Audie Murphy Collection II [Sierra / Kansas Raiders / Destry] (Blu-ray)

This collection features three western 1950s classics, starring screen legend Audie Murphy. SIERRA (1950) – Adventure… Raging to the Very Peaks of Excitement! Ring Hassard (Audie Murphy, Ride a Crooked Trail) and his father Jeff (Dean Jagger, Rawhide) live in a hidden mountain valley where they capture and tame wild horses. When Ring comes to the rescue of Riley Martin (Wanda Hendrix, Prince of Foxes), a lawyer who has lost her way on the trail, it leads to a romance between them—but also opens an investigation into Jeff’s shadowy past. Even more trouble comes when they encounter a gang of horse thieves led by the dastardly Big Matt Rango (Richard Rober, Jet Pilot). Directed by Alfred E. Green (Four Faces West) in dazzling Technicolor, Sierra features a villainous early role for Tony Curtis (Son of Ali Baba) and a jolly performance by Burl Ives (The Big Country), who performs several frontier ballads. And Hendrix, who was married to Murphy at the time, makes a fierce and fetching heroine. KANSAS RAIDERS (1950) – The Furious, Fighting Story of Quantrill’s Guerrillas! During the Civil War, young Jesse James (Audie Murphy, The Duel at Silver Creek), his brother Frank (Richard Long, The Stranger) and their soon-to-be-legendary gang ride into Kansas on the trail of Colonel William Quantrill (Brian Donlevy, Canyon Passage). Seeking revenge against the Union, Jesse wants to join Quantrill’s Raiders, who are plotting to claim Kansas for the Confederacy. The more time Jesse spends with Quantrill, however, the more he realizes that the colonel isn’t a hero fighting for the South, but a bushwhacking madman. Directed by Ray Enright (The Spoilers), Kansas Raiders blazes with bold Technicolor and brilliant supporting performances by Marguerite Chapman (The Amazing Transparent Man), Scott Brady (Undertow), Tony Curtis (Flesh and Fury), Richard Arlen (Thunderbolt), James Best (Seminole) and Dewey Martin (The Big Sky). DESTRY (1954) – The Classic Story of the West! Ruthless gambler Decker (Lyle Bettger, All I Desire) and his cronies are causing unrest in the sleepy frontier town of Restful. After the local sheriff dies under mysterious circumstances, Decker arranges to have the town drunk (Thomas Mitchell, Stagecoach) appointed sheriff, thinking he will be easily controlled. But the new sheriff sends for Tom Destry (Audie Murphy, No Name on the Bullet), son of a famous two-fisted lawman, to be his deputy. When Tom arrives, he isn’t exactly the swaggering hero the sheriff had in mind. In fact, Destry doesn’t even carry a gun. But the new deputy’s mild exterior masks a wild determination to see justice done, as Decker and the other locals soon discover. Directed by George Marshall (When the Daltons Rode), Destry is a glorious Technicolor retelling of Marshall’s own 1939 gem, Destry Rides Again, starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart.