GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

utgard14 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.

Terrell-4 Buchanan Rides Alone is surprising and surprisingly good. Randolph Scott is not the lone man on horseback who rides into town with a righteous grudge. He's just Tom Buchanan, riding up from Mexico where he earned a stake big enough to buy the spread in West Texas he's always wanted. When he crosses the border and enters Agry Town, the county seat of Agry County, California, things are going to turn bad fast. Agry Town sits right on the border. The county judge is Simon Agry. The county sheriff is Lew Agry. Yep, the Agry's run things hereabouts. Tom tries to deal with everyone with a friendly smile. He's not looking for trouble, just a place to get a drink, sleep and to eat a good steak...at the town's Agry Hotel. Lew Agry isn't so easy going. When he realizes Tom has gold hidden in Tom's gun belt, the gold gets confiscated and Tom gets beaten. When Tom tries to break up a gun battle between a young man from Mexico and a drunken Agry who is the judge's son (who just rode back to town with female fingernail scratches on his face), the Agry pulls first and gets dead fast. Tom and Juan de la Vega (Manuel Rojas), son of a powerful Mexican landowner, wind up in jail awaiting hanging. There are gunfights, breakouts, bushwhacking, bribes, a $50,000 ransom and lots of dirty dealing, especially among the Agry brothers. They have as much family feeling as one shark fetus sharing space in mom with another. Judge Simon Agry (Tol Avery) runs the town with a soft, greasy hand. He's pudgy, ambitious, hypocritical, cautious and double dealing. Sheriff Lew Agry (Barry Kelley) is a tough man with a beefy face, a solid gut and a rancid disposition. "Take him over to the jailhouse and wait for him to come to. When I hang a man, I like him to know what's going on." Always around the judge, dressed in black and slick as a patch of fresh horse manure, is Abe Carbo (Craig Stevens). Carbo seems allied with the judge, but why should he let himself play second fiddle to the Agrys? Carbo is amoral, a man who'll suggest betrayal with a smile and make it seem legal...sort of like a corporate lawyer. By the end of the movie, the Agry brothers and their town get what they deserve. And Tom Buchanan heads to west Texas, his gold stake back in his gun belt and a nice, satisfied smile on his face. The movie is surprising good because it moves quickly within its 78 minutes. The betrayal, action and brotherly distaste more than fill any void left by romance (there isn't any), clichés (very few) and anything trying to be what it isn't. Buchanan Rides Alone is a solid piece of Western entertainment with an ironic twist led by Randolph Scott. It's available through the DVD Budd Boetticher Box Set, which also includes the Scott movies The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Ride Lonesome and Comanche Station.

Spikeopath Making his way home to Texas, Tom Buchanan stops off at the little town of Agry for rest and refreshments. Quickly finding that the town is run by the family Agry itself, Buchanan falls foul of one of them straight away. His problems are further compounded when he steps in to stop a young Mexican from taking a beating. Something that finds him on the end of a rope with things looking rather grim.How you fare with Buchanan Rides Alone may depend on how many (if any) Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott collaborations you have seen prior. For this adaptation of Jonas Ward's novel "The Name's Buchanan" is lighter in tone than their other well regarded pieces. Not to decry this as a standalone picture of course, but although it's part of the "Ranown" cycle, it's a long way from the more "Adult Western" richness of The Tall T, Ride Lonesome and Comanche Station for example. Conversely the other way is also true, if this is the first one you sample from the duo, and you enjoy it, well you may not take to the deeper themed, harsher other films in their cannon.Buchanan Rides Alone gets in a does a job without any fuss or boring filler play. Randolph Scott as Buchanan clearly is enjoying adding a bit of comic zip to proceedings, with Boetticher evidently happy to keep things smooth for the one hour and twenty minutes running time. Fine support comes from Barry Kelley, Tol Avery and the irrepressible L.Q. Jones, whilst Lucien Ballard was the obvious and right choice to photograph the Old Tuscon location. Not one to take too seriously, but enough drama to keep one interested, and certainly one that gives notice to what a fine and undervalued performer Randy Scott was. 6.5/10

Michael O'Keefe Randolph Scott and director Budd Boetticher team up again with this average cowboy flick about loyalty and betrayal. Loner Tom Buchanan, on his way home to west Texas, stops along the California/Mexican border and is jailed falsely accused of being the parter of a young Mexican trying to avenge the rape of his sister. Buchanan is released, but led out of town minus his money belt containing $5,000. He escapes being shot in the back and returns to town to collect his stolen money. In doing so, he must start some mistrust and anger between three corrupt brothers who run the town. Buchanan ends up in the manipulation of a double-cross to keep the Mexican youth from hanging. An obvious low-budget western, but still interesting. Also in the cast of players: Craig Stevens, Manuel Rojas, Barry Kelley, Peter Whitney, L.Q. Jones, Tol Avery and Jennifer Holden.Of note: Miss Holden only appeared in three movies; the first being her better role in the Elvis Presley classic JAILHOUSE ROCK(1957).