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20 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
Vintage cowboy action., 7 February 2002
Author: Mozjoukine (Mozjoukine@yahoo.com.au) from Australia

Seeing "Riding Shotgun" again after half a century is a welcome reminder of the peak that the western film of the fifties achieved.

Director De Toth, who actually had ranch experience despite his Hungarian origins,obviously took great satisfaction in finding such a variety of effective angles and pieces of western imagery to present what is a well constructed story. When our weathered hero has to shoot out the candle in Fritz Feld's "dirty little cantina" it not only provides a chance for master cameramen Bert Glennon ("Stagecoach") to do an effective light change but it also gives us a couple of reels of the disturbing image of the blackened door-way that no one in the town is game to enter, not sure if Randy is dead or not.

The film making is better than most of the bigger pictures could muster.

The Warner western street re-dressed. Interesting cast - Joe Sawer in a non comedy role, punching it out with Scott, Charlie Bronson getting started, Millican in his best part - are those Frank Ferguson, Cesare Gravina and Bob Steele in uncredited walk-ons?

Pretension free, work like the Scott-De Toth series made going to the movies a rewarding, addictive habit.

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17 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Another Variation of the High Noon Theme!, 14 September 2003
6/10
Author: (bsmith5552@rogers.com) from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"Riding Shotgun" is another in the Randolph Scott series of westerns released by Warner Brothers in the 1950s.

This one is another variation of the High Noon theme of one man left alone against the villains without the support of the town. Larry DeLong (Scott) has been searching for Dan Maraday (James Millican) who murdered his sister and nephew during a stagecoach hold up. He has been riding shotgun for various stage lines with the hope that way he will finally meet up with his nemesis.

Maraday's gang, led by Pinto (Charles Bronson) captures DeLong and leaves him to die in the hot sun. They then rob and shoot up the local stagecoach on which Larry was supposed to be the shotgun guard. By sending the coach into town shot up, Maraday hopes to draw the sheriff and his posse out of town so that they can ride in and loot the casino. But DeLong escapes and rides into town to warn the townspeople.

The town believes that Larry is one of the gang because he was seen riding away with a member of the gang. Led by stagecoach owner Tom Biggert (Joe Sawyer), the town turns against Larry and corners him in a dingy saloon owned by Fritz (Fritz Feld). Deputy sheriff Tub Murphy (Wayne Morris) returns from the posse with orders to hold DeLong. Unfortunately he is ineffective and unable to arrest DeLong. The townspeople then decide to try to smoke him out.

Meanwhile Maraday and his gang ride into town during the commotion. DeLong manages to escape and confront the gang.

Randolph Scott basically played the same character in all of his 50s westerns, the stern faced William S. Hart type of hero. He always made them believable. Wayne Morris had starred in his own series prior to this but is essentially wasted here as the ever hungry, over cautious, overweight deputy. Joan Weldon as the heroine also has little to contribute. James Millican had appeared in several Scott westerns before his untimely death in 1956. Charles Bronson (still using his real name of Buchinsky) has a meaty role as the chief henchman. Veteran "head waiter" Fritz Feld gets a welcome change of pace as the slovenly Fritz.

Some other recognizable faces include Paul Picerni as the shotgun guard who dies in Scott's place, Howard Morris as a psychopathic "man with the rope" and if you look closely you might spot western veterans Bud Osborne, Buddy Roosevelt and Dub Taylor in various townsfolk.

Another good entry in the the Randolph Scott series.

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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Reason vs. Rabble, 22 October 2007
7/10
Author: Gary Peterson from Omaha, Nebraska

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I just watched Riding Shotgun, which rounds out a Warner Bros Triple Feature DVD with two other Randolph Scott westerns of the 1950s. Despite the title, Randolph Scott rides shotgun for only the few opening minutes of the film, before falling for a ruse to lure him away from the stagecoach. The stagecoach, which is robbed and shot up, is itself another ruse to lure the sheriff and the bulk of the gun-handy menfolk away from town in a posse following a phony trail. Randolph Scott escapes the revenge-fueled fate a young (and clearly on a trajectory to stardom) Charles Bronson set for him and comes into town to warn the sheriff about the gang's plan.

