Overview: 'The Fastest Guns of the West: 8 William Castle Westerns' is a brand new cowboy set from legendary director William Castle ('House on Haunted Hill', 'Rosemary's Baby').

DVD Verdict: First up is 'KLONDIKE KATE' (1943) – starring Ann Savage, Tom Neal and Glenda Farrell. A young man in Alaska finds himself accused of murder, and must fight to clear his name.

The story a young woman traveling to the Klondike to claim the bar and hotel that her dead father left her, only to find the man who was suppose to be running it had sold it a year earlier and she was left out in the cold.

Just a okay movie with a second class cast. Tom Neal never became the big star they hoped and Ann Savage the same. The story line was thin and the film, while not being bad, would be called a B flick today.

Next is 'CONQUEST OF COCHISE' (1953) – starring John Hodiak, Robert Stack and Joy Page. A cavalry officer tries to keep a lid on a volatile situation when Indian leader Cochise is being prodded into starting a war.

Agreeable, but underrated B-movie about the famous Indian leader, being set on spectacular landscapes and attempts to adhere to historical facts concerning his life. History comes alive in color by Technicolor with passable actors and adequate action.

What follows that is 'MASTERSON OF KANSAS' (1954) – starring George Montgomery, Nancy Gates and James Griffith. In Kansas, fearing another Indian War, Sheriff Bat Masterson, Marshal Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday join forces to defuse tensions over grazing lands between Indians and greedy cattlemen.

Although the friendship of Marshal Wyatt Earp and gunfighter/gambler Doc Holiday is frontier legend and the subject of several movies, Dodge City's other famous lawman Bat Masterson and Holiday did not have the same feelings. That is the premise on which Masterson Of Kansas is built around, although the two are forced into alliance by exigent circumstances.

Next is 'JESSE JAMES vs the DALTONS' (1954) – starring Barbara Lawrence, James Griffith and William Phipps. The son of Jesse James joins up with the notorious Dalton gang.

Producer Sam Katzman was from the "make 'em cheap and grind 'em out fast" school of film-making, and his output was so prolific that once in a while one of his films actually turned out to be pretty good.

This low-rent western isn't one of them. The script is soggy, the acting is atrocious, the action is limp, the direction is almost non-existent, with even the color being somewhat washed out.

Next up is 'BATTLE OF ROGUE RIVER' (1954) – starring George Montgomery, Richard Denning and Martha Hyer. In Oregon, the Army is ordered to negotiate peace with the Indians but unscrupulous businessmen, who profiteered during the conflict, secretly sabotage the peace process.

'12 O'Clock High' meets 'Virginia City' in this Castle-directed "B" programmer. George Montgomery is adequately tight-lipped as non-nonsense Major taking over failed outpost. Richard Denning gives a marvelously multi-dimensional performance as Stacey Wyatt, as militia leader with a hidden agenda.

John Crawford adds an interesting interpretation of the Hugh-Marlowe-type role of reformed reprobate. Martha Hyer provides eye candy and adds a bit of sass to boot. Good, clean, fast, if not unchallenging fun.

Then comes 'THE GUN THAT WON THE WEST' (1955) – starring Dennis Morgan, Paula Raymond and Richard Denning. In the late 1880s, Colonel Carrington and his command are assigned the job of constructing a chain of forts in the Sioux Indian territory - of Wyoming. Carrington recruits former cavalry scouts Jim Bridger and "Dakota Jack" Gaines to lead the project.

Bridger and Gaines are friendly with Sioux Chief Red Cloud, and they feel a peace treaty with the Indians can be made. If an Indian war breaks out, the cavalry is depending on getting a new type of Springfield rifle.

In truth, and sorry, but this account of Red Cloud's war with the USA in the post Civil War years is one cheap production with some very bored actors giving some very pedestrian performances!

Up next is 'DUEL ON THE MISSISSIPPI' (1955) – starring Lex Parker, Patricia Medina and Warren Stevens. In 1820, André Tulane (Lex Barker), hot-tempered scion of a Louisiana plantation family, is debt-bound to Lili Scarlet (Patricia Medina),notorious gambling-ship queen, and the daughter of Jacques Scarlet (Ian Keith), a former pirate with Jean Lafitte. André helps Lili fight off the river pirates led by her former Fiance Hugo Marat (Warren Stevens), after he has seized control of Lili's gambling-boat.

The film is colorful and enjoyable, but also ordinary and forgettable; the cast helps, with Ian Keith (as Medina's brandy-loving father) relishing his roguish part, as opposed to the humorless villains he was often relegated to playing, a role here filled – quite ably, I might add – by Stevens.

As for leading man Barker (who numbered actresses Lana Turner and Arlene Dahl among his five spouses!), he had a pretty continental and varied filmography – which saw him going from Hollywood Tarzan to German Winnetou (aka Old Shatterhand) and various other adventures and thrillers along the way, before prematurely passing away from a heart attack in 1973.

Lastly comes 'URANIUM BOOM' (1956) – starring Dennis Morgan, Patricia Medina and William Talman. Deep in the badlands of Colorado, Brad (Dennis Morgan) and Grady (William Talman) stumble across a large deposit of uranium. As Grady watches over the treasure, Brad goes into town to claim the land and meets Jean (Patricia Medina).

The two immediately fall in love and get married that night. But when the couple returns to the site, Grady reveals he was in love with Jean and leaves. Seeking revenge, he hires a confidence man to take down Brad's uranium empire.

Oh dear, for as much as I wanted to like this film, it is all rather daft and incorporates too many unlikely events, sadly. Very fast moving and fun to watch at little over the hour mark, I myself wasn't too familiar with any of the cast members, but maybe you will be. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.78:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.