Search - U.S. Marshal on DVD

Hard-to-find Western series finally makes it to DVD

Robert Huggins | Suburban Philadelphia, PA United States | 03/26/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"John Bromfield stars as Frank Morgan in this violent, modern-day (1950s) Western set in Arizona. For the first two seasons of the series (1956-58), the show was titled "Sheriff of Cochise (a/k/a "The Man from Cochise") in which Morgan was the Sheriff of Cochise County. During the series' final two seasons (1958-60), Morgan became a U.S. Marshal for the state of Arizona and was based in neighboring Tucson in "United States Marshal." The show was more of a crime show with a Western setting and Morgan's transportation of choice was not a horse but rather a station wagon equipped with a rifle mounted on the inside of the driver's door. The episodes included on this DVD include plenty of early performances by future television and movie stars, including Charles Bronson (The Dirty Dozen, Death Wish series), Michael Landon (Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie), Mike Connors (Mannix), Martin Milner (Route 66, Adam-12), Robert Fuller (Laramie, Wagon Train, Emergency!), Jack Lord (Stoney Burke, Hawaii Five-0), and Donna Douglas (The Beverly Hillbillies). The series's star, John Bromfield, effectively retired from acting at the conclusion of this series. Platinum Disc Corporation's DVD is a real find as this series has rarely been seen since its original broadcast and was difficult to find on VHS tape. Quality wise, you'll find some film specks and scratches and Platinum's logo which appears from time-to-time in the bottom right hand corner of the screen but, generally speaking, these episodes look and sound good . . . just don't expect modern "high definition" quality. Some of the information included on the DVD cover is incorrect. For starters, the DVD includes 9 episodes rather than the 8 listed on the cover. Some of the episode titles are incorrectly listed and, finally, episodes are said to be 39 minutes long when, in fact, they run approximately 26 minutes each (without commercials) and were produced for a half-hour time slot. These errors aside, kudos to Platinum for releasing episodes from this hard-to-find series, as well as episodes from other Westerns from TV's golden age, including "Stories of the Century" and "Shotgun Slade."Except as noted, all episode titles are from "United States Marshal." The corrected episode titles include:The Witnesses
Sentence of Death
Maryjo is Missing
The Fugitives
Trigger Happy
The Champ
Husband and Wife*
The Relatives*
Army Escapee Pursuit* "Sheriff of Cochise" (a/k/a "The Man from Cochise") episodes"

Fighting Crime in 1950s Arizona

Robert Huggins | Suburban Philadelphia, PA United States | 08/25/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I like that "U.S. Marshal" (1958-60) and its predecessor "Sheriff of Cochise" (1956-58) never pretend to be something that they're not . . . . . simply, they're very good 1950s era television crime dramas, featuring straight ahead stories that move along at a crisp pace, and a solid, no nonsense lead in John Bromfield as Sheriff/Marshal Frank Morgan.



With the lone exception of crooner Mel "The Velvet Fog" Torme (in an episode helmed by noted film director Robert Altman), this collection of episodes is populated by character actors of the era, including Myron Healey, Jim Davis, Len Lesser, Stacy Harris and Ralph Moody, as well as Robert Brubaker and James Griffith as Morgan's deputies. Episodes in this collection include the following:



-- Escape Artist (season 3, episode 4)

-- Federal Agent (season 3, episode 12)

-- Man Who Lived Twice (season 4, episode 16)

-- Murder My Darling (season 4, episode 9)



While there are a few film blemishes here and there on this release, the audio/visual presentation is fairly solid as releases of unrestored 16 millimeter prints are concerned. The releasing company for this 4-episode DVD of "U.S. Marshal," Alpha Video, previously released four episodes from the show's original "Sheriff of Cochise" format. Both of the show's formats have episodes that are in the public domain and those episodes included in Sheriff of Cochise - Volume 1 have all previously appeared on DVDs released by other companies. However, that's not the case with this release as all four episodes are making their commercial DVD debut. So if you're collecting episodes from this series, this is an essential release along with U.S. Marshal and U.S. Marshal. In fact, there's only one episode duplicated on these three "U.S. Marshal" releases, despite the fact that they have been released by three different DVD companies.



"U.S. Marshal" is recommended to fans of 1950s era TV crime series."