Colt .45: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Colt .45: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Back in the saddle again.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III April 4, 2024

Loosely based on the 1950 film of the same name, Roy Huggins' Colt .45 ran for three seasons later the same decade. It enjoyed a brief period of ratings success before star Wayde Preston abruptly quit in 1958 due to dangerous working conditions, the lead was changed with no explanation given to (presumably confused) viewers, and it never reclaimed its former glory despite more than a few standout episodes during its "second half". Ending on something of a whimper in the early summer of 1960, Colt .45 soon dropped out of public attention almost entirely. Rarely broadcast in reruns but kept on life support in the modern area by enthusiastic tape and disc traders, the show's legacy has now been fully resurrected by Warner Archive -- in a rare departure to TV land -- as an essential, series-spanning Blu-ray collection that features one of the most pristine A/V presentations of a late Golden Age series that you've ever seen.

Front and center is Christopher Colt (Wayde Preston, credited in all but 10 of the show's 67 episodes), who's made of 100% pure American beef and the nephew of inventor Samuel Colt. Chris saunters from town to town under the guise of a gun salesman hawking the titular pistols -- an all-around improvement over their older .44 model, as Colt skillfully demonstrates in the entertaining series opener "Judgment Day" -- but he's actually an undercover Army Intelligence Corps agent tracking down elusive criminals, several of them at least based on historical figures such as Billy the Kid, Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Edwin Booth, the lesser-known brother of John Wilkes. Sometimes, well, it's just a regular old outlaw, a bank robbery in need of thwarting, a daring rescue, help from another agent, or even an outside force that threatens the town as a whole. Naturally, supporting characters vary greatly as well: Chris travels without a sidekick, which keeps his regular interactions fairly new and fresh during almost every episode.

From start to finish, the formula doesn't really change all that much, sometimes to the series' detriment. ~25 minutes is usually enough time to establish a brand-new location, introduce a handful of key supporting characters, reveal the villain (if he or she was even hiding to begin with), throw in the occasional red herring or another twist just for fun, and of course wrap everything up in a neat little bow before the end credits. But sometimes it's not enough time; this gives certain episodes something of a patchwork quality, which is often revealed by the fact that Colt sometimes barely even bothers to establish his a secret identity. There aren't any earth-shattering cliffhangers, multi-part sagas, or even much in the way of serialization or character growth, for that matter. That's not necessarily a complaint, mind you: even its least successful outings are solidly light Western entertainment that goes down smooth on a weekend afternoon. As a whole it's not quite on the level of something like Maverick (also created in 1957 by Roy Huggins, which even contained a neat little shout-out to Colt. 45 after its 1960 cancellation), but well worth a look for genre fans.

The show's now-infamous turbulence during its second season -- which included the resignation of star Wayde Preston, protesting unsafe working conditions for having to do many of his own stunts -- led to a shorter run of just 13 episodes, roughly half of what was originally slated for broadcast. ABC was forced to air repeats to finish out the season, with the remaining Preston-starring adventures relegated to the first 12 or so episodes of the third and soon-to-be final season before Donald May -- who recently died at the age of 94, and was best known as "Adam Drake" on the mystery soap opera The Edge of Night -- was hastily written in as "Sam Colt Jr.", Christopher's cousin, while Preston would eventually return in a reluctant supporting role. Narratively, this shoe-horn solution likely baffled casual and die-hard fans alike, even leading to the show being marketed in the UK as The Colt Cousins. Though clearly a black mark on this otherwise reasonably consistent production, it doesn't detract from overall enjoyment of what's presented on-screen.

All told, Colt .45 is a decently fun series to revisit, admittedly more so for its "long-lost" status than the strength of its content. Those up for a speed run will likely be able to pick out recycled background details, a few regular supporting actors playing multiple characters, and even a handful of familiar guest stars. Standout examples include Adam West (who actually appears in three different episodes), Leonard Nimoy in his late 20s, Alan Hale Jr., Charles Bronson, Sandy Koufax in the middle of his baseball career, Stacey Keach Sr., prolific "tough guy" character actor Lane Bradford, and Chris Alcaide, who appeared in a slew of TV Westerns from that era such as Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Rawhide, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Maverick, and The Rifleman. Obviously Colt .45 is worth more than a casual game of "spot the future superstar", but their presence admittedly livens up the series' steadfast and workmanlike formula.

Presented in a compact and beautifully restored ten-disc set with no option to purchase each of its three seasons separately, Colt .45: The Complete Series includes all 67 episodes in their original broadcast order.

