The Rare Breed/Shenandoah

Double bill of classic James Stewart westerns. 'The Rare Breed' (1966) stars Stewart and Maureen O'Hara, and is based on real-life events that took place in the 1880s when Hereford cattle were first introduced to the American West.

Martha Price (O'Hara) and her daughter Hilary (Juliet Mills) enlist the help of Sam 'Bulldog' Burnett (Stewart), a wandering ranch hand, to carry out the dream of Martha's late husband who died en route to America.

His dream was to introduce Hereford cattle by transporting a lone bull, Vindicator, to Texas to breed it with longhorn cattle.

Martha, Hilary and Sam set out on the road to Texas with the bull, but the trail is fraught with dangers and Sam has to rescue the women from a series of Western-style ambushes and abductions. 'Shenandoah' (1965) is the classic civil war drama set in 1863, starring James Stewart as Charlie Anderson, a wealthy farmer in Virginia who has hitherto steadfastly refused to take any part in the war that is raging around him.

The war inevitably ensnares him through a series of family catastrophes.

Meanwhile his daughter, Jannie (Rosemary Forsyth) falls in love with a Confederate soldier, Sam (Doug McClure).

Despite the tragedies that punctuate the film, it carries strong and hopeful anti-war and pro-family messages, particularly in the sentimental finale which shows the Anderson family prevailing against all the odds, and the screenplay has since been successfully adapted into a Broadway musical by the same name.