Buchanan Rides Alone (1958) Online

Excellent and funny story of Agry-town, a place where everything costs ten dollars and a man can be hung for being on the right side of a fight -- but the wrong side of the law. Hypocrisy and the essential weakness of human nature are humorously juxtaposed with Scott and his friends' hardboiled masculine ethic. Only the ending is a disappointment -- rushed and somewhat confused. Lang's writing is good and very barbed but somewhat predictable as the famous Ranown cycle winds down with this film.

The Pacific Film Archive here in Berkeley CA has been showing these films for the last few years, and in 2000 I and my mother had the chance to meet the director, the very charming, funny, and intelligent Bud Boetticher, and also the people who are restoring these movies for Columbia. They're doing a wonderful job, and hopefully soon we'll all be able to enjoy restored, less yellowed prints of these classic films (especially the incredible "Seven Men from Now") on DVD. Put any pressure you can on Columbia, folks, let them know you want to see these films on DVD, because the restoration is already well underway -- we just need to let them know there's an audience out there!

Burt Kennedy and Charles Lang were Boetticher's favorite writers. Here is Lang's turn, adapting a novel by Jonas Ward. Buchanan rides into Agry Town, where he meets the Agry brothers and also the son of Simon Agry, Roy who ends up getting killed. It is hard to conceive a more despicable, corrupt, disloyal family with no principles at all. Craig Stevens is Carbo, who seems to have more brains than the brothers and is a kind of adviser to Judge Simon Agry. Lew Agry, the sheriff is the meanest of the lot, but one of the guys that helps him, called Pecos Hill is not so bad and he feels friendly in relation to Buchanan because they both come from the west of Texas. Amos Agry is the brother with no brains and he is like a Ping Pong ball between Simon and Lew. One of the best moments of the film is tragically funny: there are two groups of people shooting at each other and a saddlebag full of money between them. If one goes to pick up the saddlebag, whichever side he will run with the bag, the other side will shoot him, it is a no win situation. A fast moving, highly enjoyable western with a very good story and Randolph Scott at his best.

Perhaps the only really unjustified feature of this Western is the title. They should have kept the original, "The name's Buchanan" - a line which crops up sufficiently often in the first five minutes to verge on becoming a catchphrase for the title character. One thing Buchanan *doesn't* do is ride alone. For a cowboy hero - particularly one played by Randolph Scott! - he's an unusually cheerful and sociable type, who picks up friends and allies almost everywhere he goes. I don't believe I've ever seen Randolph Scott smile so much in all the rest of his films put together - and it has much the same shock value as a grin on the face of Leonard Nimoy.

But it's mainly the humour that sets this film apart from a hundred other unpretentious B-Westerns. The plot twists don't hurt, either. This slender piece bears as many stings in the tail as the final chapters of a Hercule Poirot mystery. Tables are turned by one side upon the other so often that it verges upon the ridiculous; a point milked to wry appreciation by the script. The other interesting point is that Buchanan himself has little influence over the course of events. He merely (albeit adroitly) rides the tide, as the bickering Agry brothers provide the main engine for the plot. This film is far less of a one-man star vehicle than many Westerns of its era. To a degree, it might even be suspected of spoofing the genre.

I spotted only one technical blooper: as the sheriff(?) leaves the jail after demanding the keys, the far side of the street, for one brief aberrant moment, appears to consist of red-brick houses with paned-glass windows! Young de la Vega's horse really is a beautiful animal, on the other hand - the beast fully bears out the script's claim that the de la Vega horses are some of the best-bred in the country. Judging by the stunts, it was also presumably a trained performer - I wonder what its 'day job' was? :-)

To summarise: a cheerful, swift-moving Western with a touch of dry humour that helps it to stand out among a host of other B-movies. If you've watched 'Unforgiven' too many times, until your guts feel like treacle - if you can't take one more coarse joke from 'Blazing Saddles' - then try 'Buchanan' for a breath of fresh air, and watch Randolph Scott for once in his life having fun!

