BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE (1958) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Budd Boetticher
Randolph Scott, Craig Stevens, Barry Kelley,
Tol Avery, Peter Whitney, Manuel Rojas,
Fritz Field, George Irving, Virginia Walker
Randolph Scott rides into a border town where the main form of community entertainment appears to be watching people hang and seeing that they do. It's not long before Scott finds a noose around his own neck, but it's clear that these townspeople haven't seen any Randolph Scott movies, or they'd know better than to do something like that. Another morally shifty Scott/Boetticher western, with Scott going to great lengths to protect an admitted murderer from a crooked sheriff, a corrupt judge and a town full of cretins who aren't much more than a resident lynch mob. There's a sardonic element to Scott's performance that cuts through his customary stoicism (he had a knack for comedy), and L.Q. Jones makes an impression in an early role as a fellow West Texan who catches a bullet long before the picture ends.
