Comanche Station

Saw this film again tonite via the DVD, mainly because it's Scott's penultimate film. Immediately thought of similarity to Scott's The Tall T, later to Ride Lonesome and Seven Men from Now. Difference is I'd give that Elmore Leonard story a few notches on this. Claude Akins is better than just Movin On but doesn't have the menace of Richard Boone or Lee Marvin. Scenery is favored over dialogue. Lots of cutting from scene to scene to indicate time has passed. Skip Hoemeier reprises his role as number 2 gun hand to the villain (Billy Jack to Boone ). Scott is great trading with the Comanche or getting the drop on the bad guys. Lots of good but familiar dialogue- "Seemed like a good idea". He is the archetype noble cowboy true to his values and keeping his dignity, yet always practical. I like this film very much and will watch it again; I'm sure.

Comanche Station is the last of several films Randolph Scott made for Budd Boetticher with Columbia pictures. This would have been his last film, but for being lured to do just one more, the immortal Ride the High Country.

The film combines elements of The Naked Spur and Two Rode Together and blends them successfully. Scott is a man with one obsession, to get his wife back from the Comanches who kidnapped here ten years earlier. Whenever he hears of a white woman being put up for trade by the Indians he heads out with trade goods and buys her in the hopes of finding his beloved.

On this trip he ransoms Nancy Gates away from the Comanches. Later on he runs into an old enemy Claude Akins traveling with two young guns, Richard Rust and Skip Homeier. It seems as though Nancy's husband has put up a ten thousand dollar reward for her.

Akins is a truly malevolent figure, a scalphunter who kills Indians and sells their scalps for bounty. Unfortunately the two have need of each other in hostile Indian territory.

Randolph Scott's western heroes usually have an edge to them, they are not pure heroes as Joel McCrea's are. But in this film he's poaching on McCrea's territory in gallantry. His behavior towards Nancy Gates is at all times chivalrous. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a medieval origin to the plot of Comanche Territory.

Had Scott not come back to do Ride the High Country, Comanche Station would have been a good film to go out on.

For the casual viewer Comanche Station will likely be appreciated as a worthwhile Randolph Scott Western that delivers adult entertainment, a solid script, and good character development. However, to those familiar with the Ranown films, this endeavor will likely come off as a derivative mishmash of previous Burt Kennedy scripts that repeats scenes, characters, and even dialogue from earlier works. When watching the film through this lens it's quite surprising how much Kennedy plagiarized from himself in this comparatively lazy effort. At least he ripped off good material.

The movie begins ominously with Cody (Randolph Scott) wandering around the barren wilderness toting a pack mule before being surrounded by Comanches (they don't look like Comanches which is another criticism that can be imposed on this film). We soon discover he is looking for a captive white woman that turns out to be Mrs. Nancy Lowe (Nancy Gates). Their trek back to civilization is soon hampered by a trio of outlaws - Ben (Claude Aikens), Frank (Skip Homeier) and Doby (Richard Rust) - who may or may not have been involved in stirring up the Comanches. Cody now has two problems: evading the Comanches and thwarting Ben who wants to take Mrs. Lowe for the $5000 reward posted by her husband that Cody didn't know about.

For the uninitiated there are echoes of Seven Men From Now, The Tall T, and Ride Lonesome that resonate throughout the film. Cody has an ulterior motive for rescuing Mrs Lowe that isn't revealed until later much like in those films. Dialogue, situations, characters, and locations are recycled; perhaps the most striking copy is the appearance of the hanging tree from Ride Lonesome although this time it is surrounded by shallow water. Even the opening credits music is lifted from Ride Lonesome. Again, with no knowledge of the previous movies these things are fine but for those of us hoping for a fresh tale it is disappointing.

The performances are competent although not to the level of previous Ranown efforts. Scott almost phones it in which is good enough; he could play the strong silent type in his sleep by this point. Nancy Gates is refreshingly believable as a conflicted woman who isn't sure her husband will want her back after being violated by the Comanches during her captivity. As the villain of the piece Claude Aikens does what he can but his role isn't developed enough and he comes off more like a thug than anything else (Check out Lee Marvin in Seven Men From Now, Richard Boone in The Tall T, and Pernell Roberts in Ride Lonesome to get a better understanding of how underwritten this role is). Where it really gets interesting is with his two young sidekicks, Skip Homeier and Richard Rust, who seem to be pretty close to one another in a relationship that could be interpreted through modern eyes as borderline homosexual. It seems unlikely this was the original intention but with Rust's character alluded to as "running on the soft side" one could easily make this assumption.

In the final analysis Comanche Station is a mixed bag that is the final roundup for the Ranown series of films that achieved much critical acclaim. Perhaps the creative minds were running out of gas by this point; for Randolph Scott this is his penultimate film. While by no means a failure this movie is the runt of the Ranown litter. However, taken on its own merits and without comparisons, Comanche Station is a worthwhile use of 74 minutes.

The last of the seven Scott/Boetticher collaborations and although it's not one of my favorites {THE TALL T (1957) and RIDE LONESOME (1959) come out ahead}, it's still worth owning on DVD if Columbia/Tristar ever sees fit to release it.

Randolph Scott plays a rancher named Jefferson Cody who's wife was kidnapped by the Comanches a few years before. When he hears that the Comanches are holding a white woman, he goes to them for a trade and winds up with another man's wife named Mrs. Lowe (Nancy Gates).

As they head back, they stop at Comanche Station in order to water their horses and get fresh supplies. When they arrive there, they see three men being chased by a bunch of Comanches on the warpath. Cody recognizes one of them as Ben Lane (Claude Akins), a soldier he had drummed out of the army for an atrocity against the Indians, many years before. He also suspects Lane is trafficking in scalps and that's why the Indians are after them.

They manage to fight them off and when the coast is clear, Lane informs Mrs. Lowe that she has a $5,000 reward put up for her by her husband. Mrs. Lowe then suspects Cody of his intentions but it's apparent from the beginning that Cody isn't interested in any reward money. He just wants to find out what happened to his wife.

Also Lane has a habit of saying "Ha-lo.." every time he's being addressed. A nice script touch put in there by Burt Kennedy who wrote the script. It gives Lane something to distinguish him by.

It now becomes a battle of wills between Cody and Lane with Mrs. Lowe and Lane's two dimwitted sidemen (played by Skip Homeier and Richard Rust) looking on. When Frank (Homeier) is sent up the creek to see if the Comanches have cut off their trail, he comes floating back down, dead with an arrow in his back. And later when Dobie (Rust) has a change of heart and wants to throw in with Cody, he gets shot in the back by Lane for his efforts.

That shot warns Cody that Lane is nearby and the inevitable showdown takes place in the Lone Pine rocks. We all know who wins that one, right? Cody finally brings Mrs. Lowe back to her husband only to learn that he is blind and really doesn't care what's happened to her. He just wants her back.

Beautiful widescreen print that was remastered in the late 1990s, this one would be a welcome addition to any western library. It needs a DVD release.

7 out of 10

A magazine article recently cited this movie as an underrated western. I certainly agree. Randolph Scott made his best westerns in the latter part of his career, and this is one of those. The movie examines the old west moral code of right v. wrong and raps up with a surprising twist ending that gives cynicism a kick in the rear end. Not a big splashy western, but a solid little one.