utgard14 Review of Buchanan Rides Alone

Buchanan Rides Alone (1958)

"There ain't no place like West Texas."

[6/10 · 2 February 2014]

Randolph Scott plays Tom Buchanan, a smiling gunfighter who quickly stops smiling when he wanders into the unfriendliest town ever. The town is named Agry and is run by the Agry family. They specialize in Agry-vating people (sorry...I had to). When a young Mexican man rides into town and kills one of them, the others proceed to beat him up. Buchanan tries to help and is arrested as an accomplice. At trial, he's acquitted and released. The crooked Sheriff Lew Agry (Barry Kelley) robs Buchanan and tries to have him killed on the way out of town. But it doesn't go down the way the fat sheriff hoped. Taut direction from Budd Boetticher in another of his great westerns with Randolph Scott. One of their lighter ones, however. The Agry family are certainly some easy-to-hate villains. L.Q. Jones has a memorable role as a proud West Texan. The funeral for his friend Lafe is one of the movie's highlights.