Buchanan Rides Alone **** (1958, Randolph Scott, Craig Stevens, Manuel Rojas, Barry Kelley, Peter Whitney, L Q Jones, Tol Avery) – Classic Movie Review 3,508

Budd Boetticher’s 1958 cult classic Western film Buchanan Rides Alone stars Randolph Scott as Texas cowboy drifter Buchanan, who rides alone against a nasty dynasty who run the Tex-Mex border town of Agry.

Director Budd Boetticher’s 1958 cult classic Western film Buchanan Rides Alone again stars Randolph Scott, this time as Texas cowboy drifter Buchanan, who rides alone against a nasty dynasty who run the Tex-Mex border town of Agry, where the ruling family are feuding.

Craig Stevens co-stars as Abe Carbo, the sleek bad guy who rouses a lynch mob against Juan de la Vega, a young Mexican guy (Manuel Rojas) in jail for a killing. Buchanan finds himself battling the whole family when he helps the Mexican. Barry Kelley plays corrupt Sheriff Lew Agry, Peter Whitney is Amos Agry and Tol Avery is Judge Simon Agry.

Columbia Pictures’ humble B-movie production is more than redeemed by the fast paced, imaginative direction, the tightly wired, spare screenplay by Charles Lang and Burt Kennedy based on the 1956 novel The Name’s Buchanan by Jonas Ward, the distinguished colour cinematography (Columbia Color) by Lucien Ballard, and the impressive ensemble of full-blooded performances, with a fine star turn by Scott.

Using stock music, the score is uncredited in this intelligent, action-packed Western that packs it all in in just 80 minutes.

Also in the cast are L Q Jones as Pecos Hill, Robert Anderson, Joe De Santis, William Leslie, Jennifer Holden, Roy Jensen, Nacho Galindo and Don C Harvey.

Scott made seven classic low-budget Westerns with Boetticher: Seven Men from Now (1956), The Tall T (1957), Decision at Sundown (1957), Buchanan Rides Alone (1958), Westbound (1959), Ride Lonesome (1959) and Comanche Station (1960).

The cast are Randolph Scott as Tom Buchanan, Craig Stevens as Abe Carbo, Barry Kelley as Sheriff Lew Agry, Tol Avery as Judge Simon Agry, Peter Whitney as Amos Agry, Manuel Rojas as Juan De La Vega, L Q Jones as Pecos Hill, Robert Anderson as Waldo Peck, Joe De Santis as Esteban Gomez, William Leslie as Roy Agry, Jennifer Holden as K T, Nacho Galindo as Nacho, Roy Jensen, and Don C Harvey.

Some score stock cues are the same as in the 1958–1961 TV series Sea Hunt, with other stock music by Mischa Bakaleinikoff, George Duning, Heinz Roemheld, and Paul Sawtell.

The screenplay is credited to Charles Lang, but Boetticher asked his regular writer Burt Kennedy to rewrite it. Kennedy allowed Lang to take all the salary and screen credit because Lang’s wife was gravely ill and he needed the money.

A 2008 DVD box set of five Boetticher/ Scott films includes Buchanan Rides Alone, Comanche Station, Decision at Sundown, Ride Lonesome, and The Tall T.

Buchanan (Randolph Scott) confronts corrupt Sheriff Lew Agry (Barry Kelley).

Buchanan Rides Alone is directed by Budd Boetticher, runs 80 minutes, is made by Producers-Actors Corporation Scott-Brown Productions, is distributed by Columbia Pictures, is written by by Charles Lang and Burt Kennedy (uncredited), based on the novel The Name’s Buchanan by Jonas Ward, is shot in Columbia Color by Lucien Ballard, and is produced by Harry Joe Brown.

Release date: August 6, 1958 (US).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,508

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

Randolph Scott made seven classic low-budget Westerns with Budd Boetticher.