Louis L'Amour: Hondo and the Apaches/The Man Called Noon [DVD]

First the good news. The dvd quality is decent. Now the not so good news. Prior to buying this dvd I bought a copy of HONDO AND THE APACHES from Amazon in Italy. The quality of that dvd is excellent, however it was no use to me as the audio languages are only available in German and Italian. Hence I bought the English language copy from Amazon.com.To my amazement, I found that the English language version cuts out the first five minutes of the film!!It only starts when the credits come up of the films stars, director, screenplay etc. which obviously came on screen after five minutes of the actual film began.

This was written by Louis L'Amour, that adds an authenticity to this that any western fan can appreciate. When I first saw the title I thought it was a different version of the John Wayne movie 'Hondo' its not. Although the character bears the same name this is an excellent story in its own right. I've never seen Ralph Taeger act before but he was very enjoyable.The man called Noon was a good movie in and of itself. Liked the book more, but isn't that always the case.The DVD itself was about what I expected. Its not digitally re-mastered and the sound quality sucks but I didn't buy it because I was looking for a technical Masterpiece, I bought it because Louis L'Amour wrote it. And as far as I am concerned I MORE than got my moneys worth.

This DVD did not appear on Louis L'Amour Official Web Site for a long time and I understand why now : so vintaged - [It does appear now at last!!! sept 2008].The stories are as good as any Louis always delivered :1. Hondo And The Apaches, with Ralph Traeger(1967) and2. The Man Called Noon (1972), with Richard Crenna.And I bought it thinking of Crossfire Trail, wih Tom Selleck, or The Quick and The Dead ,with Sam Elliott, with the usual expectations of a fine western.But the video is technically rather poor. You'll have to be a real he fan and pay the modest price asked if you want to enjoy it.An other DVD is available starring John Wayne as "Hondo" and is worth seeing [5 stars] and buying .The Duke is his usual self and the video is excellent.

Enjoyed these movies but The man Called Noon has a spot that freezes and then throws the movie completely off. Had to fast forward past this spot to watch the rest of the movie.

Where to begin... I had a VHS copy of this a long time ago, it was lousy, but I thought it was just "the nature of the beast", so to speak. I was hoping that because this was advertised as being remastered, it would be nearly pristine. Guess what? Just as lousy a print as the VHS was. I don't blame either AMAZON or the company that I purchased it through. I received it in good time and the packaging was quite good. It was the print itself that was worse than anyone could expect for a DVD. I returned it for a refund and received the refund in rapid "turn around" time. All in all I would recommend both AMAZON and the company that I purchased it from , HIGHLY. Can't expect any better service than what they provided. Certainly they had no way of knowing that the print of the movie was of very very low quality. I'm truly disappointed that some companies are purveyers of such junk. I wish I could remember the name of THAT company so I could warn you about them. I hope this review helped you.

THE FIRST MOVIE " HOND " GOT STUCK ABOUT EVERY 20-30 SECONDS . THE SOUND WAS OUT OF SINK. THE SECOND MOVIE " THE MAN CALLED NOON " RECORDED ON THE SAME DVD STOPPED PLAYING HALFWAY THROUGH .DVD WAS TERRIBLE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING . THIS IS FIRST AMAZON DVD THAT I EVER HAD TROUBLE WITH,AND I HAVE PURCHASED MANY FROM THEM.

One of my favorite Louis L'Amour stories was "The Man Called Noon". Needless to say, the DVD did not do it justice. The quality of "The Sacketts" production was not there. The story was just fair. I was, to be blunt, disappointed. It made a fair gift to a man who loved Westerns.

very exiting Story from Louis l Amour was very good brought to life with this movie i d like to see more of this high Quality movies instead of non sense movies can only recommand windwalker it s even better sincerly yours Norbert from luxembourg

I agree with the previous reviewer as regards the quality. They both appear to be straight copies from the cinema reel. "Hondo and the Apaches" is of reasonable quality, but "The Man Called Noon" is very poor. In fact it is so that bad that I bought a second copy, believing I had bought a faulty copy, but it was the same. The price (£3.99) should have warned me, but, hey, it is 2 Louis L'Amour stories!As for the films themselves: "Hondo and the Apaches" is the pilot episode for the 60s TV series, starring Ralph Taeger (this was originally released in the cinema in the UK); "The Man called Noon", starring Richard Crenna, was made in the period when the US copied Italian-style spaghetti westerns.The TV series was based upon the character Hondo Lane from the film "Hondo", starring John Wayne, which, in turn, was based on the character Ches Lane in the short story "The Gift of Cochise". This pilot episode set-up the character and story-line for the ensuing series. It is entertaining and typical TV fare, but did not set the US public viewing figures alite, as it only lasted one series."The Man Called Noon" is based on the book of the same name and is a reasonable rendition of the story, but is typical of this genre and did not fare well at the box office.Overall, I would definitely not recommend purchasing this DVD (if you can find a copy, now that its no longer available) unless you are desperate to complete your Louis L'Amour collection, but wait until better copies of both films are available. If you are desperate - I have a spare!!!

A BADLY RECORDED DISC, HONDO PLAYED FULL LENGTH, WHILST SECOND FILM PLAYED FOR ONLY TEN MINUTES STATING THAT WHEN PLACED ON DISC THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH ROOM TO TAKE THE COMPLETE SECOND FILM. COMPLAINED TO DISTRIBUTOR WHO REFUNDED THE MONEY AND TELLING ME TO KEEP DISC, NOW HONDO WILL NO LONGER PLAY

The replacement dvd that I received still don't work....Man called Noon played until about half and then cuts and goes back to the beginning.

A couple of good movies written by Louis L'Amour. Enjoyed them as I have his whole collection of books.

The DVD would stop and start, or skip half way through the movie, again and again.