Le Cavalier traqué

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!

Stage-line security guard Scott is lured away from town by a member of his arch-enemy's gang and tied up to die from exposure. Escaping, he returns to find the stage robbed and everyone thinking he's in cahoots with the villains, with no one believing him when he tells them that the robbery was a ruse to get the law out on a goose-chase so that the real deal could go down. In fact, the whole town is ready to lynch Scott!

Though some of the portrayals of the ignorant townspeople are clearly over-the-top, Riding Shotgun is a very well-made and well-paced little western that really delivers the goods in terms of action and especially suspense.

There's a great role for a young Charles Bronson, who in his western debut (excluding an episode of The Roy Rodgers Show where he plays a boxer) as a sadistic member of the outlaw gang. The scenes where he joins the lynch mob and stokes them are pretty neat.

There's also a great role for Wayne Morris, who's probably best remembered for his role as a cowardly officer in Stanley Kubrick's Paths Of Glory, as the town's remaining deputy who desperately tries to prevent needless bloodshed.

I'm glad to see that a majority of reviewers liked this film. I did, too. It's one Scott Western that's passed me by until now, though others are frequently shown on British TV.

The plot was more original than many 1950s' Westerns, and the town looked a little different to those so often seen. As has already been remarked, the townsfolk were a quirky lot, and there was some nice minor characterizations, especially the guy fondling a rope all the time.

What little love interest there was was unnecessary, doing nothing to the plot.

One might quibble at Scott's wish for a messenger to be sent to recall the posse. There wouldn't have been enough time to track it down and for it to return in time to combat the raid. And how obliging of Scott to ride so precisely under the tree that Bronson could jump on him. At least the revolvers ran out of ammunition after being fired six times, forcing their users to reload, unlike in some Westerns where they seem to have eight or more rounds in them.

I'll be happy to watch it again some time.

Riding Shotgun is directed by Andre De Toth and adapted to screenplay by Thomas W. Blackburn fro the story "Riding Solo" written by Kenneth Perkins. It stars Randolph Scott, Wayne Morris, Joan Weldon, Joe Sawyer, James Millican, Charles Bronson and James Bell. Music is by David Buttolph and Warnercolor cinematography is by Bert Glennon.

Before he would make the Western movies with Budd Boetticher that would define him as a Western movie legend, Randolph Scott worked tirelessly in the genre. He would make 6 films with Ray Enright and 6 with Andre De Toth, all of these are good value for the Western fan. They vary in thematic quality, but production value was always decent and there was always Randy at war with some gruff or poncey bloke, nice location photography and of course some gorgeous ladies as well. That's enough for genre fans who happily take these movies on their required terms.

Anyone else got anything to say?

Riding Shotgun has Scott as Larry Delong, a man who spends his time "riding shotgun" as a stagecoach guard. He has an ulterior motive, though, he's constantly on the look out for a known outlaw, Dan Marady (Millican), and he wants him dead. Sure enough Malady is about the place and Larry falls into a trap and finds things spiralling so out of control, that by the time he manages to get back into town, practically everyone hates him and thinks he's part of Marady's murderous gang.

Hate makes a man careless.

Cue a scenario where Delong, who has been wonderfully providing us with a film noir like narration throughout (love the wry David and Goliath observation), literally has to make a one man stand against the dimwit townsfolk and also Marady and his henchmen who are fronted by twitchy gun Pinto! (Bronson). It clocks in at under 75 minutes, it's brisk, it has Scott kicking ass big time and it looks lovely (unsurprising with Glennon photographing).

Is it flawless? God no! There's some distinctly below average acting around Scott (Morris/Millican), while Fritz Feld as the Cantina owner (erm, called Fritz) where Delong holes up, is annoying in the extreme. While as radiant and perky as Joan Weldon is, she's no actress capable of grabbing a scene and shooting electricity through it. But this type of Scott Oater is comfort food to genre fans who once in a while like to down pistols and relax away from the more serious genre fare. 7/10

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.