Warner Home Video (WHV) and Paramount Home Entertainment (PHE) will join forces on an unprecedented initiative to honor the great John Wayne on May 22 -- the week that would have been ?The Duke's' 100th birthday. The studios will pool their DVD sales and marketing resources, digging into their vast libraries for a total of 48 Wayne popular classics. The lead titles in the promotion are Rio Bravo in both a Two-Disc Special Edition and Ultimate Collector's Edition, TheCowboys as a Deluxe Edition and True Grit as a Special Collector's Edition.

WHV also will debut the John Wayne Film Collection, a six-disc set (also available individually) featuring six films never before on DVD: Allegheny Uprising, Reunion in France, Tycoon, Without Reservations, Trouble Along The Way and Big Jim McLain. A total of 34 Wayne films are now available from WHV.

PHE has a total of 14 Wayne titles on DVD, highlighted by an all-new Special Collector's Edition of True Grit along with three DVD collections: the John Wayne Century Collection, which features 14 films including The High And The Mighty Special Collector's Edition, Island In The Sky Special Collector's Edition, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Shootist and Big Jake; the John Wayne Western Collection, which features nine films including Hondo Special Collector's Edition, McLintock! Special Collector's Edition, El Dorado and Rio Lobo; and the John Wayne Adventure Collection, which features five films including The High And The Mighty Special Collector's Edition, Island In The Sky Special Collector's Edition and In Harm's Way.

PHE orders are due April 10; WHV's order due date is April 17. Please see end of release for complete pricing and list of titles from both studios.

To further heighten visibility, TCM (Turner Classic Movies) will feature the actor in the month of May, inspiring current and new fans by broadcasting the indelible images Wayne created on film.

Said George Feltenstein, WHV's Senior Vice President Theatrical Catalog Marketing,?This unprecedented teaming of Warner Home Video and Paramount is a true testament to the power of Wayne's enduring appeal. By joining forces we're able to bring greater importance and attention to the 100th birthday, which benefits both retailers and consumers alike.?

?John Wayne continues to be an American icon and we're very pleased to be teaming with Warner Home Video to celebrate his film legacy in a way that is befitting of The Duke,? said Michael Arkin, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Paramount Home Entertainment.

The Man

The man who became the embodiment of the great American Western hero was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa. John Wayne first worked in the film business as a laborer on the Fox lot during summer vacations from U.S.C., which he attended on a football scholarship. He met and was befriended by John Ford, a young director who was beginning to make a name for himself in action films, comedies and dramas. It was Ford who recommended Wayne to director Raoul Walsh for the male lead in the 1930 epic Western The Big Trail, and, although it was a box office failure, the movie showed Wayne's potential.

For the next nine years, Wayne worked in a multitude of B-Westerns and serials in between bit parts in larger features. Wayne's big break came in 1939, when Ford cast him as the Ringo Kid in the adventure Stagecoach. Wayne nearly stole the picture from his more seasoned co-stars, and his career as a box-office superstar began. During his 50 year film career, Wayne played the lead in 142 movies, an as yet unsurpassed record, and was nominated for three Academy Awards®, winning the Best Actor award in 1970 for his performance in True Grit.

The Films

True Grit: Special Collector's Edition (PHE)

This classic cinematic masterpiece features Wayne in a larger-than-life performance as the drunken, uncouth and totally fearless one-eyed U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn. The role won him his only Academy Award® for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the age of 63 after 40 years of making films, and Wayne himself said that it was ?my first chance to play a character role instead of John Wayne.? Called ?one of the most delightful, joyous and scary movies of all time? (Roger Ebert), True Grit is a glorious adventure and American odyssey lead by Wayne, whose screen presence fully embodies his status as a star and legend. Directed by prolific filmmaker Henry Hathaway, the film also features enchanting performances by Kim Darby, Glen Campbell, Robert Duvall and Strother Martin.

Bonus features:

  • Commentary by Jeb Rosebrook, Bob Boze Bell and J. Stuart Rosebrook
  • True Writing
  • Working with the Duke
  • Aspen Gold: Locations of True Grit
  • The Law and the Lawless
  • Theatrical trailer

Rio Bravo: Special Edition and Ultimate Collector's Edition (WHV)

Director Howard Hawks lifted the Western to new heights with Red River. He does it here again, capturing the legendary West with a stellar cast in peak form. Wayne is Sheriff John T. Chance, a small-town lawman enlisting the help of a ragtag team to hold a murderer in jail until the state marshal can arrive. On one side is an army of gunmen dead-set on springing the murderous cohort from jail. On the other are Chance and his two deputies: one a recovering drunkard (Dean Martin), the other a crippled codger (Walter Brennan). Also in their ranks are an unseasoned, trigger-happy youth (Ricky Nelson) and a woman with a past (Angie Dickinson) ? and her eye on Chance. Rio Bravo will feature a new digital transfer from restored picture and audio elements.

