Treasures 5: The West, 1898-1938

The fifth box set of archival offerings from the National Film Preservation Foundation focuses on the American West, but that doesn't mean it's all about vintage westerns. As in the previous Treasures collections, the 40-film compilation spans features, shorts, documentaries, newsreels, travelogues, and fragments from the silent and early sound eras, serving up a record of the American West as it was transforming from frontier to modern world. The fictional works here are generally (but not exclusively) westerns, from Broncho Billy and Tom Mix shorts, to the earliest surviving narrative shot in Yosemite National Park (1910's The Sergeant, from filmmaker Francis Boggs), as well as comedies, ranging from a Clara Bow vehicle (yes, the “It” girl brings her sexy, seductive ways to the Yukon in 1926's delightful Mantrap) to director Gregory La Cava's 1925 role-reversal laffer Womanhandled. But the nonfiction pieces also exhibit marvelous scope, from newsreels of the Native Americans of the Southwest reservations to early documentaries and docudrama re-creations of real-life exploits of frontier lawmen. As a whole, this set perhaps offers more archival than entertainment value, but the wide span of works presented here makes the case for film preservation better than any lecture. And this is not just cinematic history, but also American history, and should therefore appeal to a wider audience. DVD extras include audio commentaries, background notes, and an extensive booklet. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)