Saddle up for one of the best DVD sets to ever grace the vast plains of the DVD landscape. The John Wayne-John Ford Collection combines some of the best films these two mavericks made together, many of which are coming to DVD for the first time!

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.

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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)

  • 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