DVD Special Features:

Disc One

  • Remastered feature film
  • Commentary by John Carpenter and Richard Schickel (Renowned director Carpenter and film critic Schickel explore how this legendary Western was an extension of Hawks' own personality and why it's considered such an influential classic today)
  • Wayne trailer gallery

Disc Two

    -- The Men Who Made the Movies: Howard Hawks (1973 documentary)

    -- Two All New Featurettes:

        -- Commemoration: Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo

        -- Old Tucson: Where the Legends Walked

Ultimate Collector's Edition includes everything in the Rio Bravo Special Edition plus the following collectible memorabilia:

  • Press book
  • Dell comic book
  • Lobby cards

The Cowboys: Deluxe Edition (WHV)

This deluxe edition has been newly restored and remastered, and features a new cast/director featurette. The Cowboys gave Wayne one of his juiciest roles as a leather-tough rancher who, deserted by his regular help, hires 11 greenhorn schoolboys for a cattle drive across 400 treacherous miles. When the dust settled, Wayne had given one of his best performances. ?In The Cowboys,? Rex Reed wrote, ?all the forces that have made him a dominant personality as well as a major screen presence seem to combine. Old Dusty Britches can act.? Co-starring the equally memorable Roscoe Lee Browne, Colleen Dewhurst and Bruce Dern, The Cowboys was directed by Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond).

DVD Special Features:

  • Commentary by Mark Rydell (Director Rydell discusses how he helped his young, inexperienced cast work with screen legend Wayne)
  • The Cowboys: Together Again
  • The Breaking of Boys and the Making of Men
  • Theatrical Trailer

Allegheny Uprising (WHV)

Only months after his Stagecoach breakthrough, John Wayne brings his one-of-a-kind line readings and presence to the real-life role of colonial man of action James Smith. The place is Pennsylvania a decade before the American Revolution. Joined by like-minded frontiersmen, Smith intercepts trade shipments, besieges forts and risks the certain-death charge of treason against the king. Another Stagecoach alumna joins the Duke: Claire Trevor, playing a fiery barmaid eager to join the scrap against the redcoats.

Special Features:

  • The Bill of Rights (1939 WB short)
  • Land of the Midnight Fun (1939 WB cartoon)

Big Jim McLain (WHV)

All 6'4? of John Wayne plays the title role, a federal agent ferreting out subversives in Hawaii. Rallying to the cause are co-stars Nancy Olsen and Veda Ann Borg. And 6'7? James Arness (whom Wayne would later recommend to star on TV's ?Gunsmoke?) is McLain's war-hero partner, Baxter. The documentary-style story moves swiftly, with good-natured humor peppered throughout. Pre-statehood Hawaii locales range from elite resorts to a Shinto temple and from the sunken remains of the battleship Arizona to a Molokai leper colony.

Special Features:

  • So You Want to Enjoy Life (1952 WB short)
  • The Super Snooper (1952 WB cartoon)
  • Theatrical Trailer

Reunion in France (WHV)

John Wayne is in straight-up heroic mode as a fugitive RAF pilot on the run from the Gestapo, and Joan Crawford (in haute couture despite the war) is Michele, the spoiled, high-society Parisian who discovers her own patriotism as she helps the airman escape his Nazi pursuers. This glossy, briskly paced thriller also stars Philip Dorn as Michele's fiancé, an industrialist she suspects of collaborating with the Germans.

Special Features:

  • We Do It Because (1942 MGM short)
  • War Dogs (1943 MGM cartoon)
  • Theatrical Trailer

Trouble Along The Way (WHV)

This sports comedy-drama is directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca). John Wayne tackles the role of Steve Williams, a former top football coach who has been banned from the major conferences for his inability to conform and is making ends meet as a bookie. When he receives a call from likable Father Burke (Charles Coburn) with an offer to establish a football program - fast - in a last-ditch effort to save his tiny St. Anthony's College from bankruptcy, Williams sees it as a way to prove to a Children's Court officer (Donna Reed) that he's a fit parent as he fights for custody of his 12 year old tomboy daughter. Of course, there's bound to be Trouble Along the Way.

Special Features:

  • So You Think You Can't Sleep (1953 WB short)
  • Muscle Tussle (1953 WB cartoon)
  • Theatrical trailer

Tycoon (WHV)

A tumultuous love story (with co-star Laraine Day), a dynamite supporting cast, horizon-spanning location filming and brilliant Technicolor make Tycoon exciting entertainment. But the biggest thrill is watching Wayne as a bold, bare-knuckled railroad honcho high above an Andean gorge in a breathless grand finale that involves a half-built bridge, an onrushing wall of water, and a locomotive with the Duke at the controls.

Special Features:

  • Hollywood Wonderland (1947 WB short)
  • Red Hot Rangers (1947 MGM cartoon)

Without Reservations (WHV)

Claudette Colbert and Wayne are a double delight in this playful, romantic comedy. Colbert plays Kit Madden, a novelist who's heading to Hollywood to turn her bestseller about a handsome pilot into a film. On the train she meets a real-life marine pilot (John Wayne) and thinks he's the perfect man to portray her screen hero? except he thinks the whole thing is ?a lot of hooey.? Their comedic rapport becomes more captivating with one misadventure after another as they make their way cross-country. Adding to the fun are surprise walk-ons from stars like Jack Benny, Cary Grant, Louella Parsons playing herself, and director Warner LeRoy.

