Colt .45 (1950 film)

Colt .45 is a 1950 American Western film directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Randolph Scott, Ruth Roman, and Zachary Scott. Reissued under the title Thundercloud, the film served as the loose basis for the television series Colt .45 starring Wayde Preston, which premiered seven years later. Written by Thomas W. Blackburn, author of the lyrics to The Ballad of Davy Crockett, the film is about a gun salesman and gunfighter who tracks down a killer who stole two new Colt .45 repeating pistols leaving a trail of dead bodies behind him. The revolvers used in the movie were actually first model .44 Caliber Colt revolving belt pistols made in 1849 and reaching final form by 1850. Scott correctly demonstrated how to load them so the producers of the film were most likely aware of the anachronism in the title.

Plot
In the town of Red Rock, gun salesman Steve Farrell Randolph Scott demonstrates the new Colt .45 repeating pistols to the sheriff. The demonstration is interrupted when men arrive to transfer one of the prisoners to another jail. As he's being led away, prisoner Jason Brett Zachary Scott grabs the pistols, shoots the Sheriff, and escapes. Convinced that Farrell was involved in the escape, the townspeople arrest the innocent gun salesman. Brett initiates a campaign of robberies and cold-blooded murder, with regular guns being no match for his Colt .45 pistols.

Farrell is released from jail due to a lack of evidence. He tracks Brett into Texas and comes across a band of Indians whom Brett has killed to provide cover for a stagecoach robbery. The only survivor of the attack, Chief Walking Bear Chief Thundercloud receives care from Steve and tells him about Brett and his gang's plan. Farrell jumps onto the stage to fight off Brett's gang with his own set of Colt .45s. The only passenger on the stage, Beth Donovan Ruth Roman, tries to prevent him from fighting off the robbers.

After Brett's gang retreats, Farrell stops the stage and notices a white scarf hanging outside the stagecoach window. Believing it to be a signal to the robbers, Farrell suspects that Beth is part of the gang; she escapes on a horse while Farrell is helping the wounded stagecoach driver. Farrell does not know that Beth is the wife of Paul Donovan Lloyd Bridges, one of Jason Brett's henchmen, The Colt .45 Gang. Beth returns to her cabin home, which is being used by Brett and his gang as a hideout. Although she believes that her husband has been forced to work with the outlaws, she soon learns that he is actually plotting crimes with the gang leader, psychotic killer Jason Brett, exquisitely played by Zachary Scott.

Unknown to the citizens of Bonanza Creek, Sheriff Harris Alan Hale is working with Brett and his gang. When Steve Farrell arrives in town, Sheriff Harris asks to make Steve his Deputy. Harris then rides out to Brett's hideout and warns him that now Deputy Farrell is in town. Farrell learns Beth's identity. Sheriff Harris encourages Deputy Steve Farrell to ride out to her house to confront her, knowing fullwell that Brett and his gang will be lying in wait to murder Steve, but Farrell is able to evade the ambush with the help of hid newfound friend Walking Bear and his Indians.

Back at the hideout, Beth overhears her husband Paul plotting with gang leader Brett and realizes her husband is actively working with the gang. After she denounces her husband, Paul locks her in a shed. She manages to escape and hurries into town to reveal what she knows, but as she rides past Paul, he shoots and wounds her. Hearing the shots and seeing what has just happened, Farrell jumps on his horse, rides by her, takes her in his arms and rides off seeking refuge with Walking Bear and his people at the Indian camp. After being treated for only a slight wound, Beth regains consciousness and warns deputy Steve Farrell about criminal mastermind Jason Brett's plan to take over Bonanza Creek.

The Indians discover Paul Donovan dead, sitting on a horse, tied to the saddle, shot many times in the back by a Colt .45. Along the trail, Sheriff Harris and members of the gang set a trap and do capture Farrell, but the Indians come to his rescue and kill one of his captors, after Steve Farrell and the Indians leave, though mortally wounded, Sheriff Harris manages to mount himself on a horse. Farrell and the Indians ride to Bonanza Creek and the tribesmen quietly go about killing Brett's badmen. The injured sheriff Harris does make it back to town and warns Brett, and then he dies just inside the door of the Sheriff's Office. Jason Brett has camped in the Sheriff's Office with Beth Donovan who soon becomes his hostage. When Farrell and the Indians arrive at the jail, Brett uses Beth as a shield, but Beth breaks away. Farrell enters the jail alone and sees Brett is out of ammunition. Steve puts down his loaded .45s and the two men fight. During the struggle, Brett grabs one of Farrell's guns and Farrell also grabs a gun, a shot is fired...Who will exit the Sheriff's Office? It is Jason Brett who steps out of the office alone, he takes a few steps, and suddenly falls dead in the street. Steve Farrell then walks out of the office and into the street and is embraced by Beth. - THE END -

Cast

 * Randolph Scott as Steve Farrell
 * Ruth Roman as Beth Donovan
 * Zachary Scott as Jason Brett
 * Lloyd Bridges as Paul Donovan
 * Alan Hale, Sr. as Sheriff Harris of Bonanza Creek
 * Ian MacDonald as Miller
 * Chief Thundercloud as Walking Bear
 * Luther Crockett as Judge Tucker
 * Walter Coy as Carl
 * Charles Evans as Redrock Sheriff
 * Carl Andre as Indian
 * Clyde Hudkins, Jr. as Indian
 * Leroy Johnson as Indian
 * Stanley Andrews as Sheriff (uncredited)

Production
Colt .45 was filmed on location at Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California, Vasquez Rocks in Agua Dulce, California, and in Santa Clarita, California.

Box office
According to Warner Bros records the film earned $2,003,000 domestically and $1,118,000 foreign.

Television series
Warner Bros. loosely based a television series of the same name upon the film in 1957, with Wayde Preston starring as a gun salesman named Christopher Colt. When Preston left the series, he was replaced by Donald May as Sam Colt, Jr., who also sold their family's pistols across the West when not momentarily embroiled in a gunfight. The series was eventually marketed in the United Kingdom as The Colt Cousins and ran for three seasons.