Buchanan Rides Alone is a 1958 American Western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott, Craig Stevens, and Barry Kelley. 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.
While returning to West Texas 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.[1]
Although the screenplay is credited to Charles Lang, his script was deemed unsuitable, so Boetticher asked his regular writer, Burt Kennedy, to rewrite the script.[2] 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. [citation needed]
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.[citation needed] In 2021, Mill Creek Entertainment released a Blu Ray box set of 12 Randolph Scott films including Buchanan Rides Alone and the other Budd Boetticher/Randolph Scott films.
The Tall T is a 1957 American Western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, and Maureen O'Sullivan. Adapted by Burt Kennedy from the 1955 short story "The Captives" by Elmore Leonard, the film is about an independent former ranch foreman who is kidnapped along with an heiress, who is being held for ransom by three ruthless outlaws. In 2000, The Tall T was selected for the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
George Randolph Scott 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 genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals, adventure tales, war films, and a few horror and fantasy films. However, his most enduring image is that of the tall-in-the-saddle Western hero. Out of his more than 100 film appearances over 60 were in Westerns. According to editor Edward Boscombe, "...Of all the major stars whose name was associated with the Western, Scott [was] most closely identified with it."
Phantly Roy Bean Jr. was an American saloon-keeper and Justice of the Peace in Val Verde County, Texas, who called himself "The Only Law West of the Pecos". According to legend, he held court in his saloon along the Rio Grande on a desolate stretch of the Chihuahuan Desert of southwest Texas. After his death, fictional Western films and books cast him as a hanging judge, although he is known to have sentenced only two men to hang, one of whom escaped.
Tom Tyler was an American actor known for his leading roles in low-budget Western films in the silent and sound eras, and for his portrayal of superhero Captain Marvel in the 1941 serial film The Adventures of Captain Marvel. Tyler also played Kharis in 1940's The Mummy's Hand, a popular Universal Studios monster film.
Two Mules for Sister Sara is a 1970 American-Mexican Western film in Panavision directed by Don Siegel and starring Shirley MacLaine set during the French intervention in Mexico (1861–1867). The film was to have been the first in a five-year exclusive association between Universal Pictures and Sanen Productions of Mexico. It was the second of five collaborations between Siegel and Eastwood, following Coogan's Bluff (1968). The collaboration continued with The Beguiled and Dirty Harry and finally Escape from Alcatraz (1979).
Lucien Ballard was an American cinematographer. He worked on more than 130 films during his 50-year career, collaborating multiple times with directors including Josef von Sternberg, John Brahm, Henry Hathaway, Budd Boetticher, Raoul Walsh, Sam Peckinpah and Tom Gries. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for The Caretakers (1963).
Oscar Boetticher Jr., known as Budd Boetticher, 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.
Seven Men from Now is a 1956 American Western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott, Gail Russell and Lee Marvin. The film was written by Burt Kennedy and produced by John Wayne's Batjac Productions.
Burton Raphael Kennedy was an American screenwriter and director known mainly for directing Westerns. Budd Boetticher called him "the best Western writer ever."
Ride Lonesome is a 1959 American CinemaScope Western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott, Karen Steele, Pernell Roberts, Lee Van Cleef, and James Coburn in his film debut. This Eastmancolor film is one of Boetticher's so-called "Ranown cycle" of westerns, made with Randolph Scott, executive producer Harry Joe Brown and screenwriter Burt Kennedy, beginning with Seven Men from Now.
Harry Joe Brown was an American film producer, and earlier a theatre and film director.
Comanche Station is a 1960 American CinemaScope Western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott. The film was the last of Boetticher's late 1950s Ranown Cycle. It was filmed in the Eastern Sierra area of Central California near Lone Pine, California, not far from the foot of Mount Whitney. The towering granitic boulders known as the Alabama Hills served as the backdrop for the film's opening and closing scenes.
Decision at Sundown is a 1957 American Western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott. It is one of seven Boetticher/Scott western collaborations, including Seven Men from Now, The Tall T, Buchanan Rides Alone, Westbound, Ride Lonesome, and Comanche Station.
The Desperadoes is a 1943 American Western film directed by Charles Vidor and starring Randolph Scott, Claire Trevor, Glenn Ford, Evelyn Keyes and Edgar Buchanan. Based on a story by Max Brand, the film is about a wanted outlaw who arrives in town to rob a bank that has already been held up. His past and his friendship with the sheriff land them both in trouble. The Desperadoes was the first Columbia Pictures production to be released in Technicolor.
Westbound is a 1959 American Western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott, Virginia Mayo and Karen Steele.
The Texican is a 1966 American Techniscope Western film produced and written by John C. Champion and directed by Lesley Selander. It is a paella western remake of their 1948 film Panhandle adapted for the persona of Audie Murphy that featured Broderick Crawford as the heavy. The film was re-titled Ringo il Texano in Italy to coincide with the popularity of the Ringo Spaghetti Western film series.
Badman's Territory is a 1946 American Western film starring Randolph Scott. It was followed by the loose sequels Return of the Bad Men (1948) and Best of the Badmen (1951).
The Cimarron Kid is a 1952 American western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Audie Murphy, Beverly Tyler and Yvette Duguay. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures.
A Time for Dying is a 1969 American Western film written directed by Budd Boetticher with a cameo role by Audie Murphy, who also produced the film, as Jesse James. It was Murphy's last film, as well as the final dramatic feature for Boetticher.
Lone Texas Ranger is a 1945 American Western film directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet starring Wild Bill Elliott in the role of Red Ryder and costarring as Little Beaver, actor (Bobby) Robert Blake. It was the eighth of twenty-three Red Ryder feature films that would be produced by Republic Pictures. The picture was shot on the studio’s back lot along with outdoor locations at Iverson Ranch, 1 Iverson Lane, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
References
↑ Nott, Robert. Last Of The Cowboy Heroes: The Westerns Of Randolph Scott, Joel Mccrea, And Audie Murphy. McFarland, 2005, p.128.
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