Actually, Volume 2 is notable for the number of watchable to pretty good transfers overall. Unlike other volumes in this series, there aren't any cut Roy Rogers films, no dragged-through-the-gravel-pit prints. Of the four volumes reviewed thus far, this is the best-looking set of the bunch.

This reviewer wasn't able to sit through more than a couple titles all the way through, but sampled the rest to gauge the quality of their transfers and print sources. The DVDs aren't labeled any particular way, but are generally grouped by era or sub-genre. Here's the breakdown, noting the original releasing company and cast, along with a word or two about the transfer of each film:

Disc 1: PD Perennials

Kansas Pacific (Allied Artists, 1953) with Sterling Hayden, Eve Miller, barton MacLane, Harry Shannon, Douglas Fowley, Myron Healey, Clayton Moore, Jonathan Hale.Civil War empire-building story, with reb saboteurs trying to stop construction of the title railroad line from crossing Kansas, and Union Capt. John Nelson's (cult star Hayden) efforts to see it through. Produced by Walter Wanger on a grander scale than was AA's norm, this Cinecolor production is soft and oversaturated, but doesn't look half-bad. Video Rating: (** 1/2)

Santa Fe Trail (Warner Bros., 1940) with Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale, William Lundigan, Van Heflin, Gene Reynolds. Entertainingly ludicrous historical epic directed by Michael Curtiz, with Flynn's Jeb Stuart romancing Kit Carson Holliday (de Havilland), befriending General George Armstrong Custer (Ronald Reagan, hilarious!) and battling John Brown (Massey). Print is very clean and doubtlessly lifted off Turner Classic Movies or some Warner Home Video release: only the low bit-rate drags it down. Video Rating: (** 1/2)

Vengeance Valley (MGM, 1951) with Burt Lancaster, Robert Walker, Joanne Dru, Sally Forrest, John Ireland, Ray Collins, Hugh O'Brian. Sex-driven Western in the Duel in the Sun mold, with Lancaster and Walker cast as battling half-siblings, with the former the adopted son whom the latter feels a long-burning resentment. Released to VHS and DVD by at least a dozen different labels, this may have been pinched from the Roan Group release; it's not as pristine as Santa Fe Trail, but quite good. Video Rating: (** 1/2)

The Outlaw (Howard Hughes Productions/RKO, 1943) with Jack Buetel, Jane Russell, Thomas Mitchell, Walter Huston, Joe Sawyer, Ben Johnson. Notorious sex Western famous for director-billionaire Howard Hughes' (who replaced Howard Hawks after two weeks of shooting) obsession with Jane Russell's breasts and his defiance of the motion picture industry's Production Code. Billy the Kid vs. Pat Garrett story (oddly incorporating Doc Holliday) makes an interesting companion to Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973). This appears to be the complete 117-minute version (from a RKO release, date unknown), and the video quality is quite good. Video Rating: (** 1/2)

Disc 2: More PD Perennials

One-Eyed Jacks (Paramount, 1961) with Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Katy Jurado, Pina Pellicer, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Timothy Carey, Elisha Cook, Jr.. "Dad" Longworth (Malden) leaves Rio (Brando) to be captured after a bank robbery, and years later - after Longworth has become a respected sheriff - Rio escapes from prison, determined to get even with his former partner. Troubled production, whose writers included at various times Rod Serling, Sam Peckinpah, and Calder Willingham, was begun by Stanley Kubrick but star Brando fired him and took over the production with disastrous results. This is a film in major need of a restoration, but until then this 4:3 letterboxed transfer preserves the original VistaVision aspect ratio, and the sound is pretty good, too. Video Rating: (** 1/2)

The Over-the-Hill Gang (Thomas/Spelling Productions, 1969) with Pat O'Brien, Walter Brennan, Chill Wills, Edgar Buchanan, Gypsy Rose Lee, Andy Devine, Jack Elam, Edward Andrews, Ricky Nelson. TV movie about an aging Texas Ranger (O'Brien) who hires some of his old pals to clean up a corrupt, lawless town where his daughter and son-in-law live. It's great to see all these old-timers, but the 16mm print that's sourced has thin sound and blotchy color. Video Rating: (**)

The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again (Thomas/Spelling Productions, 1970) with Walter Brennan, Fred Astaire, Edgar Buchanan, Andy Devine, Chill Wills, Paul Richards, Lana Wood, Parley Baer, Walter Burke. Some of the ol' gang is back in this TV-movie sequel, along with Fred Astaire, fun in an atypical role as a town drunk they rehabilitate, all part of an effort to clean up their home town. This print's a lot cleaner, with better color. Video Rating: (** 1/2)