Randolph Scott plays Tom Buchanan, a smiling gunfighter who quickly stops smiling when he wanders into the unfriendliest town ever. The town is named Agry and is run by the Agry family. They specialize in Agry-vating people (sorry...I had to). When a young Mexican man rides into town and kills one of them, the others proceed to beat him up. Buchanan tries to help and is arrested as an accomplice. At trial, he's acquitted and released. The crooked Sheriff Lew Agry (Barry Kelley) robs Buchanan and tries to have him killed on the way out of town. But it doesn't go down the way the fat sheriff hoped. Taut direction from Budd Boetticher in another of his great westerns with Randolph Scott. One of their lighter ones, however. The Agry family are certainly some easy-to-hate villains. L.Q. Jones has a memorable role as a proud West Texan. The funeral for his friend Lafe is one of the movie's highlights.

Randolph Scott once claimed a certain club that refused membership to actors should let him since he had 50 movies to prove he wasn't an actor.

He was being terribly modest.

Watching "Buchanan Rides Alone" one realizes he was a very good actor.

Critics say his best performances came with direction by Budd Boetticher and "Buchanan Rides Alone" stands as evidence for that belief.

In fact, the entire cast gives great performances.

One of the attractions of this film is that there are so many strong characters, so many individual parts very well played by great actors.

Far too many of these great actors did not become famous, but they certainly deserved to.

This is a classic.

High quality Boetticher western that succeeds on almost every front.

Scott is first class, less taciturn than usual and displaying a gift for wry humour not always evident in his performances. The supporting cast is well above average and Barry Kelley, Tol Avery and Peter Whitney, in particular, are all excellent, playing their parts to near perfection.

The scenery, both in and out of the town is wonderfully evocative - cacti to die for! - the guitar music is hauntingly beautiful and the colours are bright and pleasing.

If I have a criticism at all, it is that the plot is a little too convoluted - too many twists and counter twists - but, in the face of so much that is good, this is but a minor quibble.

Incidentally, the only women in the production have such tiny roles, they are not even named in the cast list. So no-one "gets the girl" this time round!

Making his way home to Texas, Tom Buchanan stops off at the little town of Agry for rest and refreshments. Quickly finding that the town is run by the family Agry itself, Buchanan falls foul of one of them straight away. His problems are further compounded when he steps in to stop a young Mexican from taking a beating. Something that finds him on the end of a rope with things looking rather grim.

How you fare with Buchanan Rides Alone may depend on how many (if any) Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott collaborations you have seen prior. For this adaptation of Jonas Ward's novel "The Name's Buchanan" is lighter in tone than their other well regarded pieces. Not to decry this as a standalone picture of course, but although it's part of the "Ranown" cycle, it's a long way from the more "Adult Western" richness of The Tall T, Ride Lonesome and Comanche Station for example. Conversely the other way is also true, if this is the first one you sample from the duo, and you enjoy it, well you may not take to the deeper themed, harsher other films in their cannon.

Buchanan Rides Alone gets in a does a job without any fuss or boring filler play. Randolph Scott as Buchanan clearly is enjoying adding a bit of comic zip to proceedings, with Boetticher evidently happy to keep things smooth for the one hour and twenty minutes running time. Fine support comes from Barry Kelley, Tol Avery and the irrepressible L.Q. Jones, whilst Lucien Ballard was the obvious and right choice to photograph the Old Tuscon location. Not one to take too seriously, but enough drama to keep one interested, and certainly one that gives notice to what a fine and undervalued performer Randy Scott was. 6.5/10

Whoever cast Barry Kelley (Lew Agry), Tol Avery (Judge Simon Agry), and Peter Whitney (Amos Agry) as brothers did a pretty good job - they all look like they could have been brothers! Whitney's character might possibly have been used for more comedic affect though, he looked a bit like Andy Devine but without the humor I was expecting. In their own way, each of these guys was a despicable character.

The one player though that seemed completely inappropriate to the story was Craig Stevens as the Judge's personal aide Abe Carbo. He looked like he should have had Randolph Scott's role as the hero of the piece. At sixty years old, Scott looked somewhat worn for the lead role and actor Stevens seemed to outclass him in both looks and demeanor. One thing's for sure, Scott's character Buchanan is about the luckiest gunslinger to appear in a Western. I lost count how many times the bad guys got the drop on him before the final showdown.

If you hang on through the inconsistencies, this is an OK Western but that's about as far as it goes. The burial of henchman Lafe (Don C. Harvey) in a tree was a pretty interesting element and Juan de la Vega's horse (Manuel Rojas) struck me as a dynamic looking animal. If he had the same agent as Trigger and Champion he might have had a longer film career.