But upon arriving Scott finds the town has turned on him, suspecting him of being in cahoots with the stage robbers. Here is where the film's real story begins, and while certainly taking a few pages from the High Noon playbook, Riding Shotgun has its own unique twist on that tale. Here Scott is not alone in standing up to the town. Wayne Morris, as Deputy Tub, is the real voice of reason who keeps the rabble from getting too roused and turning to vigilante justice against an innocent man.

Wayne Morris is always a welcome name to see in any movie's opening credits, even if he was not used to his fullest potential here. Morris' Deputy Tub reminded me a lot of Alan Hale, Jr. and I wondered if the Skipper wouldn't have been better cast in the role (he had appeared with Scott in the previous year's Man Behind The Gun).

While it would be easy to dismiss Tub as being ineffective and derelict in his duty, there is a rationale and a deliberateness behind his actions. Tub actually de-escalates the tension by stepping away from the situation and indulging in lunch and later some pie and coffee. His easy dismissal of the trigger-happy Deputy Ross as getting what was coming to him shows Tub's a seasoned westerner and far from being a coward. It took experience and intelligence to approach the cornered Scott with diplomacy and a deal instead of rushing into the cantina with his guns blazing, like the greenhorn hot dog deputy Ross did earlier. He shows this unruffled calm again later when he punctures the blustering bravado of the wannabe-shotgun rider by simply handing him his gun and with a stare silently challenging him to put up or shut up.

Rabble rousing and the psychology of crowds is a theme running through the film. I was reminded me of the early Lee/Ditko Spider-Man stories where one bystander's cynical remark is repeated and ratcheted up by the next person's until everyone is adding their uninformed suggestions as to what should be done and done right now. One especially telling scene is between the two young ladies expressing their outrage over the situation. At one point one girl asks the other, "isn't it exciting?" to which the other breaks into laughter and giggles, revealing their indignation is just a posture and that they're enjoying the spectacle; never mind it might result in a man being gunned down. Despite the fine clothes some of the townsfolk wear, their claim to civilization is just a thin veneer and little if anything separates them from the murderous gang, one of whose members passes among them unnoticed (except, tellingly, by a harlot).

Something I found funny was how the gambling hall is filled with men playing cards, completely unaware or uninterested in the unfolding drama outside that has captivated the balance of the town. Something the producers intended to be funny was the outlaw gang's falling off their horses, but it approached slapstick and seemed out of place in the tension-filled climax. Fritz Feld provided some good comic relief as the put-upon father of a brood of kids with a nagging wife. And didn't you just know that his mirror wasn't going to survive to see the end credits? Some familiar faces in uncredited parts include Frank Ferguson (maybe best known as the apoplectic McDougall in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein) and Howard Morris in his first film, playing a strange and menacing fellow fingering a rope that is far from the beloved Ernest T. Bass character he'd later play on The Andy Griffith Show (and ironically for an actor who did so many cartoon voices, he doesn't utter a word in this movie despite considerable screen time).

While Riding Shotgun isn't the expected action-filled western with scenes of horseback riding and rolling stagecoaches as the title implies, it does have a compelling tension-filled story, good acting and it more than entertains in its tight 74 minutes.

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
A real gem!, 8 January 2009
8/10
Author: Art La Cues from Independence, CA USA

This well acted movie is better than many of the so-called "A" westerns of the period. It has humor, drama, good dialogue, and a good story. Unlike, "High Noon" to which it has been compared in a previous review, it is more believable and less melodramatic. Randolph Scott, as usual, is in peak form and Wayne Morris is very effective as the easy going deputy. He has always been a favorite of mine because of his pleasant personality and natural acting style.

