Riding Shotgun (1954)

It is a performances centric movie

Good concept, poorly executed.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This exciting picture tells the story of a upright stagecoach guard called Larry Delong (Randolph Scott) . Larry tries to warn a town of an imminent raid by a band of outlaws and the townsfolk mistake him for one of the band . But Delong has sworn revenge and detain to undercover the real outlaws . Delong is besieged by Sheriff Tub Murphy (Wayne Morris) , deputies and other villagers and no one in town is willing to help him . In the Old west there are always the men who live breathe violence and the women who hold their breath . This undemanding western is plenty of suspense as the dreaded final showdown approaches and the protagonist realizes he must stand alone against impossible odds as his fellow town people for help , nobody is willing to help him but they pursue him , while he attempts to clear his name as wrongfully accused of robber and murder . This passable tale is almost rudimentary though full of clichés , a good guy come to narration is almost adjusted in real time from the starring arrives in the little town until the ending confrontation and is given a limited time to resolve the accusation as stealer and murderer . The highlights of the film are the facing off between Scott and his enemies and the climatic showdown on the final . Phenomenal and great role for Randolph Scott as tough guy , he's the whole show , he plays a stagecoach guard seeking to clear his reputation . He gives a perfect acting as stoic , craggy, and uncompromising figure . Good support cast , such as Wayne Morris , Joan Weldon , Joe Sawyer , Frank Ferguson , James Bell , uncredited Dub Taylor and Charles Bronson as Charles Buchinsky , many of them usual in Western . Although made in short budget by the producer Ted Sherdeman , it is a enough efficient film and very entertaining . The picture contains an excellent cinematography by Bert Glennon -John Ford's usual photographer- and appropriate musical score by David Buttolph . This typical Western was professionally directed by Andre De Toth . At his beginnings he entered the Hungarian film industry, obtaining work as a writer, editor , second unit director and actor before finally becoming a director. He directed a few films just before the outbreak of WW II, when he fled to England . Alexander Korda gave him a job there, and when De Toth emigrated to the US in 1942 , Korda got him a job as a second unit director on Jungle Book (1942) . Andre De Toth was a classical director , Western usual (Indian fighter, Man in the saddle, Ramrod , Last of Comanches , The stranger wore a gun), but also made Peplum (Gold for the Caesar) and adventure (The Mongols , Morgan the pirate , Tanganyika) . Probably his best known film is House of wax (1953), a Vincent Price horror film shot in 3D .

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

This is quite a suspenseful western story, filled with tension. Bad man Dan Marady ( James Millican ) and his gang of robbers, plan to rob a casino. First they holdup a stagecoach which draws the local sheriff and his posse into a wild goose chase. The trick is to leave the town defenseless so the gang can come back and rob the casino. At the start of the picture, Randolph Scott is riding shotgun on the stage but is lured away before the holdup by the opportunity to settle a score with Millican. But Scott is over powered by Pinto ( Charles Bronson ) one of Millican's men. Scott is tied up and left to die. By the time Scott is able to free himself and get to the town, he discovers the stage was robbed, the driver and his rider killed and a passenger wounded. Unfairly and ignorantly, the townsfolk assume Scott is one of the gang and everyone wants him lynched. Three people try to protect him, a Cantina owner lets him take refuge in his place of business. Deputy sheriff ( Wayne Morris ), an old friend of Scotts tries to calm done the mob, which wants to siege the Cantina. The daughter of the casino owner ( Joan Weldon ) has a romantic interest in him, and believes he's innocent and tries her best to help him. After being holdup in the Cantina for hours, the townsfolk cannot wait any longer and now, the suspense really builds to an exciting climax. I do not want to spoil the ending for the reader. I will say, this Andre De Toth directed, Warner colour, 75 minute story is an extremely fine western film. The pacing of the story is flawless. Randolph Scott is at his very best, and Charles Bronson excels in his villain role. All the characters that make up the townsfolk are excellent in each of their performances. This is another underrated western that never fails to entertain

Riding Shotgun has Randolph Scott doing just that, riding shotgun for various stagecoach lines. He's been doing this for several years, but always on the lookout for a particularly mean and vicious outlaw played by James Millican. He's hot on the trail now, but Millican and his men also hate him with equal ferocity. They lure him off the line and hold up the stage, shooting it up pretty badly with driver and guard who replaced Scott both killed. The idea is to get the local sheriff to form a posse and start chasing the bandits while they come in and loot the town, particularly a gambling house known to have large sums on hand. When Scott gets there he arrives with a lot of hatred written on the faces of the town who figure if he didn't have something outright to do with the holdup, he's a coward then. He can't convince no one no how that Millican is coming with a really big gang.This film is directed by Andre DeToth who keeps the tension simmering in this film. Some in the town like Joe Sawyer the stageline owner want to lynch him on the spot, some like Deputy Wayne Morris who arrives back in the middle of action try real hard to maintain some kind of order and let Scott have his say.Charles Bronson has one of his early roles in this film as a particularly vicious member of Millican's gang. But Millican and Scott between the two of them are what the film revolves around. Millican is every bit as shrewd and tough as Scott who narrates the film says he is. This is not and has not been an easy man to take down.The final shootout is a classic, usually in Randolph Scott westerns they are. Riding Shotgum was one of his best B films from the Fifties. Come to think of it, Randy does never use a shotgun in this film.