reverends-colt-movie-poster-1971-1020379103Guy Madison, old Wild Bill Hickok from his TV days, is Miller Colt, a man at a crossroads in his life. A former bounty hunter, he’s now a priest looking to build a church. We learn from flashbacks that his father, a preacher, had been killed by a pair of bandits he’d offered a meal and a resting spot for the the night. Just a boy, Miller had grown up to bounty hunting and was a particular violent one. Every outlaw he killed was killing those who’d murdered his father. Then one day in a shoot-out with two bandits, a small boy was killed. Miller wasn’t even sure whether he’d fired the fatal bullet or one of the bandits.

And that was enough.

Miller Colt knew vengeance wasn’t the answer anymore and thus became aimages (1) priest,

He arrives in Tucson to be greeted by Sheriff Donovan(Richard Harrison), an old friend. Harrison doesn’t have much to do here and plays a slightly, at times, dotty character, mainly setting up Madison.

The bank is robbed and Reverend Colt is the first to aid a shot down town member. But the rest of the town doesn’t see it that way. His fearsome reputation precedes him and they don’t believe that he’s a priest. After all, he still wears a gun. They believe he killed the innocent. Ready to lynch him, Sheriff Donovan arrests him to save his life and then helps him out by releasing him to go after the bank robbers.

images (3)Miller Colt comes upon a small wagon train, only three, under attack by the same bunch. They take refuge in all old fort and the siege begins.The gang can’t get in, but they are low on water.

Not a bad film. It came at that brief lull between the spaghetti western heyday of the mid to late sixties and the brief resurgence of the genre when the Trinity films introduced comedy elements.

Reverendo Colt (1970) 4