Hilarious low-budget western, really more of a comedy than a western. This came midway through the excellent series of westerns directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott, and this time around everyone involved seemed to take a breather and just have fun with the story elements. All the westerns are humorous, but not as much as this one. Burt Kennedy, who wrote the best scripts in the series, rewrote this one, uncredited. The picture is best appreciated if you first see THE TALL T, SEVEN MEN FROM NOW, RIDE LONESOME, and COMANCHE STATION.

Randolph Scott is heading to West Texas when he happens to pass through a horrible town. The place is mostly run by a single family and the sheriff is as corrupt as they come. Well, despite this, Scott tries to accept it all in good humor and put up with it--after all, he'll only be there one night. It's hard, though, as the son of the town's boss is a drunk who has vowed to kill Scott for no particular reason. Surprisingly, someone else ends up killing this angry drunk before Scott even has to worry about this. However, no matter how much he tries, the sheriff and his crooked friends are determined to rob Scott blind and kill him. So when the murder of the boss' son does occur, even though it's obvious that Scott wasn't involved, the sheriff is bent on hanging him. And, when Scott is acquitted, the sheriff robs him and "escorts" him out of town--to be killed. Scott miraculously survives and is determined to get back to this hellish town and make them pay (apparently he took the whole "rob him and kill him" thing personally).

While this is a very simple idea for a film, once again the combination of Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott results in a film that is so much more than what you'd expect with the material they were given. It isn't that it's a bad script, it's very good, but due to the excellent direction and the great tough but decent character Scott once again plays, it transcends the genre. In a genre that usually included pointless Indian fights, two idiots shooting it out on main street and the other typical clichés, this one manages to be different...and a lot better.

By the way, one reviewer referred to this as a film filled with humor. I sure didn't see anything funny in this film and wonder if perhaps they are thinking about some other movie.

Usually in these Ranowned westerns Scott really DOES ride alone, but he doesn't here. Yes, he's just passing through town, but after his initial encounter with the hostile residents he's always accompanied by someone else. On the whole it's barely above the routine. Scott could almost have been replaced by Audie Murphy. There is a tense shoot out at the end, but before that we have several gangs of mutually antagonistic thugs running from place to place in Agry Town. Lew is looking for Amos, who is looking for Simon, who is looking for Roy. It's like a merry-go-round with a discordant calliope.

Ordinarily, the Boetticher/Scott movies were as successful as their villains were colorful. (Lee Marvin, sighting down his six-shooter while holding it sideways and saying, "Pow." Pernell Roberts advising his companero who is ogling Karen Steele's bosom, "I said look at her eyes.") In this one there is no amusing heavy but the movie is as good as most of the others because the humor comes as much from Scott himself as from anyone else. I must say I almost enjoy it more when he's the glum, determined spoilsport -- but, okay. "What're we gonna do now, Buchanan?" someone asks him. And he comes up with something like, "Foist we take care of the hawses. Then I -- I don't know!", and he slouches offscreen during a dissolve. Nothing is to be taken too seriously. If for no other reason, we are tipped off to this by Scott's unusual hat. It's not his usual broad-brimmed washed-out coronet, but a blue felt thing with a silly narrow brim that resembles some sort of mutated 1940 fedora.

And it's a good thing he's given funny lines because the heavies aren't funny at all, or remarkable in the slightest way. The Boss Tweed of Agry Town is bland and inoffensive, like a Canadian. His pudgy nondescript face is made for radio. The cheerful, equally corrupt sheriff is a stock part and played without wit. There are one or two of those noble Mexicans who always keep their word. No women except Boss Tweed's housekeeper -- named, not inappropriately, "Nacho." Craig Stevens has the wardrobe and the looks of a good heavy but doesn't have much screen time and is basically a Canadian. L. Q. Jones has an amusing part. He figures in one of those signature Boetticher scenes -- the heavy burying somebody in a scruffy part of the desert. I don't know how Boetticher managed to squeeze so many of them in. Jones has just had a minor disagreement with a dislikable partner and shot him twice. Unable to bury him in the waterlogged sand, he plops the body on the fork of a tree, removes his own hat, and says a few words over the mortal remains. Words like, "Lew, you always was a good guy. But you did have your faults. Like cheatin' at stud. And emptyin' my pockets when I was drunk."

