"Comanche Station" rides into "The Searchers" territory, but also feels a little like the funky television westerns of the 1960's such as Steve McQueen's "Wanted Dead or Alive" or Nick Adams "The Rebel".
When Jefferson Cody (Randolph Scott) rescues Nancy Lowe (Nancy Gates) from the Comanche their troubles are just starting when they meet up with a trio of outlaws led by Ben Lane (Claude Atkins). The journey back to civilisation is a tense one, as Cody now has to protect Nancy from their saddle companions as well as the Indians. There is the inevitable showdown, but the ending does have a surprise.
Director Bud Boetticher's westerns with Randolph Scott have been reappraised over the last couple of decades, especially this one, the last they made together.
The film looks terrific. Boetticher had an eye for country. He gets as much out of the rocky setting as Ford got out of Monument Valley.
It's also a fascinating collision of acting styles. Randolph Scott by this stage of his career looked positively granite-hued, and represented the rugged individuals who had forged a place for themselves in the American West – a man of few words, but sure of himself. Scott played this sort of role throughout most of his career, but I always felt that he walked the walk, and talked the talk with a bit more authority than John Wayne. During WW1 Scott had enlisted in the U.S. Army and dodged sniper bullets and shellfire in France as an artillery observer, all detailed in Robert Nott's book "The Films of Randolph Scott".
The opposite of Scott's stoicism comes from the input of Skip Homier and Richard Rust as Frank and Dobie, Ben Lane's two sidekicks. Both brought a touch of method to the saddle and their troubled teens could just as easily have been stalking the sidewalks of late 1950s New York – James Dean would have felt right at home riding with this party. Even the Indians with their identical hairdos look more like a gang than a tribe.
Ford and others had probably given us enough of the way The West really was. Not so worried about authenticity, Boetticher gave this western a contemporary edge that still works today.
When Jefferson Cody (Randolph Scott) rescues Nancy Lowe (Nancy Gates) from the Comanche their troubles are just starting when they meet up with a trio of outlaws led by Ben Lane (Claude Atkins). The journey back to civilisation is a tense one, as Cody now has to protect Nancy from their saddle companions as well as the Indians. There is the inevitable showdown, but the ending does have a surprise.
Director Bud Boetticher's westerns with Randolph Scott have been reappraised over the last couple of decades, especially this one, the last they made together.
The film looks terrific. Boetticher had an eye for country. He gets as much out of the rocky setting as Ford got out of Monument Valley.
It's also a fascinating collision of acting styles. Randolph Scott by this stage of his career looked positively granite-hued, and represented the rugged individuals who had forged a place for themselves in the American West – a man of few words, but sure of himself. Scott played this sort of role throughout most of his career, but I always felt that he walked the walk, and talked the talk with a bit more authority than John Wayne. During WW1 Scott had enlisted in the U.S. Army and dodged sniper bullets and shellfire in France as an artillery observer, all detailed in Robert Nott's book "The Films of Randolph Scott".
The opposite of Scott's stoicism comes from the input of Skip Homier and Richard Rust as Frank and Dobie, Ben Lane's two sidekicks. Both brought a touch of method to the saddle and their troubled teens could just as easily have been stalking the sidewalks of late 1950s New York – James Dean would have felt right at home riding with this party. Even the Indians with their identical hairdos look more like a gang than a tribe.
Ford and others had probably given us enough of the way The West really was. Not so worried about authenticity, Boetticher gave this western a contemporary edge that still works today.