Tate
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Movie Reviews of Tate
Movie Review: Videotape? They sure?
Summary: 5 Stars
Everything written about this show says it was shot on videotape rather than film. It sure doesn't look that way to me - it looks like period ('60) film. We all know what that era's videotape looked like - the infamous Twilight Zone episodes shot on tape to save money, the surviving footage of the news broadcasts, game shows, etc. Well, go elsewhere online and look at some of these Tate episodes; they look as filmed and and as polished as The Rifleman or Wanted Dead or Alive. So I don't know what to think, but the point is that the videotape label hung on this show should NOT put you off buying this set; it's not only not an issue, but the show looks like a particularly good filmed production.
The image quality on these DVDs is generally fair, leaning toward good. It is not excellent, like the Twilight Zone or Perry Mason DVDs, but is more than adequate for enjoying and being entertained by the show without distraction - and that's Much more than can be said for many TV-on-DVD releases. The sound quality also seems fair to good; again, totally adequate. The DVDs are single-sided and play without error, and my set contained no discs that caused the DVD player to shake, rattle, or roll.
The 13 episodes on 3 discs are half-hour dramas. The stories are the familiar ones, but well-written, I think. Again, the photography is very good, as are all other aspects of the production (music, locations, etc). It of course stars David McLean. McLean seems solid to me; not flashily appealing but competent and earnest. But the real gold for many will be the weekly procession of beloved old-days guest stars: Robert Culp, Louise Fletcher, Robert Redford, Royal Dano, James Coburn, Vaughn Taylor, Frank Overton, Leonard Nimoy, Martin Landau, Phyllis Love, Warren Oates, John Qualen, Cathy O'Donnell, Patricia Breslin, Jon Lormer, Julie Adams, and many other less-famous but classic familiar faces. As for myself, it does my heart good to just see & hear these great performers going through their paces. Good old friends.
Chalk up another unearthed treasure for Timeless.
Movie Review: Wonderful, Overlooked TV Western Gets To DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
Timeless Media Group has done Western lovers a huge favor by releasing episodes from some classic television Westerns that have been largely forgotten. They released collections for Cimmarron City (starring George Montgomery), The Tall Man (Barry Sullivan), Laredo (Neville Brand, Peter Brown, William Smith, Phillip Carey), Riverboat (Darren McGavin and Burt Reynolds), and the fantastic Restless Gun (John Payne).
But the other collection they have released would be even easier to overlook. A 13 episode series aired as a summer replacement with a possibilty to be a midseason replacement. Shot on tape instead of film. The star was famous as the Marlboro Man on TV commercials (and would eventually die of lung cancer). A gunfighter hero with only one arm. The series, called Tate, never caught on. And all we have to remember it by are these 13 episodes.
But what a great Western Tate was, and it is great to be able to enjoy the series almost fifty years later. David McLean played Tate, who fought with the Confederacy during the Civil War and lost the use of his left arm at Vicksburg. After the war, he covered the arm is black leather, put it in a sling, and went to work as a gunfighter for hire/bounty hunter. With only a Kansas City PO Box for an address, Tate rode all over the West, hoping to make enough money to afford surgery that a St Louis doctor said might help his arm.
McLean's Tate was very much like the typical genre-issue gunfighter, but in some ways he was very atypical. Like most, he was fast on the draw, hired out to good guys only, was nice to kids and women, and figured out a way to win every time. But unlike other gunfighters of the time, he could be crusty, harsh, and at times unpleasant - kind of precursor to the Man With No Name and other 60's-70s era gunfighters.
Tate would have made a great 60's Western. Too bad it never had the chance, but at least we have this collection to remember it.
Movie Review: An Adult Western
Summary: 5 Stars
"TATE", I believe never made it to Australia during or after its short run,
however viewing it 50 years on I am very impressed with it.
If I had not been informed that it was shot on video tape at the time, I would say film was used.
The couple of episodes I have seen so far have been written for an adult audience -I presume-
as the content is a fairly dark story, it is interesting that little effort has been taken to lighten
shadows on the set, I had an interesting time searching for other activity in those shadows.
I am very happy to own these 13 episodes of "TATE", my only problem being a small one - why cold not
these 3 DVD have been placed on a single DVD holder instead of three? I am running short on space.
Movie Review: EXCELLENT
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent show, just finished watching all the episodes and wish there were more. Tate having a crippled arm wasn't really the gimmick Ironside being in a wheelchair and Longstreet being blind were. The shows for those characters revolved around their disablements, TATE didn't. Tate had a bad arm from a war wound and that was about it. The bad arm was sometimes mentioned but each story did not depend on him not being able to use that arm. Harry Julian Fink, the series creator, story consultant, and one of its writers, worked on HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL and that influence, not a bad thing, shows. Also, it's a thirty minute show, made back when TV knew how to make them and placed value on half hour dramas.Movie Review: Tate~Should Have Continued!
Summary: 5 Stars
After watching a couple of the episodes from disc one, I must say I am impressed with this short-lived series. I missed this one as child, even though like other other reviewers, I was engrossed in Westerns as a kid in the late 50's and early 60's. But, I may not have liked this one as much as a child, because of the level of maturity and content of the show. The episode with Robert Culp as a bounty hunter is probably the best I have seen him in any western. When I watched and felt the fear in Royal Dano in the next episode, I knew this was a show for me now as a Western fan. I felt like I was in that dark street, not knowing if Tate or Dano was going to be shot. Buy it, you will not be disappointed...