Boetticher was a most unusual guy. He spent much of his career on a kind of Hollywood vision quest searching for enlightenment. At one point he found himself alone and broke in Mexico, scrounging money for a bowl of beans. It's one thing to do that in your teens or 20s. It's a kind of adventure in self-testing then. But to find yourself in that position, as Boetticher did, when you're in your 40s and have no resources to fall back on is an experience that makes for a good deal of nervousness in any normal human being. Boetticher may have been a minor artist, but he was a respectable one.

I'm familiar with Scott's work and am a fan. This film doesn't quite fit in with films like The Tall T, Ride Lonesome, Decision at Sundown etc. Scott shares the screen with lots of supporting characters- LQ Jones, Craig Stevens and all the Agry men. The film opens with Scott happily heading to West Texas via Agry after a profitable Mexican run. He just wants food, probably something of a binding nature and drink. What no women? Only one woman here of interest- Barbara James uncredited as Nina the judge's Mexican housekeeper. Scott has barely any interaction with any females-Jennifer Holiday. Our Scott stands for loyalty, bravery, a fair fight, love of your belt, gun and Texas. I'll give him that. There is no compelling villain here as the Agry's are a bunch of double dealing B movie bumblers. Amos Agry reminds me of a young Andy Devine. Scott is good as a very relaxed murder defendant in a back barroom courtroom. This flick therefore falls toward the lower rung of the RS canon IMHO. I'd see it again, but I'd be riding lonesome.

It is a Plot Heavy Movie with a Goodly Amount of Heavies, Literally. All the lead Bad Guys are Seriously Overweight except Craig Stevens as a well Groomed Gun for Hire.

Randolph Scott is in on the Light Touch of the Film from the Get-Go as He Smiles Broadly, almost Retardedly, but that could be a Ploy. He seems perfectly Able to Figure Things Out and is Ready with a Funny Quip.

After finding a Room is $10, a Steak is $10 and a Bottle of Whisky is $10...Looking straight at an Attractive Floozy in the Saloon says, "Is there anything in this town that doesn't cost $10?" There's more but You need to Watch this Amusing, Above Average Movie to experience the Fun.

L.Q. Jones is a Standout as Scott's West Texas Buddy. There is a Burial Scene that's a Hoot. Newbies seeking out the Boetticher/Scott Cannon might want to Save this one for Last, so They can Wrap it Up with a Wink and a Nod to One of the Best Collaborations Found in Fifties Westerns.

Note...Along with the Anthony Mann/James Stewart Films these were as Good as the Genre had to Offer in the Overdose of Oaters from the Decade.

Watchable, but far from the best of Boetticher (or Scott). With an almost silly grimace plastered across his face (it's supposed to be a smile, as he's playing a good-natured kinda cuss, but it's not what you'd call a tight fit: his face weren't made fer no smilin'), Randolph Scott breezes through this one like he's gotten himself lost but really doesn't give a hoot where he ends up (or HOW, as when he's about to be strung up for pretty much no reason at all and just sits astride his horse waiting for his Maker to reach down from on high and grab him by the throat). One could argue that Scott's character, fresh from "fightin'," as he puts it, is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. How else to explain his behavior? It's an all-around odd little film, but boasts some beautiful cinematography (especially near the end, when the action moves outdoors) and some fun moments. Oh, and L.Q. Jones, playing James Best.

The title "Buchanan Rides Alone" sounds like a comedy western. To some extent it is but not without serious undertones highlighted by the final scene where overt greed motivates all the characters to risk life and limb for a saddlebag full of money. The comedy partly stems from Burt Kennedy ("Support Your Local Sheriff!") having a hand in the script.

Talk about municipal corruption! The entire town of Agry (similar to Angry), California, is fueled by backstabbing and crookedness. It's brother against brother or Agry against Agry. The only loyalty shown in the entire movie comes from the gunslinger, Carbo (Peter Gunn's Craig Stevens), who stands behind his boss, Judge Simon Agry, all the way. There is also a loyalty to Texas shown by Pecos Hill played to perfection by L.Q. Jones. Pecos shoots his partner, Lafe (Don C. Harvey), rather than killing Tom Buchanan (Randolph Scott) as ordered for the simple reason that Tom is from West Texas.