The action is fast paced even though most of it take place within the town. Joe Sawyer and the other veteran stars are convincing and the story line is original. This a film that I can watch repeatedly because it really entertaining. I only wish that today's writers, and directors could or would turn out movies of this caliber with actors who act and look like real frontiersmen.

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
"Riding Shotgun" is loaded with enough excitement and realism, 4 January 2008
8/10
Author: Van Roberts (zardoz@bellsouth.net) from Columbus, Ms

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

André De Toth's brisk 74 minute western "Riding Shotgun" is an ambitious, above-average Randolph Scott horse opera that stands out from the herd. The trigger-happy outlaws here are a downright dastardly bunch; the townspeople turn into a moronic mob, and the hero creates more trouble for himself because of this credulous mob that refuse to believe him. Literally, Scott becomes the cowboy who cried wolf as far as the citizens are concerned.

Seasoned western scenarist Thomas Blackburn and De Toth have fashioned Kenneth Perkins' novel "Riding Solo" into a first-rate, suspenseful sagebrusher that never lets up on its surprises. Moreover, "Riding Shotgun" illustrates De Toth's obsession with realism. The Marady gang's decoy strategy, the act of cinching a saddle onto a horse, the use of a derringer to blast the ropes off the hero's wrists, and actions of a mob that intensify without reason keep things lively in this slam-bang shoot'em up. For example, early in the action, heroic Larry DeLong (Randolph Scott of "Colt .45") has to get a horse to follow a man who may lead him to his sworn enemy Dan Marady. Instead of simply getting an already saddled mount and swinging astride, De Toth shows Delong actually taking the time to cinch the saddle to its' back. As is the case in many De Toth films, we see the heroes and villains actually doing things—like saddling a horse—that other directors would eliminate as time-consuming and mundane. However, this is a set-up that De Toth pays off later when Delong sabotages the outlaw gang's departure by slicing through the cinches on their saddles so that they will bite the dust when they try to step aboard their p0nies.

De Toth and Blackburn allow the Randolph Scott character to narrate the picture so as to push the plot ahead and plant in our minds the very personal nature of Delong's revenge. The movie opens with Delong riding atop a stage coach as the shotgun messenger while Scott provides voice-over narration that brings the action quickly up to speed.

"For three years I dedicated every waking moment of my life to scouring the frontier for a killer for a very personal reason. I'd worked at all kinds of jobs from Wyoming to Oregon. In the last year, I'd working every stage line between Canada and Mexico, riding shotgun. I knew that sooner or later my path would again cross that of the man I wanted—Dan Marady." No sooner has Delong furnished this exposition and the stage coach rumbled past the camera than infamous Dan Marady (James Mullican of "Winchester '73") descends from the top of the pass that the stage just driven by and sends an old-timer off to the stage relay station to snooker Delong. Marady lives up to Delong's description: "as clever as he is ruthless and always managed to escape capture." Delong doesn't want to capture Marady; however, he means to kill him for the shooting deaths of his sister and his nephew. Consequently, from the outset, the hero has a strong motive to slay the villain. That makes for good drama! Anyway, Marady wants to rob the stage coach that Delong is guarding. To lure Delong away from the stage, he sends an old-timer into the relay station with his (Marady's) lucky charm derringer. At the station, Delong gets the shock of his life when he sees Marady's lucky derringer. He quits the stage coach to find out where the old-timer got the derringer and gets himself jumped and hogtied by Pinto ("The Great Escape's" Charles Bronson back when he was Buchinsky) and the rest of Marady's gang.