The Deadly Companions (Pathe-America Distributing Company, 1961) with Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith, Steve Cochran, Chill Wills, Strother Martin. Sam Peckinpah's directorial debut is pretty terrible, but for fans of the great Western filmmaker there are hints throughout of the greatness to blossom the following year with Ride the High Country. The transfer of this Panavision production is panned-and-scanned (though not bad otherwise); interested viewers are better off waiting for a legitimate 16:9 release. Video Rating: (**)

Discs 3: Native Americans

Against a Crooked Sky (Doty-Dayton Releasing, 1975) with Richard Boone, Stewart Petersen, Henry Wilcoxon, Clint Ritchie, Shannon Farnon. Cheap indie Western, a family film about a young boy lost deep in the wilderness, trying to rescue his kidnapped sister by enduring the test of the "Crooked Sky." Hum-drum film from prolific TV director Earl Bellamy. Filmed in Todd-AO 35, an anamorphic process akin to Panavision, this transfer is slightly cropped but slightly squeezed, and adapts, sort of, to 16:9 stretching. Video Rating: (**)

Battles of Chief Pontiac (Realart Pictures, 1952) with Lex Barker, Helen Westcott, Lon Chaney, Jr., Berry Kroeger, Roy Roberts. Herman Cohen was an associate producer on this obvious labor of love, set around Ft. Detroit in pre-Revolutionary War Michigan. A Detroit native himself, Cohen opens the film with some great present-day footage of the Motor City; he'd go onto produce I Was a Teenage Werewolf and cult camp classics like Trog. The print of this B-Western is not bad, and its sensitive Indian story is pretty good. Video Rating: (** 1/2)

The Great Indian Wars (Dan Dalton Productions, 1991) narrated by Jack Hanrahan. Cheap but informative documentary about Native Americans, covering the period from 1840 to 1890. An odd mix of historical photographs, PD film clips, and obscure documentary footage of unknown origin. Transfer has a lot of video distortion at the edges of the frame. Video Rating: (**)

Sitting Bull (United Artists, 1954) with Dale Robertson, Mary Murphy, J. Carrol Naish, John Litel, Iron Eyes Cody, John Hamilton, Douglas Kennedy, William Hopper, Thomas Browne Henry. Amusing "Custer's Last Stand" story, with Naish as Sitting Bull, Cody as Crazy Horse, Superman's John Hamilton as President Grant, and Kennedy a beefy-looking Custer. Panned-and-scanned from its original CinemaScope, it's also out of focus on the sides. Video Rating: (* 1/2)

Disc 4: Miscellaneous

Savage Guns (Demofilo Fidani, 1971) with Robert Woods, "Dean Stratford," "Dennis Colt," "Custer Gail," and "Simone Blondell". Awful spaghetti Western, released in its original Italian as Era Sam Wallach... lo chiamavano 'così sia' . Title "Savage Guns" is crudely video-supered in. American actor Robert Woods stars as a man on the trail of a bandit who killed his brother. Awful dubbing and panned-and-scanned, but image is fairly clean. Video Rating: (**)　

The Sundowners (Eagle-Lion, 1950) with Robert Preston, Robert Sterling, Chill Wills, Cathy Downs, John Litel, Jack Elam, John Drew Barrymore. Not the 1960 Fred Zinnemann film, but rather a conventional oater pitting rancher brothers against one another. Originally filmed in three-strip Technicolor, transfer here is faded, dirty, splicy and too light. Video Rating: (* 1/2)

The Gatling Gun (Ellman Film Enterprises, 1973) with Guy Stockwell, Robert Fuller, Barbara Luna, Woody Strode, Patrick Wayne, Pat Buttram, John Carradine, Phil Harris. Good cast can't save this indie production, with various characters after title weapon. Features then-governor of New Mexico, the honorable David F. Cargo. The IMDb says this was filmed in Techniscope, but onscreen it's Panavision that's credited. In any case the transfer is panned-and-scanned, and derived from a not-bad 16mm print. Video Rating: (**)

The Bushwackers (Realart, 1952) with John Ireland, Wayne Morris, Lawrence Tierney, Dorothy Malone, Lon Chaney, Jr., Jack Elam. Co-written by future genre director Tom Gries, this interesting B-Western, also co-produced by Herman Cohen, is about a Civil War veteran determined never to use a gun again, but up against crooks trying to swindle settlers out of their land. Cast includes an unusually high quotient of famous Hollywood drunks. 16mm print sourced is splicy but looks okay. Video Rating: (**)

