I just watched Riding Shotgun, which rounds out a Warner Bros Triple Feature DVD with two other Randolph Scott westerns of the 1950s. Despite the title, Randolph Scott rides shotgun for only the few opening minutes of the film, before falling for a ruse to lure him away from the stagecoach. The stagecoach, which is robbed and shot up, is itself another ruse to lure the sheriff and the bulk of the gun-handy menfolk away from town in a posse following a phony trail. Randolph Scott escapes the revenge-fueled fate a young (and clearly on a trajectory to stardom) Charles Bronson set for him and comes into town to warn the sheriff about the gang's plan.
But upon arriving Scott finds the town has turned on him, suspecting him of being in cahoots with the stage robbers. Here is where the film's real story begins, and while certainly taking a few pages from the High Noon playbook, Riding Shotgun has its own unique twist on that tale. Here Scott is not alone in standing up to the town. Wayne Morris, as Deputy Tub, is the real voice of reason who keeps the rabble from getting too roused and turning to vigilante justice against an innocent man.
Wayne Morris is always a welcome name to see in any movie's opening credits, even if he was not used to his fullest potential here. Morris' Deputy Tub reminded me a lot of Alan Hale, Jr. and I wondered if the Skipper wouldn't have been better cast in the role (he had appeared with Scott in the previous year's Man Behind The Gun).
While it would be easy to dismiss Tub as being ineffective and derelict in his duty, there is a rationale and a deliberateness behind his actions. Tub actually de-escalates the tension by stepping away from the situation and indulging in lunch and later some pie and coffee. His easy dismissal of the trigger-happy Deputy Ross as getting what was coming to him shows Tub's a seasoned westerner and far from being a coward. It took experience and intelligence to approach the cornered Scott with diplomacy and a deal instead of rushing into the cantina with his guns blazing, like the greenhorn hot dog deputy Ross did earlier. He shows this unruffled calm again later when he punctures the blustering bravado of the wannabe-shotgun rider by simply handing him his gun and with a stare silently challenging him to put up or shut up.
Rabble rousing and the psychology of crowds is a theme running through the film. I was reminded me of the early Lee/Ditko Spider-Man stories where one bystander's cynical remark is repeated and ratcheted up by the next person's until everyone is adding their uninformed suggestions as to what should be done and done right now. One especially telling scene is between the two young ladies expressing their outrage over the situation. At one point one girl asks the other, "isn't it exciting?" to which the other breaks into laughter and giggles, revealing their indignation is just a posture and that they're enjoying the spectacle; never mind it might result in a man being gunned down. Despite the fine clothes some of the townsfolk wear, their claim to civilization is just a thin veneer and little if anything separates them from the murderous gang, one of whose members passes among them unnoticed (except, tellingly, by a harlot).
Something I found funny was how the gambling hall is filled with men playing cards, completely unaware or uninterested in the unfolding drama outside that has captivated the balance of the town. Something the producers intended to be funny was the outlaw gang's falling off their horses, but it approached slapstick and seemed out of place in the tension-filled climax. Fritz Feld provided some good comic relief as the put-upon father of a brood of kids with a nagging wife. And didn't you just know that his mirror wasn't going to survive to see the end credits? Some familiar faces in uncredited parts include Frank Ferguson (maybe best known as the apoplectic McDougall in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein) and Howard Morris in his first film, playing a strange and menacing fellow fingering a rope that is far from the beloved Ernest T. Bass character he'd later play on The Andy Griffith Show (and ironically for an actor who did so many cartoon voices, he doesn't utter a word in this movie despite considerable screen time).
While Riding Shotgun isn't the expected action-filled western with scenes of horseback riding and rolling stagecoaches as the title implies, it does have a compelling tension-filled story, good acting and it more than entertains in its tight 74 minutes.
But upon arriving Scott finds the town has turned on him, suspecting him of being in cahoots with the stage robbers. Here is where the film's real story begins, and while certainly taking a few pages from the High Noon playbook, Riding Shotgun has its own unique twist on that tale. Here Scott is not alone in standing up to the town. Wayne Morris, as Deputy Tub, is the real voice of reason who keeps the rabble from getting too roused and turning to vigilante justice against an innocent man.
Wayne Morris is always a welcome name to see in any movie's opening credits, even if he was not used to his fullest potential here. Morris' Deputy Tub reminded me a lot of Alan Hale, Jr. and I wondered if the Skipper wouldn't have been better cast in the role (he had appeared with Scott in the previous year's Man Behind The Gun).
While it would be easy to dismiss Tub as being ineffective and derelict in his duty, there is a rationale and a deliberateness behind his actions. Tub actually de-escalates the tension by stepping away from the situation and indulging in lunch and later some pie and coffee. His easy dismissal of the trigger-happy Deputy Ross as getting what was coming to him shows Tub's a seasoned westerner and far from being a coward. It took experience and intelligence to approach the cornered Scott with diplomacy and a deal instead of rushing into the cantina with his guns blazing, like the greenhorn hot dog deputy Ross did earlier. He shows this unruffled calm again later when he punctures the blustering bravado of the wannabe-shotgun rider by simply handing him his gun and with a stare silently challenging him to put up or shut up.
Rabble rousing and the psychology of crowds is a theme running through the film. I was reminded me of the early Lee/Ditko Spider-Man stories where one bystander's cynical remark is repeated and ratcheted up by the next person's until everyone is adding their uninformed suggestions as to what should be done and done right now. One especially telling scene is between the two young ladies expressing their outrage over the situation. At one point one girl asks the other, "isn't it exciting?" to which the other breaks into laughter and giggles, revealing their indignation is just a posture and that they're enjoying the spectacle; never mind it might result in a man being gunned down. Despite the fine clothes some of the townsfolk wear, their claim to civilization is just a thin veneer and little if anything separates them from the murderous gang, one of whose members passes among them unnoticed (except, tellingly, by a harlot).
Something I found funny was how the gambling hall is filled with men playing cards, completely unaware or uninterested in the unfolding drama outside that has captivated the balance of the town. Something the producers intended to be funny was the outlaw gang's falling off their horses, but it approached slapstick and seemed out of place in the tension-filled climax. Fritz Feld provided some good comic relief as the put-upon father of a brood of kids with a nagging wife. And didn't you just know that his mirror wasn't going to survive to see the end credits? Some familiar faces in uncredited parts include Frank Ferguson (maybe best known as the apoplectic McDougall in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein) and Howard Morris in his first film, playing a strange and menacing fellow fingering a rope that is far from the beloved Ernest T. Bass character he'd later play on The Andy Griffith Show (and ironically for an actor who did so many cartoon voices, he doesn't utter a word in this movie despite considerable screen time).
While Riding Shotgun isn't the expected action-filled western with scenes of horseback riding and rolling stagecoaches as the title implies, it does have a compelling tension-filled story, good acting and it more than entertains in its tight 74 minutes.