The Plainsman is a 1936 American Western film about the legendary gunman Wild Bill Hickok (screen legend Gary Cooper, Unconquered, The General Died at Dawn) and his adventures with his lover Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), Buffalo Bill Cody (James Ellison, The Undying Monster) and General George Custer (John Miljan, I Accuse My Parents). Together they battle Indians and contribute to the changes that will be taking place in the post-civil war Old West thanks to the decisions made by President Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr., Captain Blood).
The Plainsman is a historical tale with Gary Cooper in the lead role and he does another fantastic job as Wild Bill Hickok, elevating the story to much greater heights. Jean Arthur is excellent as Calamity Jane and has much chemistry with Gary Cooper (they were together in Mr. Deeds Comes to Town). Charles Bickford (Duel in the Sun) is the main villain and screen legend Anthony Quinn (Guns of Navarone) has an early role as a Cheyenne Indian.
I will say that the film is historically inaccurate and is a rather fictitious tale of Wild Bill Hickok and friends. But since it is Hollywood and I guess director Cecil B. DeMille didn’t care about accuracy and just wanted to make an epic film!
Kino Lorber presents The Plainsman on Blu-ray. The image quality for the film is top-notch with nary a scratch or any print damages detected. The black and white image is clean, with a balanced grey scale. There is a vast amount of details to the great set pieces that stand out due to the boost in contrast. The film boats rich black levels and a fine grain structure throughout the presentation, giving the picture an organic appearance.
The English DTS-HD master audio 2.0 soundtrack is also excellent with dialog and action sounds such as gunshots coming in clear. Gunshots and the excellent musical score do sound much more aggressive here. English subtitles are available for this release.
This release has a couple of extras including an audio commentary by Film Critic and Author Simon Abrams and some theatrical trailers from other Kino Lorber releases that feature Gary Cooper and Cecile B. DeMille.
Another epic film by Cecil B. DeMille gets a Blu-ray release. The excellent audio and video quality along with a few cool extras makes this a recommended release!
The Plainsman
Director- Cecil B. DeMille
Cast- Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, James Ellison
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Kino Lorber
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date-9/27/21