Disc 5: B-Gunfighters

　 The Gun and the Pulpit (Danny Thomas Productions/ABC, 1974) with Marjoe Gortner, Slim Pickens, David Huddleston, Geoffrey Lewis, Estelle Parsons, Pamela Sue Martin, Jeff Corey, Karl Swenson, Jon Lormer. Former fake evangelist Gortner is a fake minister in this offbeat TV-movie/unsold series pilot, playing an outlaw who assumes the identity of a man of God whose body's he found. A good cast of genre veterans (Pickens, Corey, Swenson) bolster this forgotten obscurity helmed by director Daniel Petrie. The print sourced has a lot of dirt and its share of scratches, but by '70s TV movie standards looks pretty good. Video Rating: (** 1/2)　

Boot Hill (Film Ventures International, 1969) with Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Woody Strode, Eduardo Ciannelli, Glauco Onorato, Lionel Stander. "Those Trinity Boys Are Back! And As Wild As Ever!" screamed the ads to this lackluster semi-comic spaghetti, also known as Trinity Rides Again, and released in its native Italy as La Collina degli stivali. The presence of Hollywood old-timers helps some. There are apparently two English-dubbed versions of this title, but this seems to be the original looping job done in Italy, and the cut runs 92 minutes . Filmed in Techniscope, this awful panned-and-scanned print has ugly, faded color, video noise on the left side of the frame, and the image is soft and frequently out of focus. Video Rating: (*)

My Outlaw Brother (Eagle-Lion, 1951) with Mickey Rooney, Wanda Hendrix, Robert Preston, Robert Stack, Jose Torvay. Filmed in Mexico, this not-bad if minor Western stars Rooney as an American south of the border in search of his outlaw brother (Stack). Mickey acts like he's doing one of those Rooney-Garland musicals. Co-star Hendrix later married Stack's brother. Entire film is windowboxed, and the print sourced has poor contrast with weak blacks, but otherwise looks okay. Video Rating: (**)

Gunfighters of the Old West (Dan Dalton Productions, 1992) narrated by Jack Hanrahan. Another cheap if sometimes informative documentary from Dan Dalton Productions, the same folks behind The Great Indian Wars. As before, interested parties will have to suffer through a barrage of historical photographs, PD film clips, and obscure documentary footage of unknown origin. Also like the Indian documentary, the transfer has a lot of video distortion. Video Rating: (**)

Disc 6: Forgotten Oddities

Little Moon & Jud McGraw (American National Enterprises., 1978 [?]) with James Caan, Stefanie Powers, Aldo Ray, Robert Walker, Jr., Sammy Davis, Jr., Michael Conrad. Originally released as Gone with the West, this appalling Western isn't even listed in most reference sources, despite the presence of Caan, then near the height of his post-Godfather fame, as a former prisoner seeking vengeance with Indian Powers against bad guy Ray. Some have speculated that this was cobbled together from a production abandoned before it was finished; it looks like a TV movie but apparently wasn't. Picture desperately tries to fill out its meager 84-minute running time with slow-motion shots of nothing in particular. The open-matte full-frame transfer looks pretty good. Video Rating: (** 1/2)

Jory (Avco-Embassy, 1973) with John Marley, B.J. Thomas, Robby Benson, Claudio Brook, Brad Dexter, Anne Lockhart, Linda Purl. Mexican-U.S. production follows onetime teen heartthrob Benson as an orphan on the road to manhood in the Old West. "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" singer B.J. Thomas has a rare film role in this curio. Also open-matte/full-frame, its colors are a bit faded, but it looks okay for an old video transfer, and Jorge Stahl, Jr.'s cinematography is pretty good. Video Rating: (** 1/2)

The Brothers O'Toole (CVD, 1973) with John Astin, Pat Carroll, Hans Conried, Richard Erdman, Allyn Joslyn, Lee Meriwether, Jesse White. More silly than funny, this near-vanity indie production helmed by busy character actor Richard Erdman was dwarfed by the huge success of Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles the following year. Ingratiating cast, especially Astin, and game approach tries its best. Full-frame transfer of 1.85:1 release is a bit faded but impressively sharp. Video Rating: (***)

The Jackals (20th Century-Fox, 1967) with Vincent Price, Diana Ivarson, Robert Gunner, Bob Courtney, Patrick Mynhardt. Odd South African production is a remake of Fox's classic William A. Wellman Western Yellow Sky (1948), about an old miner (Price) and his daughter terrorized by ruthless bandits after their gold. Full frame transfer of this 1.85:1 theatrical release looks okay save for video distortion at the top of the frame. Offbeat role for horror movie veteran Price coupled with a weird mix of Western iconography and African scenery. Video Rating: (**)

