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Roy Colt (Brett Halsey) and Winchester Jack are outlaws leading a gang but Roy has become tired of the criminal life and heads into town to find work as a repuable citizen. Roy saves the life of the cripple, Sam Lewis, from a gunman trying to get hold of a treasure map. Jack meanwhile has picked up a young Indian woman named Manila who makes him wash himself before they have sex, only to demand that he marries her first, not willing to marry Jack finds himself being charged for every item of clothing and activity that she performs. Jack and his gang hold-up a stage, only to find Roy is defending it and too well armed to defeat - the gang head into town where they find their rival The Reverend trying to get the treasure map from Sam which they eventually achieve and tear the map in two so they will work together. Roy arrives too late but the townspeople make him Sheriff and he sets off in persuit...
The Spaghetti Western was a very hit and miss genre and the comedy Westerns were routinely more miss than hit. By the early 1970s the majority of genre titles were going down the comic route and although some of these (like the classic Lo chiamavano Trinità... (1970)) were genuinely amusing, most suffered awkward shifts in tone between serious and light scenes and relied on very forced gags, usually quite purile, which translated poorly and have not aged well. Roy Colt e Winchester Jack is certainly not up there with the best of them, it seems uncertain as to whether to go for all-out comedy or just to be lighthearted, but equally it avoids most of the worst pitfalls - most importantly it has a solid and quite well paced storyline behind it, which even if completely unoriginal, is enough to keep the film moving and avoids the episodic feel of many of the Old-Westsploitation films of the era. Indeed towards the end the comedy seems to stop and the focus returns to the storyline, making for some of the best scenes in the film, particularly those between Roy and Jack. In interviews Bava later stated that he had written most of the comedy himself into an otherwise serious script.
Although an established name in Italian cinema, Mario Bava was never able to pass on a payday, no matter what the project. This would be his third Western, a genre for which he seemed to have little affection. While the first two projects had been distinctly American in their tone, Roy Colt is clearly an Italian production but aside from a few unusual camera angles and a brief use of matte-paintings (like in his first genre title La strada per Forte Alamo, he uses art-work to try and turn Italian locations into Monument Valley) there is no indication that anyone different is behind the camera and although the direction is generally solid it could be by any number of other directors. Perhaps the only really noteworthy scene is a climactic fight between the eponymous leads which is so horribly edited that the fight becomes impossible to follow - over-long reaction shots from bystanders combine with obvious cuts to stuntmen, the fact that this sequence made it to the final print seems to prove the lack of interest he had in the project.
American actor Brett Halsey had made a number of films in the US in the 1950s before moving to Europe in the mid-60s and appearing in a number of Italian productions including the Western Oggi a me... domani a te! (1972). He has a cheeky look not dissimilar to Terence Hill and suits the lighter tone of Roy Colt well. Winchester Jack is also an American actor, Charles Southwood, who later appeared in the comic Western They Call Me Hallelujah (1971), although he seems to have done few other films which seems odd as he makes for a good cowboy and performs well.
Bava showed no affection for the genre in his previous Western projects so it should come as no surprise that Roy Colt e Winchester Jack is a very workmanlike effort and of no real interest to fans of the director (collectors wanting to sample just one of Bava's Westerns would be best off with Ringo del Nebraska as it is at least a good film if similarly anonymous). As a Spaghetti Western Roy Colt is enjoyable and better than many of the other projects from the early 1970s, but it has little to particularly recommend it.
| Anyone famous in it? | Brett Halsey - American actor who also appeared in Bava's sex comedy Quante volte... quella notte (1972). |
| Directed by anyone interesting? | Mario Bava - the Italian horror icon, best known for films like La frusta e il corpo (1963) he did also direct projects from the Western Ringo del Nebraska (1966) to the gritty crime film Cani arrabbiati (1974). |
| Any gore or violence ? | A little blood. |
| Any sex or nudity? | None |
| Who is it for? | The solid storyline should appeal to fans of traditional Westerns but there is not much Bava flavour in one of his most workmanlike films so for fans of the director this might be something of a disappointment. |
| Visuals | Original Aspect Ratio - 1.85:1. Anamorphically Enhanced. Colour. Picture quality is generally good, the print is very grainy and a few scenes do seem over bright but this might stem from the original negative. |
| Audio | Italian mono - sounds fine. |
| Subtitles | English - based on the Italian soundtrack. |
| Availability | Only available in the The Mario Bava Collection Volume 2. |
| Region | Region 1 (US, North America) - NTSC |
| Other regions? | Italian release from Cecchi Gori has a trailer and interview with Lamberto Bava but no English options. |
| Cuts? | The film is believed to be uncut. Titles and credits are in Italian. |