This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Brand: Warner Brothers EAN: 0012569816121 Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Warner Home Video Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Warner Home Video Region Code: 1 Release Date: August 15, 2006 Running Time: 206 minutes Studio: Warner Home Video Theatrical Release Date: June 12, 1970 Sales Rank: 5546 MPN: WARD81612D
Description: They can be tough as leather. Or as down-home as any pair of good ol' boys. Either way, there's a sense of warm respect between the two stars. The off-camera friendship of James Stewart and Henry Fonda goes back to their days as struggling actors and roommates. The Cheyenne Social Club [Side A] casts them as saddle-weary Texans who, surprised to find they've inherited a Wyoming bawdy house, feel honor-bound to defend it against a gun-wielding gang. Gene Kelly produces and directs this mix of fun and Western action. Next comes a firestorm of character-driven excitement in Firecreek [Side B]. Fonda plays an outlaw preying on small towns, and Stewart is the jittery, $2-a-month part-time lawman who must find the courage to stop him. This will be some showdown!
Amazon.com: The teaming of James Stewart and Henry Fonda was a natural: not only were the two men veteran stars of their generation, but they'd actually been friends and even roommates since early in their careers. These two Westerns offer the stars in their relaxed end-of-career mode, with Stewart in the hero roles and Fonda as either villain or burr-under-the-saddle sidekick.
Firecreek is a grim 1968 Western that carries a strong residual aroma of High Noon. Stewart plays a farmer who happens to be the nominal (but rarely needed) sheriff of Firecreek, which means he must go into service when Fonda and his scurvy bunch of desperados (among them Gary Lockwood and Jack Elam) come to town looking for trouble. This slow, stripped-down picture has a philosophical undertone, with Fonda's weary, wounded outlaw trading bitter wisdom with local girl Inger Stevens. It goes on too long and Stewart is in the phase of coasting on his familiar persona, but overall it's a decent little Western fable.
The Cheyenne Social Club, from 1970, gets off to a marvelous start, with a sequence of saddle tramps Stewart and Fonda riding across half the West as Fonda maintains a fractured monologue throughout. Screenwriter James Lee Barrett was a veteran who worked frequently with Stewart (Shenandoah) and John Wayne, and some of the Western flavor is fine, but... things turn crass as soon as the pals realize Stewart has inherited a bordello in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Everybody except Fonda overacts mercilessly, and director Gene Kelly--yes, that Gene Kelly--indulges a leering style that undercuts some of the authentic laughs. Shirley Jones is around to provide comfort at the club; some predictable gunplay is mixed in with the jokes. However middling these two films might be in the filmographies of their formidable stars, it must be said that the widescreen transfer of both films to DVD is very good. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Cheyenne Social Club
This is an oldie. The quality of the film on DVD is okay. There is another film on the DVD that I am unfamiliar with the content: Fire Creek.
Rating: - Two classy actors in two serviceable westerns
Both films are beautifully restored and presented in letterbox format. The colors, the photography, especially the night shooting in "Firecreek" are excellent. Of the two, "Firecreek" is the standout. ... Read More
Rating: - Tour de force performances by two Hollywood legends
Unlike many movies made today, The Cheyenne Social Club and Firecreek pit two veteran actors whose consummate skill and ability to tell a story makes special effects unnecessary-the quality of the story ... Read More
Rating: - The Cheyenne Social Club 1970 / Firecreek 1967
Friends Of The West : Cinema Icons James Stewart and Henry Fonda ! . They can be tough as leather . Or as down-home as any pair of good ol'boys . Either way there's a sense og warm respect between the two ... Read More
Rating: - Cheyenne Social Club DVD
It's a lesser known flick with Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart. If you like westerns, if you like comedy, and you particularly like Fonda and Stewart, you'll have a tough time NOT liking this movie. Shirley ... Read More
- Cheyenne Social Club
- Two classy actors in two serviceable westerns
- Tour de force performances by two Hollywood legends