Marady's gang stops the coach, take the strong box, shoots up the passengers (but doesn't kill anybody) and sends the riddled stage coach off to Deepwater where the citizens take the law seriously. The outlaws—principally Pinto—mistakenly share their devious strategy with Delong who warns them about the law and order imperative of Deepwater and its stern sheriff Buck Curlew. As it turns out, Marady is counting on the zealous law and order attitude of Deepwater. He plans to let the shot-up stage careen into town. Curlew and a posse will light out after them, but they won't know that they are chasing a herd of horses instead of Marady. Meanwhile, the Marady gang will rob the Bank Club, a gambling house, and escape without harm with loot. Unfortunately, for Marady and company, Delong escapes by shooting his ropes with Marady's derringer that the old-timer dropped by accident. When Delong shows up in Deepwater with news about the Marady gang, the citizens believe that he helped the gang rob the stage since he quit guarding it. Even a kid with a slingshot pops Delong on the cheek with a stone and our hero retreats into the sanctuary of a cantina to protect himself from the angry citizen's mob. Deputy Sheriff Tub Murphy (World War II flying ace Wayne Morris of "Bad Men of Missouri") has a field day as a pot-bellied lawman that refuses to capitulate to an irate mob and has the good sense to leave Delong alone. One of the townspeople, a man (Howard Davis of "The Andy Griffith Show where he played Earnest T. Bass) has noose ready for our hero. Eventually, the Marady gang ride into Deepwater and the fireworks erupt.

The good thing about "Riding Shotgun" is that the noble hero finds himself behind the eight-ball more often than not, and life is no cake walk for him. Millican is great as Scott's nemesis and Davis makes memorable impression without having to utter a syllable. Bronson has a great scene where he describes his trek across an inhospitable desert as a result of Delong's pursuit. De Toth sprinkles prostitute characters in the street mob as an added example of realism. "Riding Shotgun" is loaded with enough excitement, realism, and suspense to make it a blast to watch despite its age.

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8 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Randolph Scott's answer to Gary Cooper's "High Noon"!, 18 January 2002
Author: Robert Ford (rjford@bigfoot.com) from Houston, Texas

Larry DeLong(Scott) is Riding Shotgun on stagecoaches, keeping them safe. After a holdup, the town first thinks that he's a coward and then decide that he must be a part of the gang -- and they're gonna get him! Meanwhile, the real baddies are heading to town to rob the bank and only Scott can prevent that.

Not quite up to High Noon standards, but a good yarn. Randolph Scott comes through, once again!

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
This film is a great illustration of the notion that people are indeed stupid!, 6 May 2009
8/10
Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I like the way this Western talked about human nature--a sign of an excellent film in this genre. For example, HIGH NOON and THE OXBOW INCIDENT are two of the very best Westerns of all time and they, too, investigate the mob mentality. Individually, people might be decent folk--put them in a group, and they all become instant idiots! I like this cynical aspect of the film and it makes this a standout film.

Randolph Scott plays a man who is seeking a gang of killers who rob stage coaches. He's been searching for years and now is working for the stage riding shotgun--the most likely way to meet up with these men. However, in a boneheaded move, he is lured away from the stage in search of the gang--and they soon catch HIM. He is left for dead and the gang then robs the stage. Scott soon manages to escape but when he finds his way into the nearest town, they assume Scott is part of the gang--after all, he wasn't on the stagecoach when it was attacked (while Scott was bound and waiting to die). The town seems to be inhabited by morons, because when he tries to warn the folks that the gang is planning on returning (since he heard their plans), they ignore him and even try to kill him. No matter that what they think isn't logical or that they've made some big assumptions, the town is determined to kill Scott. So, much of the film he's hiding out--trying to keep from killing the idiots in self-defense as well as avoiding their bullets. In the end, when the real gang shows up, it's of course up to good-guy Scott to save the day....even though the town really isn't worth saving.

While some of the film is a bit predictable and clichéd (such as Scott's unerring ability to hit the townspeople in the hand when they try to shoot him), it's much less than the usual film of this genre and watching Randolph Scott do his usual seemingly effortless performance make this film an exception to the usual Western fare. Plus, it's view of human nature makes this a transcendent film--one well worth seeking.

