ROY COLT & WINCHESTER JACK (1970)
Director: Mario Bava
Image Entertainment

Although Italian horror maestro Mario Bava had directed several westerns in the 60s, the films had mainly gone ignored and not met with much critical acclaim. Bava's talents were better given to gothic tales and muscleman fantasies, but he did one more western with ROY COLT & WINCHESTER JACK. Obviously inspired by Sergio Leone's Clint Eastwood movies and George Roy Hill's then-recent smash BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, ROY COLT & WINCHESTER JACK is passable entertainment but definitely not Bava at his best.

Scripted by Mario Di Nardo, the same writer on Bava's underrated FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON, the story involves two outlaws: blonde Winchester Jack (Charles Southwood) and dark-haired Roy Colt (Brett Halsey, also seen in Bava's FOUR TIMES THAT NIGHT). Always getting into fights with his pal, Roy Colt leaves the posse in search of a more honest life, and ends up being a town Sheriff and entrusted with the map of an Indian treasure. Other interested parties include an Native American prostitute (Marilù Tolo) who is saved from a murder rap and becomes romantically involved with Roy and Winchester and an amusing villainous character named "The Reverend" (Teodoro Corrà) and his corrupt gang of bandits.

With ROY COLT & WINCHESTER JACK, Bava goes for satire but the two American leads don't have the charm of Franco Nero or Tomas Milian to pull it off, and having their voices dubbed by Italian actors doesn't help much either. There is some fun slapstick, including a character being thrown across a brothel room and an old cripple having his crutches shot down by a twitching gunslinger. Marilù Tolo is charming as the Indian girl always extorting men for money, but her native getup and Italian looks make her resemble Cher during her variety series days. Not many of the director's trademark touches are on display here, but there are some nice matte shots blended with scenic beaches, and a shot of the sun shining through the eye socket of a skull is classic Bava.

Image Entertainment has presented ROY COLT & WINCHESTER JACK as the latest installment of their ongoing "Mario Bava Collection." The transfer looks quite nice, though not as sparkling as some of the other titles in the series. It's Anamorphic and letterboxed in its original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1, and there is some minor speckling on the print source. The colors are nicely saturated, though Bava's usual palette of color schemes are not well represented with this title. The adequate mono audio contains the Italian language version, with English subtitles.

The only extras are trailers for other titles in the Bava Collection and informative liner notes by Video Watchdog's Tim Lucas, featuring quotes from star Brett Halsey. (George R. Reis)

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