Review of Buchanan Rides Alone

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.