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Best movie of this year hands down!

Memorable, crazy movie

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The premise for this Warner Brothers westerns is certainly clever. Randolph Scott plays a gun salesman whose guns are stolen and used by a hardened criminal (Zachary Scott) during a jailbreak. This turns the first Scott into an unlikely detective trying to track down the second Scott. Along the way he meets a gal played by Ruth Roman whose husband (Lloyd Bridges) is mixed up with a gang of outlaws using the stolen forty-fives. Roman has some excellent moments in this picture, especially when she rails against her husband and his buddies after she finds out what they are up to. There's an interesting scene where she goes on horseback to tell the sheriff (Alan Hale, who's as crooked as the outlaws); as she reaches the center of town, her husband shoots her in the arm to stop her from exposing his nefarious deeds. It should be mentioned here that COLT .45 contains a surprising amount of violence for a movie bound by the production code, filmed in 1949 and released the following year. The story seems to work in two directions: that men must be responsible with their firearms, and those who aren't give us great shoot-'em-up western scenes to enjoy.

I am a big Randolph Scott fan..I really am..and Ruth Roman has always been good eye candy..but I cannot give my support to such a contrived plot..Zachary Scott plays a cowardly gang leader..he stands petrified when the guns are turned on him..he's big man with a pair of colts in his hands..but there is a terrified look in his eyes without them..and I'm not sure why Zachary ever made it in the movies ..he has the weakest chin in town..Alan Hale who played so well off of Errol Flynn is mis-cast as a crooked town sheriff..Randy may be mis-cast as well as a clueless hero who falls for every trick in the book..dirt thrown in your face..hit over the head by a girl..rope across the dark country road..the fight at the end is bogus..it is just a rather lame western..I wish it was better cast and better directed..the action was fairly well staged..but uneven..I also must add that Lloyd Bridges plays an over-the-top ??partner?? In crime with Zachary Scott..he actually believes he's an equal partner in this enterprise..Ruth Roman can't decide where her loyalties lie..but Alan Hale as well as all the townsfolk are just pathetic..there's supposed to be a lot of gold being mined..but I never see miners..just town people..just set dressing..the Indians? stereotypes and not done well..the tepees? Store bought canvas creations..again set decorations..it is watchable..barely so..but you may chuckle a few times inadvertently..like laughing on the inside and crying on the outside..this is a disappointment..enough said..5 out of 10..being generous..

I kind of like Randolph Scott as a cowboy. He relied on two expressions. One was a slight frown signifying determination and an awareness of danger. The other was a good-natured smile bespeaking satisfaction and self confidence. (Sam Pekinpah added a note to impending treachery to that smile in "Ride The High Country.") Scott's minimalist acting was put to use in dozens of Westerns around this time, and sometimes put to very good use indeed.So it's a disappointment to find that "Colt .45" is such a stinker. It's not Randy's fault. He does his usual schtick. The responsibility for the failure lies with the writer and the director.The director, Marin, seems to have encouraged all his principles to overact. Of course he could get nowhere with Randolph Scott, who had the range of a Soviet era steel statue, all muscle, upraised arm with a fist on the end. But Ruth Roman looks as if she's taking acting lessons. And Zachary Scott, as the outlaw who steals two of Scott's Colt six shooters and becomes feared throughout the cinematic West, goes well beyond a community college drama class into some overacting stratosphere. Many movies are as good as their villains. And Zachary Scott's villainy would sink this effort, even if nothing else did. He never utters a kind word -- not from the very beginning. He doesn't smile. He sneers and scowls. His eyes bulge with malevolence. He hisses between snarls. The director needed to rein him in, along with just about everyone else, extras included. If only Z. Scott had had a dog or a stamp collection -- or something!The writer must share some of the blame. The film opens with a prologue that tells us that guns don't kill people. People kill people. Then it goes on to demonstrate the opposite. On top of that, a good deal is made of the Colt .45s that Randolph Scott is selling at the opening in 1852. He explains that they're a revolutionary invention in that they can fire six bullets in sequence without reloading. He shows a client how it works. The revolver uses the cap and ball method, meaning that instead of a single cartridge, the user has to combine a paper cartridge and a lead ball, both of which must be tamped down, and then add a percussion cap. He must go through this procedure six times, once for every chamber.I'm not a gun enthusiast, so I hope I'll be excused if I feel this throws a knot into the plot. If, as the movie asserts, only the two Scotts have these revolutionary new six shooters, it means that everyone else must have lesser ordinance like muzzle loaders. Okay, except that the few other pistols we see are apparently Civil War Remingtons, which were also six shooters loaded by the same method. Did Samuel Colt have a lobbyist at work? Of course not.Well, so the movie sucks. It must be one of Randy Scott's worst Westerns. Yet, let me end on a positive note. Scott looks just fine, even if he doesn't exactly evoke 1852. He's handsome. He's weathered and tan. He's fit. Towards the end, he appears in black trousers, black belt, black shirt, and black cowboy hat, all properly accessorized by a canary yellow neckerchief. He strides. He exudes authority. He's charismatic. He collects his paychecks.

In the 1950s, Randolph Scott made a number of westerns at Warner Bros., ranging from the sublime (Andre De Toth's CARSON CITY) to the ridiculous (this one). COLT .45 (1950) has got a number of things wrong with it, including ludicrous plotting, but is at least fast-paced, well-cast and dotted with frequent bursts of violence and gunplay. The screenwriter seems to have bent over backwards to tie a standard lawman-vs.-stage robbers tale to the Colt .45 revolver which is apparently being introduced to the west at the time this film takes place. The plot has to do with an outlaw's theft of a pair of the title six-shooters and the robbery-and-killing spree that results. The owner of the guns, Steve Farrell (Randolph Scott), a salesman for the Colt company, takes off after the villain with a second pair of the six-guns. At various points during the action, Farrell is accused of complicity with Brett (Zachary Scott), the robber he's pursuing.Zachary Scott makes a suitably snarling, mustachioed villain in a performance seemingly fueled by ample infusions of "fire water" consumed between set-ups. Ruth Roman makes a spunky and attractive heroine as the wife of a miner (Lloyd Bridges) who's in cahoots with Zachary. Alan Hale (Sr.) plays a corrupt sheriff also working with Zachary.The most interesting thing about this western is the inclusion of a tribe of Indians who pop up at convenient moments to help hero Farrell. Given the pervasiveness of corrupt whites in Bonanza Creek, the backlot town where the film takes place, the Indians prove to be Farrell's only dependable allies. The chief is played by respected Indian actor Chief Thundercloud, who adds virtually the only note of historical authenticity to the entire film. At one point, one of the Indian women supplies heroine Roman with a very fashionable white buckskin jacket that she sports for the rest of the film.The film is set during the James K. Polk administration immediately after the Mexican War, placing the action sometime in the 1840s. Given that photography was a brand-new (and quite time-consuming) technology back then, it's anachronistically amusing to see posters featuring a black-and-white head shot of Randolph Scott distributed to peace officers in the film.Shot in color, COLT .45 is a relatively low-budget affair with shooting restricted to the Warner Bros. backlot and nearby studio ranches.