Special Features:

  • I Love My Husband, But! (1946 MGM short)
  • Holiday for Shoestrings (1946 WB cartoon)

COMPLETE INFORMATION ON JOHN WAYNE 100TH BIRTHDAY PROMOTION

Streets: May 22, 2007

WHV Orders due April 17; PHE Orders due April 10

 

WARNER HOME VIDEO TITLES

 
RIO BRAVO TWO-DISC SPECIAL EDITION

Catalog #: 114534

$20.97 SRP

 

RIO BRAVO ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S EDITION

Catalog #: 115839

$39.92 SRP

 
THE COWBOYS DELUXE EDITION

Catalog #: 114535

$19.97 SRP

 
JOHN WAYNE FILM COLLECTION

Catalog #: 114539

$49.92 SRP Collection; $12.97 SRP Individual Titles

 

All Titles Not Rated Except As Noted

 
Allegheny Uprising

Run Time: 80 minutes

B&W

Catalog #: T7864

  Big Jim McLain

Run Time: 90 minutes

B&W

Catalog #: 114533

Reunion in France

Run Time: 99 minutes

B&W

Catalog #: 79735

  Trouble Along The Way

Run Time: 110 minutes

B&W

Catalog #: 114536

Tycoon

Run Time: 129 minutes

Color

Catalog #: T7865

  Without Reservations

Run Time: 101 minutes

B&W

Catalog #: T7866

Additional Warner Home Video titles currently available:

John Wayne/John Ford Film Collection (also available as single titles)

  • The Searchers
  • Stagecoach
  • Long Voyage Home
  • Wings of Eagles
  • Ft. Apache
  • 3 Godfathers
  • She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
  • They Were Expendable

John Wayne Legendary Heroes Collection (also available as single titles)

  • Blood Alley
  • McQ
  • The Sea Chase
  • Tall in the Saddle
  • The Train Robbers

Triple Features

  • Ride Him, Cowboy/The Big Stampede/Haunted Gold
  • Telegraph Trail/Somewhere in Sonora/The Man From Monterey
  • Operation Pacific/Flying Leathernecks/They Were Expendable
The Searchers Ultimate Collector's Edition
Operation Pacific
Flying Leathernecks
Chisum
Cahill, US Marshall
The Green Berets

PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT TITLES

 

TRUE GRIT SPECIAL COLLECTOR'S EDITION

Catalog #: 120774
$19.99 SRP
Rating: G
 

JOHN WAYNE CENTURY COLLECTION

Catalog #: 123034
$99.99 SRP
 

JOHN WAYNE WESTERN COLLECTION

Catalog #: 123054
$74.99 SRP
 

JOHN WAYNE ADVENTURE COLLECTION

Catalog #: 123044
$42.99 SRP

John Wayne Century Collection (PHE)

This phenomenal box set includes 14 classic films starring John Wayne, including the new Special Collector's Edition of True Grit and four additional Special Collector's Editions. The films in the collection are:

  • The High And The Mighty Special Collector's Edition
  • Island In The Sky Special Collector's Edition
  • True Grit Special Collector's Edition (Rating: G)
  • Hondo Special Collector's Edition
  • McLintock! Special Collector's Edition
  • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
  • The Shootist (Rating: PG)
  • Big Jake (Rating: PG-13 for Western violence)
  • Donovan's Reef
  • In Harm's Way
  • Hatari!
  • Rio Lobo (Rating: G)
  • The Sons Of Katie Elder
  • El Dorado

John Wayne Western Collection (PHE)

A terrific set of some of Wayne's greatest Westerns, this collection includes the following films:

  • True Grit Special Collector's Edition (Rating: G)
  • Hondo Special Collector's Edition
  • McLintock! Special Collector's Edition
  • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
  • The Shootist (Rating: PG)
  • Big Jake (Rating: PG-13 for Western violence)
  • Rio Lobo (Rating: G)
  • The Sons Of Katie Elder
  • El Dorado

John Wayne Adventure Collection (PHE)

An exciting set of some of Wayne's greatest adventures, this collection includes the following films:

  • The High And The Mighty Special Collector's Edition
  • Island In The Sky Special Collector's Edition
  • In Harm's Way
  • Donovan's Reef
  • Hatari!

With operations in 90 international territories, Warner Home Video, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace. Warner Home Video's film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment.

Paramount Home Entertainment (PHE) is part of Paramount Pictures Corporation, a unit of Viacom (NYSE:VIA) (NYSE:VIA.B), a global entertainment company that produces and distributes filmed entertainment through the Paramount Motion Picture Group. PHE is responsible for the worldwide sales, marketing and distribution of home entertainment products on behalf of various parties including: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, CBS, PBS and Hasbro and for providing home entertainment fulfillment services for DreamWorks Animation Home Entertainment.

Note: All enhanced content listed above is subject to change.

Art can be downloaded at www.whvdirect.com or at phepromo.com.