Disc 7: Mix-and-Match

Seven Alone (Doty-Dayton Releasing, 1975) with Dewey Martin, Aldo Ray, Anne Collings, James Griffith, Dean Smith. From the makers of Against a Crooked Sky comes another never-copyrighted oater directed by TV helmer Earl Bellamy, this one based on a true story about children trying to cross the frontier by wagon train. Innocuous Little House on the Prairie-style family film. Transfer, from 16mm, is soft and faded. Video Rating: (**)

Pioneer Woman (Filmways/ABC, 1973) with Joanna Pettet, William Shatner, David Janssen, Helen Hunt, Lance LeGault. TV movie from director Buzz Kulik and writer Suzanne Clauser (Bonanza), about title character (Pettet) faced with the decision of moving back east with her children and continue homesteading following the death of her husband. Actress Hunt was just 10 years old when this was made. Old transfer is soft and unimpressive, though watchable. Video Rating: (**)

The Proud Rebel (Buena Vista, 1958) with Alan Ladd, Olivia de Havilland, Dean Jagger, David Ladd, Cecil Kellaway, James Westerfield, Henry Hill, Harry Dean Stanton, John Carradine. Late-period Ladd Western, with the former Shane seeking medical help for his mute son (Alan's real-life son David), who hasn't spoken since witnessing his mother die in a fire. Brazenly stolen from a Samuel Goldwyn transfer, Platinum even left that company's logo on at the header! Well, at least the full-frame transfer looks great. Video Rating: (***)

Buckskin Frontier (United Artists, 1943) with Richard Dix, Jane Wyatt, Albert Dekker, Lee J. Cobb, Victor Jory, Lola Lane, Max Baer, Joe Sawyer, George Reeves. Railroaders battle for control of a mountain pass in this high-end B produced by Harry "Pop" Sherman and directed by busy genre director Lesley Selander, which features many of the same actors that populated Sherman's "Hopalong Cassidy" series. Transfer looks pretty good, though the sound is poor. Video Rating: (**)

Disc 8: More Mix-and-Match

Fighting Caravans (Paramount, 1931) with Gary Cooper, Lili Damita, Ernest Torrence, Tully Marshall, Fred Kohler, Eugene Pallette, Tiny Sandford. Another PD perennial, I remember one local Detroit station used to run it every week for years back in the 1970s. ("Coming up next, Fighting Caravans!") Adapted from Zane Grey's Wagon Wheels, Coop is a frontier scout guiding a freight wagon train across the wilderness. This is the 80-minute 1950 Favorite Films re-release version; otherwise, it looks quite good. Video Rating: (***).

The Woman of the Town (United Artists, 1943) with Claire Trevor, Albert Dekker, Barry Sullivan, Henry Hull, Marion Martin, Porter Hall, Percy Kilbride. Another pretty good "Pop" Sherman high-end B-Western for UA, this one focusing on the relationship between Bat Masterson (Dekker) and his girl (Trevor). Splicy, dirty print sourced for the transfer is awfully intrusive. Video Rating: (**).

The Old West Cowboy (Dan Dalton Productions, 1992 [?]) narrated by Jack Hanrahan. If you've seen The Great Indian Wars and Gunfighters of the Old West.... Video Rating: (**)

The Proud and Damned (Distributor unknown, 1968 [?]) with Chuck Connors, Aron Kincaid, Cesar Romero, Jose Greco, Maria Grimm Sluggish Western, about five Confederate mercenaries in Mexico choosing sides between an iron-fisted military dictator and kindly peasants. Any guesses as to which way this'll go? Transfer is as unimpressive as the movie. Video Rating: (**).

Video & Audio

See above for comments on individual titles. All eight discs are single-sided and dual-layered, but the bit-rate is poor and, needless to say, these aren't progressive transfers, so line-doublers and the like are a big plus when watching these on big monitors. Everything is mono, and acceptable except where noted. Likewise, there are no alternate audio or subtitle options on anything, and no Extra Features. Viewers will also want to be warned of Platinum's water mark, which appears intermittently during all the films, roughly for 30 seconds every ten minutes or so. .

Parting Thoughts

As with other volumes in this series, tolerant Western finds will find much to like amidst this rubble of discarded leftovers. This is the kind of offering one turns to every so often when there's nothing else to watch, or it's one o'clock in the morning and you can't fall asleep. The sheer volume of material will keep you busy for many months to come, if you can stand the sub-par transfers. (Barely) Recommended.

Film historian Stuart Galbraith IV's most recent essays appear in Criterion's new three-disc Seven Samurai DVD and BCI Eclipse's The Quiet Duel. His audio commentary for Invasion of Astro Monster is now available.