The usually indomitable Scott walks through "Buchanan Rides Alone" as if he wasn't for sure what was going on. He even looks puzzled when about to be hanged by the neck until dead. This reminds the viewer of Humphrey Bogart in John Huston's "Beat the Devil," who hadn't a clue as to what type of movie Huston was having him walk through. So he played the role of Billy Dannreuther in a dead serious manner. The result made the farce even more farcical. Scott's reading of his lines in "Buchanan Rides Alone" adds to the hilarity, whether intentional or not.

The village idiot, Amos Agry (Peter Whitney), at times makes more sense than his two brothers, one the sheriff and one the judge. He's also not quite as greedy as the others. He's happy with mere pocket change.

Scott, trying to help his Mexican friends, ends up nearly dead. He's greedy too but is happy with just a small spread of his own. In the end he is satisfied to turn the town over to the winner of the family feud and ride away from it all.

Buchanan Rides Alone is surprising and surprisingly good. Randolph Scott is not the lone man on horseback who rides into town with a righteous grudge. He's just Tom Buchanan, riding up from Mexico where he earned a stake big enough to buy the spread in West Texas he's always wanted. When he crosses the border and enters Agry Town, the county seat of Agry County, California, things are going to turn bad fast.

Agry Town sits right on the border. The county judge is Simon Agry. The county sheriff is Lew Agry. Yep, the Agry's run things hereabouts. Tom tries to deal with everyone with a friendly smile. He's not looking for trouble, just a place to get a drink, sleep and to eat a good steak...at the town's Agry Hotel. Lew Agry isn't so easy going. When he realizes Tom has gold hidden in Tom's gun belt, the gold gets confiscated and Tom gets beaten. When Tom tries to break up a gun battle between a young man from Mexico and a drunken Agry who is the judge's son (who just rode back to town with female fingernail scratches on his face), the Agry pulls first and gets dead fast. Tom and Juan de la Vega (Manuel Rojas), son of a powerful Mexican landowner, wind up in jail awaiting hanging. There are gunfights, breakouts, bushwhacking, bribes, a $50,000 ransom and lots of dirty dealing, especially among the Agry brothers. They have as much family feeling as one shark fetus sharing space in mom with another.

Judge Simon Agry (Tol Avery) runs the town with a soft, greasy hand. He's pudgy, ambitious, hypocritical, cautious and double dealing. Sheriff Lew Agry (Barry Kelley) is a tough man with a beefy face, a solid gut and a rancid disposition. "Take him over to the jailhouse and wait for him to come to. When I hang a man, I like him to know what's going on." Always around the judge, dressed in black and slick as a patch of fresh horse manure, is Abe Carbo (Craig Stevens). Carbo seems allied with the judge, but why should he let himself play second fiddle to the Agrys? Carbo is amoral, a man who'll suggest betrayal with a smile and make it seem legal...sort of like a corporate lawyer.

By the end of the movie, the Agry brothers and their town get what they deserve. And Tom Buchanan heads to west Texas, his gold stake back in his gun belt and a nice, satisfied smile on his face.

The movie is surprising good because it moves quickly within its 78 minutes. The betrayal, action and brotherly distaste more than fill any void left by romance (there isn't any), clichés (very few) and anything trying to be what it isn't. Buchanan Rides Alone is a solid piece of Western entertainment with an ironic twist led by Randolph Scott. It's available through the DVD Budd Boetticher Box Set, which also includes the Scott movies The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Ride Lonesome and Comanche Station.

The fourth collaboration between Boetticher and Scott does not quite measure up to its predecessors but is enjoyable enough. Scott plays an easy-going stranger passing through a town run by a dastardly family. Of course, he has a run-in with the family and ends up in jail. Stevens, who played Peter Gunn on a popular TV series that started the same year as this film came out, plays a somewhat shady character here. L.Q. Jones, who made a career out of playing nasty villains, gets to play a clean-cut good guy here. Unlike the previous films in this series, this one has no female characters; it would have perhaps benefited from having a love interest for Scott.

