattle. Martha, Hilary and Sam set out on the road to Texas with the bull, but the trail is fraught with dangers and Sam has to rescue the women from a series of Western-style ambushes and abductions. .co.uk Review ------------- The Rare Breed A very offbeat subject gives this Western its beefy flavour: English lady Maureen O'Hara ( /gp/search?search-alias=dvd&field-keywords=Maureen%20O'Hara+-ntsc ) brings a prize Hereford bull to the Wild West, where she plans to introduce its hardy bloodline into longhorn country. Cattle puncher James Stewart ( /gp/search?search-alias=dvd&field-keywords=James%20Stewart+-ntsc ) finds the idea suspect, but he likes this redhead, so he manages to tag along through stampede, fight, and blizzard. Director Andrew V. McLaglen generally steers a pleasing course, although the movie occasionally stumbles between brawling comedy and western drama. One stunt sequence, a run of longhorns through a desert canyon, qualifies as a hair-raiser. Brian Keith, wearing a gigantic red beard, does a Scots accent as a cattle baron, and veteran cowhands Ben Johnson and Jack Elam are around to lend atmosphere. The big bull's name is Vindicator, and he obeys whenever Juliet Mills whistles "God Save the Queen"--did we mention this is a very offbeat subject for a Western? --Robert Horton