Season One (Discs 1-4)

"Judgment Day", "A Time to Die", "The Three-Thousand Dollar Bullet", "Gallows at Granite Gap", "Small Man", "Final Payment", "One Good Turn", "Last Chance", "Young Gun", "Rebellion", "The Gypsies", "Sign in the Sand", "The Mirage", "Blood Money", "Dead Reckoning", "Decoy", "Rare Specimen", "Mantrap", "Ghost Town", "The Golden Gun", "Circle of Fear", "Split Second", "Point of Honor", "The Deserters", "The Manbuster", "Long Odds"

Season Two (Discs 5-6)

"The Escape", "Dead Aim", "The Magic Box", "The Confession", "The Man Who Loved Lincoln", "The Sanctuary", "The Saga of Sam Bass", "Amnesty", "The Pirate", "Law West of the Pecos", "Don't Tell Joe", "Return to El Paso", "Night of Decision"

Season Three (Discs 7-10)

"Queen of Dixie", "The Reckoning", "The Devil's Godson", "The Rival Gun", "The Hothead", "A Legend of Buffalo Bill", "Yellow Terror", "Tar and Feathers", "Alias Mr. Howard", "Calamity", "Under False Pretenses", "Impasse", "Arizona Anderson", "The Cause", "Phantom Trail", "Breakthrough", "Chain of Command", "Alibi", "Absent Without Leave", "Strange Encounter", "Trial by Rope", "The Gandy Dancers", "Martial Law", "Attack", "Bounty List", "Appointment in Agoura", "Showdown at Goldtown", "The Trespasser"

For individual episode credits, cast lists, synopses, broadcast details, and more, please see this somewhat messy but extremely informative series summary on the (thankfully preserved) Classic TV Archive website.

Colt .45: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I've seen as many Warner Archive Blu-rays as classic TV shows on any digital format... so when I say that the union of both elements is a perfect match, I mean it. This set is, without a doubt, the best-looking home video presentation of a vintage television production short of a full-blown UHD release, and in many ways it even approaches that high bar for quality. Sourced from new and exclusive 4K scans of the original camera negatives, the result is as crisp, carefully handled, and consistently outstanding as you've come to expect from the reliable boutique label.

As these 40 screenshots show (roughly 13 from each season), a top-tier level of quality is maintained from start to finish as fine detail, depth, stability, and clarity are all second-to-none in the right conditions. Razor-sharp detail and small background elements from the film's frugal but good-looking production design can easily be picked out, as can stray imperfections including dead giveaways that most of the action was most certainly not shot on location. Close-ups, mid-range and wide shots -- everything just looks great here, clean and precise with virtually no damage to speak of. Not surprisingly, though, Warner Archive's careful touch has ensured that the original film's look and grain structure are preserved as well as possible, even in darker scenes when excess noise might otherwise thwart shadow detail and well-handled contrast levels. As usual it's also perfectly encoded, with each Blu-ray (all of which hold 6-7 episodes apiece) running at a supportively high bit rate with absolutely no compression-related issues to speak of.

Colt .45: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As much as I can't help but heap praise upon its oustanding visuals, Warner Archive's new DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio (mono) restorations are likewise some of the most clean, crisp, and precise presentations of a classic TV show that I've ever heard. Dialogue, sound effects, and music are all resurrected with absolutely stunning clarity and suffer from no perceivable signs of hiss, pops, crackle, or other age-related wear-and-tear... and this was all done without noticeably compromising its dynamic range. Perfectly rendered with the utmost care and attention paid to its original one-channel source material, Colt .45 now sounds like a series less than half its age. Simply put, this is remarkable restoration work that I can't help but wish was applied to all shows from this era of television. It's a real ear-opener.

However... the same can't be said for Colt .45's optional English subtitles, which are unfortunately nowhere near as good. They're attractive and sync properly, but some sort of voice recognition software or other artificial means was clearly used here, because almost every other scene -- at least from the numerous episodes I sampled -- features at least one glaring typo or misrepresented phrase, and sometimes even in amusing fashion. (The very first episode, for example, references the opera but it's changed to "Oprah", putting Colt .45 a good 30 years ahead of its time.) While I'm not against using such means as "step one" in the process, a human touch was sorely needed here.

Colt .45: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This ten-disc set ships in three multi-disc keepcases (one per season) housed in an attractive full-color slipbox. It's a clean, space-saving effort -- at least for those of us who prefer disc hubs to sleeves -- and efficiently organized, with appropriate if not slightly repetitive design elements that repurpose the striking black-and-white bumpers which appear during each episode. Episode names are not printed on each disc, but they're at least numbered chronologically in "full series" fashion. Sadly, no bonus features have been included in this set; that's almost expected given Warner Archive's price point and their typical output, but perhaps even the distantly-related 1950 film -- also known as Thundercloud, and likewise never released on home video -- would have made a decent enough companion piece.

Colt .45: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Roy Huggins' Colt .45 is good old-fashioned small-screen Western entertainment; despite an awful lot of turbulence behind the scenes (and an inevitable early cancellation because of it), these episodes are actually decently consistent from start to finish. Almost criminally absent on home video for decades, Colt .45 has been mercifully resurrected by Warner Archive on this essential series-spanning Blu-ray set: all 67 half-hour episodes are effortlessly encoded onto 10 dual-layered discs, and the boutique label's absolutely stunning A/V presentation is worth the price of admission alone. While the slightly botched subtitles and lack of bonus features keep this set from true well-rounded greatness, it's still an overwhelmingly solid boxed set that belongs in any classic TV collection. Highly Recommended.