Randolph Scott plays a rugged, happy-go-lucky, soldier-of-fortune in Budd Boetticher's western "Buchanan Rides Alone," and the eponymous character stirs up a lot of trouble with the powers-that-be in a corrupt little American border town in this brisk, well-photographed sagebrusher based on author Jonas Ward's novel "The Name's Buchanan." Until Buchanan rides across the Mexican-American border into Argy Town, everything is rosy for our stalwart protagonist. He has spent enough time fighting in the Mexican revolution so that he has enough money to buy a ranch in West Texas. Buchanan is savoring a life of leisure when he clashes with the family Argy. Although this entertaining oater isn't as memorable as either "Comanche Station" or "Ride Lonesome," "Buchanan Rides Alone" differs from those two straight-faced, dramatic dustraisers. Boetticher and "Decision at Sundown" scenarist Charles Lang put the accent on humor and the villains—while appropriately greedy with villainy—are neither as flawed nor narcissistic as most Boetticher foes. One of the third string villains played by L.Q. Jones is mildly reminiscent of the James Coburn villain in "Ride Lonesome." At least one director who worshipped Boetticher believes that the feuding Argy clan that squabbles over the control of the town foreshadowed Sergio Leone's similarly themed "Fistful of Dollars."

No sooner has Tom Buchanan (Randolph Scott of "The Texans") left Mexico and ridden into Agry Town than Sheriff Lew Agry (Barry Kelley of "The Tall Stranger") and his deputy search him. The sheriff allows Buchanan in Agry Town but advises our hero not to "linger." Buchanan reassures the sheriff: "I ain't going to linger no place until I get back to where I belong." After getting a $10 room at the Agry Hotel managed by Amos Agry (Peter Whitney of "Destination Tokyo"), Buchanan ambles over to the Agry Palace Saloon for whiskey and a steak. Earlier, the youngest Agry, Roy (William Leslie of "Return to Warbow"), had galloped into town from Mexico and gone into the saloon. Roy demands a drink. The bartender, Nacho (Nacho Galindo of "The Big Steal"), obeys Simon Agry's strict orders not to let Roy drink. Initially, Buchanan knocks Roy down and disarms him. Later, Buchanan offers Roy a shot, but Roy snatches the bottle. Roy swears that he'll kill him. Roy gets so drunk that Buchanan walks out without a scratch. Not long afterward a Mexican, Juan de la Vega (Manuel Rojas of "The Magnificent Matador"), plunges into the saloon and kills Roy in a gunfight. Lew arrests Juan for Roy's death and beats him up. When Buchanan tries to intervene for Juan, Lew throws Buchanan in jail, too. Initially, Lew doesn't know Juan's identity.

Meanwhile, after his hired gunman Carbo (Craig Stevens of "Gunn") contacts him about the death in the family, Roy's father Judge Simon Agry (Tol Avery of "The Satan Bug") refuses to let Lew string them up. Simon arrives in the nick of time to save them. Simon's speech reeks of hypocrisy. Not only is wily Simon considering his future in politics, but he also is considering a suitable ransom that he could demand from the de la Vega clan for their son. The internecine strife between Agry brothers Simon and Lew puts them at loggerheads. Each man works at cross purposes when they hatch their individual schemes with their third brother Amos scrambling for crumbs.

Anyway, Amos informs Lew about Simon's plans to make Juan's wealthy father fork over $50-thousand and he wants $10-thousand for helping him. The earlier reference to "Fistful of Dollars" holds from "Buchanan Rides Alone" and Amos is the equivalent of the bell ringer in Sergio Leone's western. Lew sends Juan out of town with Waldo (Robert Anderson of "Mission over Korea") his henchmen to stash him at an abandoned shack. Lew's henchmen stumble onto Pecos at the shack as he is cooking bacon. Buchanan gets the drop on Waldo and company. Pecos and Juan tie up the henchmen and Buchanan heads back to Agry Town. Meantime, Pecos accompanies Juan to the border. Things become a little repetitive at this point. Waldo and his two gunmen untie themselves and ambush Pecos and Juan. Pecos dies and Juan is a prisoner again. At Simon's ranch, Esteban shows up with the $50-thousand. Carbo goes to Agry Town to get Juan and discovers Lew's perfidy. He leaves, and Lew finds himself facing Buchanan. Our protagonist demands the return of his gunbelt and his money. Lew counts out all that is left of the loot: $1,700.

Scott and Boetticher teamed up for the fourth time as star and director for "Buchanan Rides Alone." Boetticher and "Prince Valiant" lenser Lucien Ballard shot "Buchanan Rides Alone" on location at Old Tucson so the film evokes a gritty, authentic feel for the old West. Nary a minute is wasted in this 78-minute, Columbia Pictures release that co-starred Craig Stevens as an elegant-looking gunman. If you are looking to a traditional, leathery-tough cowboy epic, "Buchanan Rides Alone" has more than enough action, irony, quotable dialogue and humor to keep you interested without wearing out its welcome.

