Movies
Buchanan Rides Alone (Columbia 1958, Randolph Scott, Craig Stevens)
RANDOLPH SCOTT co-produced this lively second feature Western. He was ideally cast as Buchanan, a Texan who rides into a small border town controlled by Lew Agry (BARRY KELLEY) and his family. There Buchanan befriends Juan, a young Mexican played by MANUEL ROJAS who avenges the dishonour of his sister by the town bully. But the dead man was related to Agry. Buchanan is arrested and then freed while Juan is convicted and threatened with lynching by a mob led by Abe Carbo (CRAIG STEVENS). Buchanan then pits the town’s influential citizens against each other, resulting in his and Juan’s freedom.
Buchanan Rides Alone rises entertainingly above its second feature origins thanks to the accomplished playing of Scott, the vigorous handling (notably of the climactic shootout) of cult director Budd Boetticher and a knowing, authentic, well-constructed and often mordantly witty screenplay by Charles Lang, based on the novel The Name’s Buchanan by Jonas Ward. ‘Jonas Ward’ was the pseudonym of William Ard. When he died in the mid-Sixties the Buchanan series of novels was continued by other writers, among them Brian Garfield (author of Death Wish) and William R Cox.
production details
USA | Columbia | 78 minutes | 1958
Director: Budd Boetticher
Script: Charles Lang, Jonas Ward,
cast
Tol Avery as Judge Simon Agry
Peter Whitney as Amos Agry
Randolph Scott as Tom Buchanan
L.Q. Jones as Pecos Hill
Craig Stevens as Abe Carbo
Barry Kelley as Lew Agry
Manuel Rojas as Juan de la Vega
Robert Anderson as Waldo Peck
Joe De Santis as Esteban Gomez
William Leslie as Roy Agry
Jennifer Holden as K.T.
Nacho Galindo as Nacho