Buchanan Rides Alone (1958)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Budd Boetticher

Writers:

Charles Lang (screenplay)
Jonas Ward (novel)

Release Date:

1 August 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

DOUBLE HANGING -- DOUBLE THRILLS! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

On his way home to West Texas, Tom Buchanan rides into the Californian border town of Agry, and into a feud between several members of the Agry family...

Plot Keywords:

Revenge | Mexican | Barroom Brawl | Jail | Ransom

Cast

Randolph Scott	...	Tom Buchanan
Craig Stevens	...	Abe Carbo
Barry Kelley	...	Lew Agry
Tol Avery	...	Judge Simon Agry
Peter Whitney	...	Amos Agry
Manuel Rojas	...	Juan de la Vega
L.Q. Jones	...	Pecos Hill
Robert Anderson	...	Waldo Peck
Joe De Santis	...	Esteban Gomez
William Leslie	...	Roy Agry
Jennifer Holden	...	K. T.
Nacho Galindo	...	Nacho

Also Known As:

The Name's Buchanan (USA)

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Columbia Color)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:U | West Germany:12 | USA:Approved (MPAA rating: certificate #19031) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Old Tucson - 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: After the climactic gunfight, with bodies all over the place, Craig Stevens is heard saying to Peter Whitney, "Don't just stand there, Amos, go get a shovel." But one can clearly see Stevens say, "...go get a spade".

Quotes:

Waldo Peek: All right. Quiet, quiet, everybody! Your trial is about to start. Now Jim here is going to pass among you with a tray and the Judge wants me to have you put all your glasses in that tray... empty! The Judge don't want no more liquored-up opinion like he had in that last trial.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That (2005) (TV)

Last of the ranown only slightly inferior to some others

Excellent and funny story of Agry-town, a place where everything costs ten dollars and a man can be hung for being on the right side of a fight -- but the wrong side of the law. Hypocrisy and the essential weakness of human nature are humorously juxtaposed with Scott and his friends' hardboiled masculine ethic. Only the ending is a disappointment -- rushed and somewhat confused. Lang's writing is good and very barbed but somewhat predictable as the famous Ranown cycle winds down with this film.

The Pacific Film Archive here in Berkeley CA has been showing these films for the last few years, and in 2000 I and my mother had the chance to meet the director, the very charming, funny, and intelligent Bud Boetticher, and also the people who are restoring these movies for Columbia. They're doing a wonderful job, and hopefully soon we'll all be able to enjoy restored, less yellowed prints of these classic films (especially the incredible "Seven Men from Now") on DVD. Put any pressure you can on Columbia, folks, let them know you want to see these films on DVD, because the restoration is already well underway -- we just need to let them know there's an audience out there!