''Buchanan Rides Alone'' is a 1958 American

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed by

Budd Boetticher Oscar "Budd" Boetticher Jr. ( ; July 29, 1916 – November 29, 2001) was an American film director. He is best remembered for a series of low-budget Westerns he made in the late 1950s starring Randolph Scott. Early life Boetticher was born in C ...

and starring

Randolph Scott George Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 – March 2, 1987) was an American film actor whose career spanned the years from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of ...

, Craig Stevens, and

Barry Kelley Edward Barry Kelley (August 19, 1908 – June 5, 1991) was an American actor on Broadway in the 1930s and 1940s and in films during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. The heavy-set actor created the role of Ike in '' Oklahoma!'' on Broadway. His l ...

. Based on the 1956 novel ''The Name's Buchanan'' by Jonas Ward, the film is about a Texan returning home with enough money to start his own ranch. When he stops in the crooked town of Agry, he is robbed and framed for murder.

Plot

Randolph Scott and Barry Kelley in Buchanan Rides Alone

While returning to

West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio. No consensus exists on the boundary betw ...

from Mexico, Tom Buchanan rides into the California border town of Agry and becomes embroiled in an internecine feud involving the powerful Agry clan. In self-defense, Tom punches young Roy Agry, a drunken hothead who then declares he is going to kill Tom. However, a young vaquero, Juan de la Vega, rides in and kills Roy Agry. Juan reveals to Tom later that he did this because Agry had assaulted his sister. Tom intervenes in the scuffle surrounding Juan's arrest and is also arrested. It then becomes the set narrative that the two men worked together to plan the killing of Roy Agry. A lynching is arranged, but the judge, Simon Agry (Roy's father), interrupts and makes a show of being determined to conduct a trial in a decent, proper manner. In truth, Agry is conspiring to extort Juan's wealthy family for his release. A trial is held, and Tom is acquitted. Juan, who puts up no defense, is found guilty and sentenced to hang. Tom tries to secure the young man's release but is pressured to leave town by Sheriff Lew Agry who keeps Tom's $2,000. Tom vows to return to retrieve it. The sheriff directs two of his men to escort Tom well away from the town ostensibly, but they have been ordered to kill him instead. The plan is foiled when one of them, Pecos Hill, who comes from the same area of Texas as Tom and feels a kinship with him, kills his colleague. Pecos accepts Tom's offer of a partnership in his Texas ranch, and the two decide to rest a while at an abandoned shack before Tom heads to town to get his money back. Meanwhile, Juan's father sends a representative, Gomez, to win Juan's release with a generous offer of thirty world-class horses. Simon declines, instead demanding $50,000 cash. Another Agry, Amos, overhears this deal being made and tells Lew, who immediately concocts a plan to have the money for himself. He arranges for Juan to be transported to the shack Tom and Pecos are occupying. Tom manages to surprise the sheriff's goons and tie them up. Tom instructs Pecos to accompany Juan to the border while he returns to Agry to recover his money. The sheriff's men manage to free themselves, catch up with and kill Pecos while re-capturing Juan. Gomez returns to Simon's house with the ransom money, and the judge sends his enforcer, Carbo, to get Juan from jail. But the cell is empty, and the sheriff informs Carbo that it is he with whom Gomez needs to deal. Tom, meantime, has returned to town and, at gunpoint, forces Lew to get his money out of the safe. As he is readying to leave, the sheriff's men return with Juan. Once again Juan and Tom are thrown into a cell together. The townspeople are tired of waiting for the hanging, and tensions rise. Simon goes to town, finds Gomez with Lew, and instructs Carbo to walk Gomez to the jail to retrieve Juan. A gunfight breaks out, the saddlebags containing the $50,000 are dropped in the street, and the ensuing stand-off results in the judge and the sheriff shooting each other, committing mutual fratricide. In the end, gunfighter Carbo inherits the town. Juan is freed, the ransom money is returned to the de la Vega family, and Tom resumes his journey to Texas.

Cast

as Tom Buchanan * Craig Stevens as Abe Carbo *

as Sheriff Lew Agry *

Tol Avery Taliaferro Ware "Tol" Avery (August 28, 1915 – August 27, 1973) was an American film and television character actor with more than a hundred screen appearances between 1950 and 1974. Biography Early in his career, Avery appeared as "Dennison ...

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 Joseph Vito Marcello De Santis (June 15, 1909 – August 30, 1989) was an American radio, television, movie and theatrical actor and sculptor. Biography Joe De Santis was born Joseph Vito Marcello De Santis to Italian immigrant parents in Ne ...

as Esteban Gomez * William Leslie as Roy Agry * Jennifer Holden as K.T. * Nacho Galindo as "Nacho"

Production

Although the screenplay is credited to Charles Lang, his script was deemed unsuitable, so Boetticher asked his regular writer,

Burt Kennedy Burton Raphael Kennedy (September 3, 1922 – February 15, 2001) was an American screenwriter and director known mainly for directing Westerns. Budd Boetticher called him "the best Western writer ever." Biography Kennedy was born in 1922 i ...

, to rewrite the script. Because Lang's wife was gravely ill and he needed the money, Kennedy allowed him to take the salary and screen credit. In a 2001 interview at the Cinecon Film Festival, Boetticher confirmed that the script was Kennedy's work, noting that such lines as "This sure is a $10 town" and "Don't just stand there, Amos, get a shovel!" could only have been written by him. A number of music score stock cues used in the production are the same as those used in the 1958–1961 TV series ''

Sea Hunt ''Sea Hunt'' is an American action adventure television series that aired in syndication from 1958 to 1961 and was popular for decades afterwards. The series originally aired for four seasons, with 155 episodes produced. It stars Lloyd Bridges a ...

'', with stock music credits to

Mischa Bakaleinikoff Mikhail Romanovich "Mischa" Bakaleinikov (also spelled Bakaleynikov and Bakaleinikoff; russian: Михаил Романович Бакалейников; November 10, 1890 – August 10, 1960) was a noted musical director, film composer and ...

George Duning George Duning (February 25, 1908 – February 27, 2000) was an American musician and film composer. He was born in Richmond, Indiana, and educated in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where his mentor was Mario Casteln ...

, Heinz Roemheld, and

Paul Sawtell Paul Sawtell (3 February 1906 – 1 August 1971) was a Polish-born film score composer in the United States. Sawtell began his career with RKO, and eventually joined Universal Pictures. Sawtell worked on many western and horror films, and also ...

Home media

In 2008 a DVD box set of five Budd Boetticher films starring Randolph Scott was released. Along with ''Buchanan Rides Alone'' the set includes '' Comanche Station'', '' Decision at Sundown'', '' Ride Lonesome'', and '' The Tall T''.

References

External links