User Reviews

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

If you grew up in the fifties far from the local movie house, then the TV western was king, you simply new no other assuming you had a TV set in the house, The Range Rider, The Lone Ranger, Bronco, Tenderfoot, Laramie, Wells Fargo, Cheyanne to name but a few, then to be taken to the movie house to see John Wayne in Rio Bravo was like man going to the moon, colour, widescreen, one hell of a movie star, a silly pop star some guy named Dean and a great song or two this was "megavision" but even this was based more rather than less on the poverty row, horse opera's of the 1930's. There was a formula to the B movie westerns the staple programme filler of the 50's and indeed for most of the 60's, they were really rewritten and polished poverty row pot boilers, just longer and mostly in colour, but the stories and treatment was much as it always had been. You might be wondering what any of this has to do with TV westerns previously mentioned, well they created a make be leave world just like the poverty row cowboy hoots but cut down and condensed to 30 minutes and if you have a good eye for details filmed in the same sets the same Hollywood Hills. So at last I come to "Buchannan Rides Alone" this is a prestige B film, from Scott-Brown productions no less and with Randolph Scott as executive producer, oh yes this film is in Colombia colour presentation, all the outdoor scenes seem to be filmed in the same cow town as Rio Bravo with a bridge hostage climax looking curiously familiar? now I have not researched this subject so I could be 100% wrong so I am simply guessing a little, but if you are a admirer of these B westerns then you may get some of my points. An aging Randolph Scott ambles through this Z film plot driven by tiresome explanation dialogue with twists turns fortune reversals and highly unlikely escapes, there is a good slice of the Saturday morning serial to the perplexing plot. Yet this is for the right audience, the likes of me, a hugely enjoyable film, increased not diminished by its hilarious contrivances within the plot. The good guy "Buchannan" is never alone in fact all sorts help him constantly but he is the mysterious stranger hero the righter of wrongs and this is a very good bit, he has no love interest or silly romance, this is a mans picture, or at least one for the boy in the man? I loved this B movie for all that it wasn't as much as for how wonderfully terrible so much of the movie seemed to be, but convention must be followed. They don't make films like these anymore, thankfully discerning film fan's like me know where to look for old gold. If this review is meandering and confusing I make no excuse however hard I might try there is no way I could explain why these old movies still entertain so much, I think it is my age I grew up to these films and decades on I for one adore good B westerns! and this one is for me up among the tops of the trade!

Just a "now don't shoot the sheriff " (Silverado) kind of thing except the Sheriff shoots the Judge. This is less ado about Randolph and more ado about being a western. Just fun Westerns kids can watch.

Quality: 7/10 Entertainment: 9/10 Re-Playable: 7/10.