A dusty border town...Buchanan rides across, from Mexico into Agry Town, California, and into a mess of trouble. The music (can it be coincidence?) echoes the sweeping romantic melody at the heart of "The Tall T", but Buchanan, like the previous "Decision at Sundown" is anything but romantic or wistful. Right away we know that we're in a corrupt and dangerous place -- the sheriff who sits right by the border seems to be waiting for any excuse to deal harshly with people crossing - and to take anything he deems "contraband" himself. But Buchanan (Randolph Scott) apparently has nothing, and so is allowed to go.

He stops at a hotel to get a room - $10 (a lot of money in the post-Civil War west) from the fat and kind of stupid-looking yokel behind the desk, whose name happens to be Agry - same as the fat sheriff and the as-yet-unmet fat Judge who is running for senator, both his brothers. The Agrys rule the town and extract a high price from strangers - a steak and a whisky are also $10 apiece for apparently well-off Buchanan at the Agry's saloon across the street. Our hero is challenged, apparently for no reason, right away by a drunken young lout, but after one-punching him the older, easygoing Buchanan ignores his potential danger. Soon it will come for him, as the young man gets killed in a gunfight and Buchanan ends up on the (apparently) wrong side with his killer, a young Mexican with a personal grudge.

This 4th entry in the cycle, and 2nd to be written by Charles Lang (from a novel by pulp writer Jonas Ward who wrote dozens of Buchanan novels), seems for a while to be every bit as cynical as the previous Lang-written film. Like Decision this is set mostly in town, and like that film Scott's character is partnered up for most of the picture, this time with the young Mexican who turns out to be Juan de la Vega, son of a famous Mexican hero who Buchanan greatly admires. A good chunk of time is spent in jail, about to be hanged (the sheriff is angling for a hanging as it's helped his popularity) or being ridden off out of town to be killed. Of course our hero manages to get out of these debacles and, rather unwittingly it turns out, manages to pit the greedy and ambitious sheriff Lew Agry (Barry Kelley) against his equally ambitious and money-hungry brother, Judge Simon (Tol Avery). In the end, Buchanan rides out of town, no richer or poorer but having helped to deliver the town from the hands of these two bastards, leaving it in the care of the Judge's consigliere Carbo (Craig Stevens). Ultimately what keeps the film from descending into the same darkness that Decision ended up in is the presence of several positive characters - Juan and his father's lieutenant Gomez, Carbo (who while somewhat the player himself is nevertheless more honorable than any of the brothers) and the virtuous Buchanan himself.

On the other hand, the townspeople who clamored for lynching both Buchanan (a bystander) and the admitted murderer de la Vega early on seem to have faded into the background; a few strong men have settled matters, for now, but Buchanan perhaps knows that Carbo may not be able to keep things on the up and up for ever. The Mexicans go back to Mexico, and Buchanan goes off to the West Texas he came from to buy a bit of land -- "You can have it" he says of the town to Carbo as he leaves, laughing.

Overall this is funnier and a little less intense than the others in the series, though no lower in quality. Scott has a smile on his face almost the whole time; there are no women to speak of in the film; and there are several admirable characters who live through to the end. I'm not sure this gave me much to chew on, though again there's that distrust of authority, the corruption of the law that features in the previous Lang-written feature also. All in all, just a great rousing bit of fun.

I have really enjoyed some of Boetticher's other movies - especially The Tall T. This one starts well and seems to prefigure some of Clint Eastwood's westerns. The town riven with corruption etc. There is a marvellous scene of dark comedy between Randolph Scott and L.Q.Jones as they 'bury' another guy (who has tried to kill Scott)in a tree!!!. The dialogue is very good here. However the film loses it's way with the overcomplicated action in the town - and the villains are rather pallid in presentations and somewhat poorly acted - they do not have the depth of the 'villains' in the other films. Indeed this series of westerns is notable for the richness of the portrayals of the morally compromised characters - they are presented as complex characters - with acute psychological realism. This makes this film all the more disappointing - it is very much the poor relation of the others.

This is one of the best westerns I have ever seen, I have seen many Randolph Scott's B westerns which I found just OK, but this one is very entertaining and with interesting characters too. I think "Buchanan Rides Alone" deserves 8.5 stars.

