Rare Breed

Andrew V. McLaglen's The Rare Breed (1966) is an offbeat, genial western from a period in which the genre found itself increasingly relying on violence to reach audiences. There is some violence here -- though mostly the threat of it -- but primarily this movie walks a fine line between light-hearted western comedy and a serious (if unconventional) subject, the breeding of cattle -- just so its intentions are clear, at about six minutes in, there is a brawl that is obviously meant to recall the slag-pit fight sequence in McLaglen's 1963 western comedy McLintock!. The movie has been letterboxed to its full 2.35-to-1 Panavision aspect ratio, with a great deal of depth and richness to the color. The landscapes are very pretty, and some of interior scenes do work better with the widescreen image, but the truth is that this movie should never have been shot in Panavision -- it wasn't essential to the presentation of the subject. Additionally, the opening up of the Panavision frame only reminds us of the obvious studio process shots used in certain scenes. Still, we're stuck with the framing, and the color and detail here is superior to anything seen of The Rare Breed in broadcast or cable presentations of the film. The 20 chapters are more than adequate, and the DVD also comes with the original trailer, which is full-frame and a lot darker in color tone. The trailer, incidentally, may also have marked a high-point in the feature film career of Don Galloway, who was to find success on television three years later as one of the detectives working for Raymond Burr on Ironside. The movie comes with French, Spanish, and English subtitle and caption selections, accessible through a menu that opens automatically on start-up.