Walter made mention of this 1971 film on the SF & Horror Board. Did Universal release it to home video in any format whatsoever?

I think it must have been lost in the shuffle when other coming-of-age movies of that era won greater attention. Like SUMMER OF '42 and THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, it examines youth & family with a contemporary sensibility even though the story takes place in the 1940s. RED SKY AT MORNING, adapted by Marguerite Roberts from the Richard Bradford novel, is a superb little film. Director James Goldstone did loads of television work and several films, but of his feature career I feel this is his strongest work. He displays great perception and sensitivity to the material, and manages to finely detail the lives of RED SKY's characters. Thanks to his collaboration with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, this is also a beautiful film to look at.

Richard Thomas, shortly before THE WALTONS, delivers one of his most assured performances. In fact, the entire cast is outstanding. Claire Bloom and Catherine Burns are remarkable, but the rest of the cast - Desi Arnaz Jr., Harry Guardino, Richard Crenna, John Colicos, Neremiah Persoff, Pepe Serna, Gregory Sierra, Victoria Racimo, Christina Hart, and Strother Martin among them - all offer first class work. Some of Goldstone's movies have been frustrating because I felt he was showing little of his capability behind the camera, but here he's firing on all cylinders. RED SKY AT MORNING also boasts a final scene that is among the most quietly touching that I can recall.

It seems such a shame that the film evidently didn't find a very large audience.

I'm pretty sure that RED SKY AT MORNING was never even released on VHS. We need a widescreen DVD of it.

Non-cable TV prints of the film have been unwatchable, removing some of the "good parts" and adding an incredibly poor narrative track spoken by a man who's supposed to be the Richard Thomas character grown-up, looking back at his boyhood. That version is an abomination.

I really thought that Catharine Burns would be around a long time as a younger character actress, but she seems to have vanished from the businesss shortly after this film.

In agreement here, considering her Oscar nominated star-making turn in LAST SUMMER, I am afraid Hollywood hype machine for a younger actor, especially to soemone like Catherine Burns, was lacking back then, look at poor Elizabeth Hartman, had she came about now, she wouldnt certianly have been a star, lprobably doing Miramax film or something. Shame, she really was a true great actress!

As for this tV version, I only heard about it, was it really that bad?

Yes, the TV version that ran was really awful. The plodding narration only slowed the pace and contributed nothing. Sequences such as the race to the dead cow, and some of the more explicit dialog, were either severely truncated or missing altogether.

I didn't see the theatrical cut again until just about 2 or 3 years ago, when one of the cable channels aired it (possibly Showtime). It was great to see the uncut theatrical edition, but of course it was panned-and-scanned from the original Panavision. As I said, we really need a letterboxed DVD. An audio commentary track with cast members would be nice, too.