Rating: 
Summary: WILDEST WESTERN PARODY OF ALLTIME!!!!
Review: THE WILDEST ROLLICKING WESTERN OF ALL TIMES! THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL is a gem! Like MCLINTOCK! it's full of surprizes!!!! Everything from THE CALVARY, DRUNKEN INDIANS, TEMPERANCE MARCHERS, THIRSTY CITIZENS, A WAGONTRAIN OF WHISKEY, and a climax of QUICKSAND!!!! This motion picture has evrything!!!!
THE WEST REALLY BECAME FUN!!!! I enjoy the great cast of BURT LANCHASTER, LEE REMICK, BRIAN KEITH, DONALD PLEASANCE, JIM HUTTON, PAMELA TIFFON, ROBERT J. WILKES, MARTIN LANDAU, JOHN ANDERSON, and DUB TAYLOR add their own special humor to this motion picture classic!!!! The funniest scenes are THE BATTLE OF WHISKEY HILLS (the shootout in the sandstorm), THE WILD CHASE LEADING TO QUICKSAND BOTTOMS (the drunken indian pursuit, leading a switch of the western classics, where the calvary attacks the indians), and finally THE DISASTER AT QUICKSAND BOTTOMS (where the wagons sink in the quicksand!) The action is high octane madcap comedy all the way! JOHN DEHNER delivers the delightful narration, even when the winter turns out to be the warmest and driest on record. This is indeed a JOHN STURGES classic! ELMER BERNSTEIN delivers a top notch music score, that include an memorable music piece during the sinking of wagons in the quicksand! The effects of all the wagons going down together in QUICKSAND BOTTOMS is unmistakably eyecatching!THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL will always be a classic to watch again and again!
Rating: 
Summary: A 'must see' for Lancaster and Western Comedy Fans!!!
Review: This is one of my favorite comedies and it has the advantage of being a light musical as well. It's not politically correct, so if you consider many contemporary issues 'don't touch' subject matter, this isn't the film for you. However, if you enjoy satire and plain silliness, you'll like this classic. Lancaster puts the "v" in versatility with his comedic performance, and Donald Pleasance's Oracle Jones, isn't far behind (one of those pleasant surprises, like John Lithgow). From Indian rallies and army bands in the brig to white petticoats and red longjohns, the misadventures of Colonel Thaddeous Gerhardt and Cora Templeton Massengale will leave you in stitches!
Rating:
Summary: How the West was (wet and) wild!
Review: This is perhaps my favorite comedy-Western; I've watched it more times than I can count, on TV and later on video. Like John Wayne in such films as "McLintock!" and "Donovan's Reef," Burt Lancaster here plays straight man to a complex and crazy story line which still manages to hang together with remarkable coherence. As the gruff veteran Col. Thaddeus Gearhardt, USC, he is confronted with a request to provide escort for a wagon train carrying a cargo of whiskey to Denver, where a cruel winter is predicted "and a man is sorely in need of comfort," as one character puts it. In carrying out his mission, assisted by his loyal Sergeant-Major, Buell (John Anderson), he must also deal with the beautiful and charismatic temperance/suffrage activist Cora Templeton Massingale (Lee Remick); his own motherless daughter Louise (Pamela Tiffin), who has become converted to Mrs. Massingale's cause; his goodhearted but somewhat inept young adjutant, Capt. Paul Slater (Jim Hutton), who is courting Louise; the bullheaded Frank Wallingham (Brian Keith), who owns the freighting company moving the whiskey; a contingent of discontented Irish teamsters led by Kevin O'Flaherty (Tom Stern); a large and thirsty band of Indians, led by the Sioux chief Five Barrels (Robert J. Wilkie) and his cohort Walks-Stooped-Over (Martin Landau); and a citizen militia from Denver, resolved to protect the "precious cargo" of booze, led by miner Clayton Howell (Dub Taylor) and guided by ex-mountain-man Oracle Jones (Donald Pleasence), who is prone (when lubricated) to "visions"--one of which was the start of the entire situation. It would take more space than I'm afforded here to describe all the twists and turns of the plot; suffice to say that Wallingham (who has "every cent I own tied up in this cargo"), Oracle, and the miners all want to get the whiskey to Denver, Cora Massingale and her 70-odd temperance ladies want to keep them from doing so, the Indians want to get liquored up, the Irish want their fourteen-point manifesto of grievances addressed, and Slater, Buell, and Gearhardt just want to carry out their orders and