The plot is very good and it has some interesting little turns, Randolph Scott is the lead in here but the supporting cast gets a lot of time on screen too, I would have liked to see more of the Abe Carbo character and I think that the little role of Barbara James as Nina the judge's Mexican housekeeper could have been better exploited. The time fly by very fast maybe because it only last 78 min, but I think that this film deserved to last at least 20 minutes more because the plot and the characters had the potential for much more. The action scenes are good . This is an underrated movie that deserves better recognition, it must be at least a cult movie.

Tom Buchanan is a gunman who is returning to his home in Texas after having earned a lot of money fighting in the Mexico Revolution but he will find troubles for helping a Mexican who was getting a beating in a California town that is run by the 3 Agry brothers...................

I recommend this movie to all of you who are fans of western films, you wont regret it.

Soldier of fortune and jack of all trades Randolph Scott rides in from Mexico to the border town of Agryville which is run by three brothers, all greedy and of varying intelligence. Judge Tol Avery, Sheriff Barry Kelley and hotel owner Peter Whitney. They are three really low specimens of humanity, only differing in their type of depravity.

They've got another young Agry in William Leslie who is Avery's son, a real punk who gets killed by Manuel Rojas in a gunfight. But with the town being named Agryville Rojas is not exactly assured due process and when Scott steps in to keep the Agrys and their hired guns from beating Rojas to death, he gets arrested as well as an accomplice.

But these Agrys are a really scurvy lot and Avery decides there's more money to be made by ransoming off Rojas to his father who is a rich Mexican don. And he's not going to cut in his brothers.

So this Agry family double dealing is what gets Scott free and of course the cowboy hero does what a cowboy hero always does.

Buchanan Rides Alone is probably one of the weaker of the Randolph Scott-Budd Boetticher films, it could have used a lot better script. Still Scott is his usual heroic self and he's got a touch of humor in this one. In fact the business where you see all the town businesses with the Agry name on it, must have inspired Mel Brooks to use Johnson on all establishments in Blazing Saddles.

There are two other prominent roles, Craig Stevens who works for Avery, but plays a lone hand and L.Q. Jones in one of his earliest roles as a young cowboy who proves to be a friend indeed for Randolph Scott.

For fans of Randolph Scott and good B westerns.

This is a minor entry in the Randolph Scott canon - Sometimes I wonder if Budd Boetticher is slightly overrated as a Director and 'Buchanan Rides Alone' just reinforces my idea.

I am a big Randolph Scott fan and I always thought he was the very model of a modern major western hero so I have no complaint on that score - love his pictures. Here he was his usual rugged, affable self and was surrounded by a good supporting cast; Tol Avery, Barry Kelley, Peter Whitney - in fact, the only one who seemed out of place was Craig Stevens, sporting his Ivy league look and demeanor.

I think the problem was the plot. Often plots of westerns are too thin but this one had oodles of plot, enough for 2 pictures and bordered on the film-noir genre. I felt it weighed on the pace of the film, although in the process it made the characters 3-dimensional - western characters are normally not this well-defined. I also have a problem with squeaky-clean western types and I don't feel this adds to the authenticity of a western. On the contrary, they often wore the same clothes for days on end.

I had seen this picture when it first came out when I was a teenager and rolled with it better than when I recently saw it. Funny how being a grown-up can ruin one's perspective. I still gave it a rating of 6 - Randy, you're still my guy.

A great Randolph Scott Western. One of the 'Good verses Evil' movies that holly wood used to produce. Buchanan finds himself alone against a town owned by the corrupt Agry family. He struggles against the Agry's, using the brother's mutual dislike and suspicion between the brothers, with the help from a few friends he makes alone the way, to avoid being robbed & killed. Enough action along the way but not Clint Eastward spaghetti Western action packed and violent movie.

Good looking and good humoured with a much lighter touch than the other Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher outings I have so far seen. These films the maverick Boetticher filmed come towards the end of Scott's career and to be honest he doesn't do an awful lot. But little is a lot in well shot and caringly made films like this, and a nod here, a smile there and the odd knowing look is all that is required. Peter Whitney plays it straight in a competent and effective way while Robert Anderson is permitted, nay even encouraged to camp it up almost pants style. Nice skies and made me smile.