Oscar-Nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Edna May Oliver), and Best Color Cinematography (Ray Rennahan, Bert Glennon).

In 1939, John Ford directed "Stagecoach," "Young Mr. Lincoln," and "Drums Along the Mohawk" - all followed by "The Grapes of Wrath," and "The Long Voyage Home" the following year. It's an incredible output of classic films by one man, and Fox' DVD presents "Drums" remastered from a colour reversal internegative (CRI), made during the late 1970s.

The inference is that an original 3-strip Technicolor print no longer exists, and while the new restoration work (sampled in a separate featurette) cleans up flaws present in the archival safety print, the recent spate of vintage Technicolor releases from Warner Bros. shows how much was lost when the robustness and luminance of original negatives were transferred before recent leaps in color film preservation.

Recent high-profile and definitive Technicolor restorations have admittedly spoiled us into expecting all colour films should look near-perfect on DVD, but Fox' efforts for "Drums" have at least taken the best available elements, and created a print evoking some of the richness of the original theatrical prints. The blacks are solid, and the night sequences have proper detail, particularly the exciting fort assault by British loyalists. Fine details are still fuzzy from imperfect 3-strip registration present in the single-strip safety print, and without much digital tweaking, the problems can be quite pronounced, as in titles like "Belles on Their Toes."

Only qualm: why not include a commentary track by Ford historian and biographer Joseph McBride? This is an important DVD for John Ford fans, though perhaps the studio will revisit "Drums Along the Mohawk" later on, with more substantive archives.

© 2005 Mark R. Hasan