After success as an athlete, Woody Strode transitioned into a Hollywood career. Though he usually appeared in supporting roles, Strode got a rare lead part for 1960’s Sergeant Rutledge.

In 1881, Black US Cavalry Sergeant Braxton Rutledge (Strode) goes on trial. He finds himself accused of raping white woman Lucy Dabney (Toby Michaels) and murdering Major Custis Dabney, his superior officer and Lucy’s father.

Lieutenant Tom Cantrell (Jeffrey Hunter) gets the assignment to defend Sergeant Rutledge. This allows the events that led to Rutledge’s situation to evolve via flashback.

Sergeant found director John Ford at the start of his final decade in Hollywood. 66 during this flick’s production, efforts like 1962’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance showed he still could create strong movies, but like most aging filmmakers, those last 10 years showed inconsistency.

I hoped Sergeant would become one of Ford’s better late-career flicks. At the very least, the plot showed promise.

To some degree, the end result satisfies. However, the movie suffers from some shifts of narrative that make it less than stellar.

Sergeant veers from the courtroom to the flashback scenes. Though these serve an obvious narrative purpose, they can feel contrived.

Honestly, a lot of the views of prior events can seem like they exist just to bring some action into the proceedings. While some work for the overall arc, a few feel inessential and like “thrills fodder”.

When Sergeant concentrates on the drama, it does pretty well, though I don’t love the focus on Cantrell. This doesn’t come as a surprise, as too many Hollywood movies tell the tales of Black characters through white eyes.

Nonetheless, it becomes a drawback that Sergeant can treat its title role like a secondary participant. Heck, Billie Burke – as the judge’s wife – gets billed above Strode even though she plays an inconsequential part!

In any case, Sergeant manages to bring a decent drama that works best when it addresses the basics of the case. We get a good exploration of events.

It’s when Sergeant deviates from that domain that it drags. As mentioned, we get a few too many superfluous segments that detract from the final product.

It doesn’t help that Sergeant ends on a ridiculous note. No spoilers but the finale seems over the top and absurd.

All of this leaves Sergeant as a watchable but inconsistent mix of courtroom drama and Western. Though I like it to a degree, it doesn’t fire on all cylinders.

Sergeant Rutledge appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The limitations of the source made this a good but not great image.

Sharpness bore the brunt of these restrictions, as the movie could veer soft at times. Still, it usually looked fairly accurate.

The film lacked jagged edges or moiré effects, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain remained natural and print flaws failed to manifest.

Given the Western setting, the palette emphasized a sandy vibe, though other tones showed up as well. These looked well-rendered.

Blacks seemed dark and deep, while low-light shots brought appropriate clarity. Outside of the softness that appeared to reflect the original film stock, this wound up as a solid presentation.

I also thought the movie’s DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack worked fine given its age. Speech lacked edginess and remained intelligible and fairly natural.

Music seemed fine, as the score – which appeared infrequently - lacked great range but appeared reasonably full. Effects were acceptably clean and accurate, though they also lacked range. Overall, this ended up as a perfectly decent track for its vintage.

A few extras appear, and we get an audio interview with film historian Donald Bogle. Conducted by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, it runs 15 minutes, 35 seconds.

Bogle and Mankiewicz discuss actor Woody Strode, racial politics of the era and representation in Hollywood, and thoughts on the film. We get a short but reasonably informative reel.

Along with the flick’s trailer, we find two vintage shorts. The set includes Hopalong Casualty (6:08) and West of the Pecos (6:21).

In the first, Wile E. Coyote tries to murder and devour Road Runner. My long-time antipathy toward Road Runner shorts doesn’t change here. Honestly, it you’ve seen one, you’ve essentially seen them all, and Casualty does nothing to reinvigorate the formula.

For the second, Speedy Gonzalez tries to rescue his rodent pals from a medical lab. The racial stereotypes look pretty bad today but the short comes with some amusing moments nonetheless.

With Sergeant Rutledge, we get a sporadically interesting mix of courtroom drama and Western. Though the film doesn’t consistently click, it comes with some positives. The Blu-ray offers largely positive picture and audio along with few supplements. While it doesn’t live up to its premise’s potential, the flick still keeps us with it.