By the way, Charles Buchinsky is in the film in a supporting role. This is Charles Bronson, for those of you who didn't know his original name and he's quite young here.

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1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Enjoyable Scott Western., 23 January 2009
7/10
Author: Robert J. Maxwell (rmax304823@yahoo.com) from Deming, New Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Considering the budget, and considering other constraints on its quality, this is pretty good -- efficient movie-making at its best.

Randolph Scott is a shotgun rider on a stagecoach. The coach is held up and some former enemies capture Scott, hog tie his ass, and leave him to scorch to death in the sun. Tie up Randolph Scott? Hah! He rides into town to warn the good folk of the gang's plans, which is to divert the posse into chasing some loose horses so that the gang can loot and pillage the town. I'm not sure exactly how you pillage a village but I'm morally certain that's what they have in mind.

The problem is that no one in town believes Scott's warnings. What's worse, they believe him to be in cahoots with the dozen gang members, led by James Millican, with Charles Bronson in support.

Narrow-minded hostility surrounds Scott as he tries to spread the alarm and bring back the posse. No one believes him except his girl, Joan Weldon. The deputy, Wayne Morris, is doubtful of the hysteria but, in any case, is in no position to stand alone against them. The town doctor is neutral and wants to see due process exercised.

A couple of observations. This is Scott's only Western that I'm aware of in which he provides a noir-like narration. There's nothing wrong with that in principle but in practice it sounds a bit weird. This was released in 1954, and films noir had dominated American dramatic films for the previous ten years.

Fritz Feld was the psychiatrist with a twitch in "Bringing Up Baby." Here, he plays a treacherous but comic saloon proprietor. His joint is a filthy dump and he himself is unshaven, ragged, and weaselly. He's saddled with a Mexican wife and five children -- none of them boys. When he's excited, his Spanish tirade turns into German. That's understandable because he was born in Berlin. He's a welcome presence.

Joan Weldon, Scott's supportive girl friend, doesn't have a Hollywood-beautiful face but she seems to radiate intelligence and a little charm. Anybody who was a singer with the San Francisco Opera has my vote. Also, I blush, but must admit it always found her sexy.

The movie also does something interesting, probably unwittingly. It demonstrates the destructive potential of rumor. Now, gossip is a necessary means of social control in human society. (Lecturer writes "gossip" on blackboard.) One of the main reasons we don't do bad things is that, if we're found out, our family, friends, and neighbors will not like us so much. But gossip is like water. A certain amount is required for survival but too much of it, out of control, is destructive. We need tap water, not a flood. And we see rumor get subtle autonomy in this movie. The marginalized Scott is holed up in a filthy saloon and every move he makes is interpreted as "bad" and exaggerated by the hostile villagers. If a man tries to shoot Scott, and Scott shoots him in the gun-wielding arm, the story is told that Scott has killed his victim. Everything he does is interpreted by his enemies as deliberately mean. The movie is really a good demonstration of this point. (Imagine if the villagers had the internet.)

"Riding Shotgun" doesn't have the poetic quality of some of the Boetticher/Scott/Kennedy Westerns of the same period, but I was easily able to enjoy it for what it was.

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0 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
high siesta, 18 August 2008
2/10
Author: Karl Ericsson (karlericsson@telia.com) from sweden

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

For no logic reason whatsoever, our hero Randolph is left alive and sloppily tied up, so that freeing himself is like a walk in the park. After this idiotic beginning the film shifts into "stupidity high-gear" as Scott tries to convince a whole town filled with idiots that their town is going to get robbed. John Baer from "We're no Angels", who looks like William Katt's father (maybe he was for all I know), somehow got a role in this mess and makes a mess of that role - a mess in the mess, so to speak. Why am I writing this review? I only have a messy answer on that question. Soon, very soon, this review will contain enough lines for being permitted...just about...now!

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