Although “Flynn/Smith” doesn’t come with the same ring as “Bogart/Bacall” or other classic screen couples, Errol Flynn and Alexis Smith nonetheless paired across multiple films. For the fourth – and final - of these, we head to 1950’s Montana.

Set in 1879 Montana, cattle ranchers and sheepherders butt heads. Australian Morgan Lane (Flynn) comes into the territory to raise sheep and encounters conflict.

When Morgan meets wealthy rancher Maria Singleton (Smith), romantic sparks ignite. However, these become more complicated when Maria learns Morgan’s occupation.

Prior to Montana, we last saw Flynn and Smith together via 1945’s San Antonio. In that review, I noted that the then-36-year-old Flynn’s hard-charging/heavy-drinking lifestyle made him look much older than his actual age. With another five years under his belt, I figured Flynn at 41 would look even more “elderly”.

To my surprise, Flynn at 41 actually looked better than Flynn at 36. Perhaps he knew he was wearing out his welcome in Hollywood and worked to get himself in fighting shape for Montana or maybe I just figured he’d seem so haggard that his relatively healthy appearance meant he appeared less weathered than he was.

Whatever the case, Flynn seems game and reasonably engaged. His not-as-craggy vibe also means the 12-year age difference between Flynn and Smith feels less problematic than it did in 1945.

It probably helps that Montana makes Maria engaged to Rodney Ackroyd, a character played by Douglas Kennedy. We could swallow that Smith would choose the most haggard version of Flynn over the dumpy and borderline homely Kennedy.

Does it act as a spoiler to reveal that Morgan ends up with the girl instead of the slimy Rodney? Maybe, but if you don’t know that the leading man and the leading lady will end up together, you don’t get out much.

Flynn and Smith create an attractive couple but I can’t claim they really ignite sparks. Despite their history together, they fail to demonstrate much chemistry.

That said, I can’t really blame them, as Montana becomes such a sluggish little bore. The most entertainment on display comes from the way the cattle folks treat sheepmen like they’re fentanyl dealers.

Oh my, the animosity on display! For all I know, this might be historically accurate, but it simply prompts laughs when the cow people go so ballistic about some sheep.

Beyond this unintended comedy, Montana fails to find any kind of groove. As noted, Flynn and Smith never become a particularly interesting couple and nothing else about the movie picks up the slack.

Even at a mere 77 minutes, Montana can feel like an endurance test. It winds up as a slow and dull Western.

Montana appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. A Technicolor affair, the image held up well.

No real issues with softness materialized. Transitions and a few interiors lacked great detail, but the movie largely displayed strong delineation.

The movie lacked signs of jagged edges or moiré effects, and I saw no edge haloes. We got light grain and no print flaws.

Given the setting, the palette leaned toward an arid brown feel, though it also popped with brighter hues on occasion. The Blu-ray reproduced the hues in a vivid manner.

Blacks came across as deep and tight, whereas low-light elements felt smooth and concise. This wound up as a pretty terrific presentation.

Though not as impressive, the film’s DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack worked fine given its vintage. Speech could be a bit reedy, but lines remained perfectly intelligible and didn’t suffer from sibilance, edginess or other problems.

Music and effects offered somewhat thin tones and never brought great range. Nonetheless, they seemed fine for their age and didn’t suffer from roughness or distortion. The movie brought a more than adequate soundtrack.

Along with the film’s trailer, we find five vintage shorts. We locate Oklahoma Outlaws (19:52), Wagon Wheels West (17:28), Gun to Gun (17:37), So You Want a Raise (10:50) and It’s Hummer Time (7:05).

The first three all offer Westerns. Each and every one of them seems like the cheap filler they were so don’t expect much from them.

With Raise, we get another in the “Joe McDoakes” series, reels that depict the life of that hapless character (George O’Hanlon). As implied, Joe tries to get an increased salary from his boss (Willard Waterman).

Like other McDoakes shorts, this one goes for pure comedy. It comes with some laughs, though it leans a little sillier and less believable than many of its siblings.

Finally, Hummer Time features a black and white cat who isn’t Sylvester who attempts to catch a bird who isn’t Tweety. Such an obvious riff on Tweety/Sylvester that a dog character actually says “I tawt I taw a puddytat”, Hummer lacks originality but it nonetheless amuses.

A Western without much drive or purpose, Montana turns into a dud. It lacks a particularly coherent story and falls into too many trite holes to succeed. The Blu-ray comes with fine visuals and positive audio along with a collection of era-appropriate shorts. Not much about this dull movie works.