keep the peace. What follows as each group attempts to advance its own agenda is enough to make even a full bird Colonel wish he'd chosen another profession.Director John Sturges might have chosen a better location than Gallup, NM, to shoot in: it doesn't look at all like the Platte River country. But the actors and the story are so riveting that you forget about the incongruous setting and just follow what's going on. I have enough of the Sioux language to know that Wilkie is using it (and very well, too) when he speaks as Five Barrels. And while Lancaster and Remick may hold the top billing, my own favorites are Pleasence (then a good deal thinner than he later became, and worthy of having been nominated for Best Supporting Actor), Anderson, Keith, and Landau. Remick's and Tiffin's costumes are authentically Victorian, though I'm not sure of the accuracy of the Cavalry uniforms (on the other hand, the constant detailed barrage of orders sounds very Army indeed). Elmer Bernstein's score is another high point, ranging from moody to descriptive to the triumphant beginning and ending chorus. John Dehner offers an uncredited but wonderfully solemn narration that plays off the tone of the film itself perfectly. The one gripe I have with my VHS copy is that some of the map graphics aren't fully shown owing to screen format. This film would be well suited to viewers of all ages and, while it's not Politically Correct, everyone gets their licks in at some point and it should make a great family night. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The most hilarious Western ever
Review: This movie stays true to the old western while still poking fun at everything about the old west. It's not particularly campy and it has a touch of romance. Classic actors like Burt Lancaster make this movie a must have for people who love Westerns. Not to mention this is a great movie where Donald Pleasance actually had more than just one emotion.
Rating: 
Summary: Very poor picture quality ruins this DVD
Review: This release of a classic big event comedy/western is ruined by a simply awful transfer to DVD. The picture quality as seen line-doubled on my Pioneer Elite 700 HD set is nearly unwatchable. I hope MGM will try again with a goal of creating a much better transfer. This is one of the worst-looking DVDs I have seen. Too bad because the movie is enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: A DVD MGM cannot be proud of!
Review: What a bad looking DVD! I completely agree with the two negative reviewers. MGM has used exactly the same transfer as for the TEN year old Laser Disc; not one of the millions of white speckles has been erased! This time they even forgot to put in the still frame during the overture! It's really boring to look at a black screen - in the old days we could watch a nicely lit curtain at least. On the Laser Disc the aspect ratio was not correct, and this DVD is just as misframed. "The Hallelujah Trail" was shot in ULTRA Panavision (anamorphic 70 mm), which means that the aspect ratio should be 2.75:1, just as the newly released DVD's of "Ben-Hur" and "the Greatest Story Ever Told". In other words: lots of picture information is still missing on the sides. Actually the only improvements on the DVD are slightly better sharpness and less chroma noise, which is to be expected from all DVD's. I'm very grateful to MGM for releasing such a lot of old classics these days, but if the results will look like this dud, they better slow down their output and rather concentrate on careful quality control. Please give us a new "Hallelujah Trail"! It's not a masterpiece, but it deserves far better than this!
Rating:
Summary: Whoa! Now I see it!
Review: Wonderfully silly saga of a shipment of booze to the alcohol-starved city of Denver sometime in the 1870s. Martin Landau and his Indian tribe want to capture and drink the shipment. Lee Remick and her temperance marchers want to destroy it. Wagonmaster Brian Keith has labor troubles. Burt Lancaster and his cavalry regiment have to protect them both, and the Denver Free Militia want to fight off everyone else. Great slapstick, fun performances, wide open spaces and a marvelous Elmer Bernstien score combine in this epic send-up of westerns from a time when westerns were still good box-office. And you've never seen Donald Pleasance until you've seen him as drunken, mountain-man seer Oracle Jones!
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