Search - U.S. Marshal on DVD

Crime Fighting Arizona Style

Robert Huggins | Suburban Philadelphia, PA United States | 12/05/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Here's a welcome DVD release of this late 1950s crime series set in Arizona. "U.S. Marshal" starred John Bromfield as Frank Morgan, but the show actually began life in the Fall of 1956 as "Sheriff of Cochise" and lasted two years under that title until Sheriff Morgan was promoted to Marshal for the last two seasons of the show. Fortunately, this collection of ten episodes includes a couple of episodes from the earlier version of the series, so you get some sense of how the show evolved. While "Sheriff of Cochise" plays like a classic Western series set in modern times, "U.S. Marshal" is much more of a police drama, very much in the vein of "Highway Patrol." The series completed its original run in the Spring of 1960.

This two DVD collection of episodes from the Timeless Media Group is a nice complement to a previous release of "U.S. Marshal" episodes that the Platinum Disc Corporation (now Echo Bridge Entertainment) released in early 2004. Fortunately, this collection only duplicates one episode, "Pursuit," from the earlier release. There's a solid line-up of guest stars in these episodes, recognizable faces like Charles Aidman, Ruta Lee (in two episodes), John Lupton, Jacqueline Scott, Dennis Patrick, Don Gordon, Harry Dean Stanton, Harold J. Stone and others, in addition to Charles Bronson and Robert Fuller who appear in the "Pursuit" episode. Interestingly, a number of episodes in this collection were directed by noted film director Robert Altman, who spent the early part of his career directing episodes of various television shows like "Whirlybirds" and "Combat!," among others, during the 1950s and early 1960s.

The prints utilized for this release are in comparatively good shape, but as this is a budget priced release, no apparent restoration work has been done. Fortunately, unlike the Platinum release, there are no company logos appearing in the bottom corner. But all of the "U.S. Marshal" episodes are missing the opening title sequence; the title sequence does play once, before the episode menu appears. Strangely, the two episodes of "Sheriff of Cochise" appearing in this collection both have their title sequences intact. Full closing credits do appear at the end of all episodes.

Although produced under the auspices of Desilu, "U.S. Marshal" is probably not a candidate for official, season-by-season DVD releases any time in the near future. So this collection of episodes, as well as the collection from Platinum Disc, is probably going to be as good as it gets for this series. I can easily recommend this series for fans of 1950s era crime dramas.

Except as noted, all episodes are from "U.S. Marshal"

Lynching Party* (season1)
Bank Robbery* (season 1)
Pursuit a/k/a Army Escapee Pursuit (season 3)
Rest in Peace (season 4)
Backfire (season 4)
Stool Pigeon (season 3)
Triple Cross (season 4)
Kill or be Killed (season 4)
Ghost Town (season 4)
The Diner (season 3)

*"Sheriff of Cochise" episode
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