Buchanan Rides Alone is surprising and surprisingly good. Randolph Scott is not the lone man on horseback who rides into town with a righteous grudge. He's just Tom Buchanan, riding up from Mexico where he earned a stake big enough to buy the spread in West Texas he's always wanted. When he crosses the border and enters Agry Town, the county seat of Agry County, California, things are going to turn bad fast.
Agry Town sits right on the border. The county judge is Simon Agry. The county sheriff is Lew Agry. Yep, the Agry's run things hereabouts. Tom tries to deal with everyone with a friendly smile. He's not looking for trouble, just a place to get a drink, sleep and to eat a good steak...at the town's Agry Hotel. Lew Agry isn't so easy going. When he realizes Tom has gold hidden in Tom's gun belt, the gold gets confiscated and Tom gets beaten. When Tom tries to break up a gun battle between a young man from Mexico and a drunken Agry who is the judge's son (who just rode back to town with female fingernail scratches on his face), the Agry pulls first and gets dead fast. Tom and Juan de la Vega (Manuel Rojas), son of a powerful Mexican landowner, wind up in jail awaiting hanging. There are gunfights, breakouts, bushwhacking, bribes, a $50,000 ransom and lots of dirty dealing, especially among the Agry brothers. They have as much family feeling as one shark fetus sharing space in mom with another.
Judge Simon Agry (Tol Avery) runs the town with a soft, greasy hand. He's pudgy, ambitious, hypocritical, cautious and double dealing. Sheriff Lew Agry (Barry Kelley) is a tough man with a beefy face, a solid gut and a rancid disposition. "Take him over to the jailhouse and wait for him to come to. When I hang a man, I like him to know what's going on." Always around the judge, dressed in black and slick as a patch of fresh horse manure, is Abe Carbo (Craig Stevens). Carbo seems allied with the judge, but why should he let himself play second fiddle to the Agrys? Carbo is amoral, a man who'll suggest betrayal with a smile and make it seem legal...sort of like a corporate lawyer.
By the end of the movie, the Agry brothers and their town get what they deserve. And Tom Buchanan heads to west Texas, his gold stake back in his gun belt and a nice, satisfied smile on his face.
The movie is surprising good because it moves quickly within its 78 minutes. The betrayal, action and brotherly distaste more than fill any void left by romance (there isn't any), clichés (very few) and anything trying to be what it isn't. Buchanan Rides Alone is a solid piece of Western entertainment with an ironic twist led by Randolph Scott. It's available through the DVD Budd Boetticher Box Set, which also includes the Scott movies The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Ride Lonesome and Comanche Station.
Agry Town sits right on the border. The county judge is Simon Agry. The county sheriff is Lew Agry. Yep, the Agry's run things hereabouts. Tom tries to deal with everyone with a friendly smile. He's not looking for trouble, just a place to get a drink, sleep and to eat a good steak...at the town's Agry Hotel. Lew Agry isn't so easy going. When he realizes Tom has gold hidden in Tom's gun belt, the gold gets confiscated and Tom gets beaten. When Tom tries to break up a gun battle between a young man from Mexico and a drunken Agry who is the judge's son (who just rode back to town with female fingernail scratches on his face), the Agry pulls first and gets dead fast. Tom and Juan de la Vega (Manuel Rojas), son of a powerful Mexican landowner, wind up in jail awaiting hanging. There are gunfights, breakouts, bushwhacking, bribes, a $50,000 ransom and lots of dirty dealing, especially among the Agry brothers. They have as much family feeling as one shark fetus sharing space in mom with another.
Judge Simon Agry (Tol Avery) runs the town with a soft, greasy hand. He's pudgy, ambitious, hypocritical, cautious and double dealing. Sheriff Lew Agry (Barry Kelley) is a tough man with a beefy face, a solid gut and a rancid disposition. "Take him over to the jailhouse and wait for him to come to. When I hang a man, I like him to know what's going on." Always around the judge, dressed in black and slick as a patch of fresh horse manure, is Abe Carbo (Craig Stevens). Carbo seems allied with the judge, but why should he let himself play second fiddle to the Agrys? Carbo is amoral, a man who'll suggest betrayal with a smile and make it seem legal...sort of like a corporate lawyer.
By the end of the movie, the Agry brothers and their town get what they deserve. And Tom Buchanan heads to west Texas, his gold stake back in his gun belt and a nice, satisfied smile on his face.
The movie is surprising good because it moves quickly within its 78 minutes. The betrayal, action and brotherly distaste more than fill any void left by romance (there isn't any), clichés (very few) and anything trying to be what it isn't. Buchanan Rides Alone is a solid piece of Western entertainment with an ironic twist led by Randolph Scott. It's available through the DVD Budd Boetticher Box Set, which also includes the Scott movies The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Ride Lonesome and Comanche Station.