MartinHafer Randolph Scott is heading to West Texas when he happens to pass through a horrible town. The place is mostly run by a single family and the sheriff is as corrupt as they come. Well, despite this, Scott tries to accept it all in good humor and put up with it--after all, he'll only be there one night. It's hard, though, as the son of the town's boss is a drunk who has vowed to kill Scott for no particular reason. Surprisingly, someone else ends up killing this angry drunk before Scott even has to worry about this. However, no matter how much he tries, the sheriff and his crooked friends are determined to rob Scott blind and kill him. So when the murder of the boss' son does occur, even though it's obvious that Scott wasn't involved, the sheriff is bent on hanging him. And, when Scott is acquitted, the sheriff robs him and "escorts" him out of town--to be killed. Scott miraculously survives and is determined to get back to this hellish town and make them pay (apparently he took the whole "rob him and kill him" thing personally).While this is a very simple idea for a film, once again the combination of Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott results in a film that is so much more than what you'd expect with the material they were given. It isn't that it's a bad script, it's very good, but due to the excellent direction and the great tough but decent character Scott once again plays, it transcends the genre. In a genre that usually included pointless Indian fights, two idiots shooting it out on main street and the other typical clichés, this one manages to be different...and a lot better.By the way, one reviewer referred to this as a film filled with humor. I sure didn't see anything funny in this film and wonder if perhaps they are thinking about some other movie.

alan-pratt High quality Boetticher western that succeeds on almost every front.Scott is first class, less taciturn than usual and displaying a gift for wry humour not always evident in his performances. The supporting cast is well above average and Barry Kelley, Tol Avery and Peter Whitney, in particular, are all excellent, playing their parts to near perfection.The scenery, both in and out of the town is wonderfully evocative - cacti to die for! - the guitar music is hauntingly beautiful and the colours are bright and pleasing.If I have a criticism at all, it is that the plot is a little too convoluted - too many twists and counter twists - but, in the face of so much that is good, this is but a minor quibble.Incidentally, the only women in the production have such tiny roles, they are not even named in the cast list. So no-one "gets the girl" this time round!

OldAle1 A dusty border town...Buchanan rides across, from Mexico into Agry Town, California, and into a mess of trouble. The music (can it be coincidence?) echoes the sweeping romantic melody at the heart of "The Tall T", but Buchanan, like the previous "Decision at Sundown" is anything but romantic or wistful. Right away we know that we're in a corrupt and dangerous place -- the sheriff who sits right by the border seems to be waiting for any excuse to deal harshly with people crossing - and to take anything he deems "contraband" himself. But Buchanan (Randolph Scott) apparently has nothing, and so is allowed to go.He stops at a hotel to get a room - $10 (a lot of money in the post-Civil War west) from the fat and kind of stupid-looking yokel behind the desk, whose name happens to be Agry - same as the fat sheriff and the as-yet-unmet fat Judge who is running for senator, both his brothers. The Agrys rule the town and extract a high price from strangers - a steak and a whisky are also $10 apiece for apparently well-off Buchanan at the Agry's saloon across the street. Our hero is challenged, apparently for no reason, right away by a drunken young lout, but after one-punching him the older, easygoing Buchanan ignores his potential danger. Soon it will come for him, as the young man gets killed in a gunfight and Buchanan ends up on the (apparently) wrong side with his killer, a young Mexican with a personal grudge.This 4th entry in the cycle, and 2nd to be written by Charles Lang (from a novel by pulp writer Jonas Ward who wrote dozens of Buchanan novels), seems for a while to be every bit as cynical as the previous Lang-written film. Like Decision this is set mostly in town, and like that film Scott's character is partnered up for most of the picture, this time with the young Mexican who turns out to be Juan de la Vega, son of a famous Mexican hero who Buchanan greatly admires. A good chunk of time is spent in jail, about to be hanged (the sheriff is angling for a hanging as it's helped his popularity) or being ridden off out of town to be killed. Of course our hero manages to get out of these debacles and, rather unwittingly it turns out, manages to pit the greedy and ambitious sheriff Lew Agry (Barry Kelley) against his equally ambitious and money-hungry brother, Judge Simon (Tol Avery). In the end, Buchanan rides out of town, no richer or poorer but having helped to deliver the town from the hands of these two bastards, leaving it in the care of the Judge's consigliere Carbo (Craig Stevens). Ultimately what keeps the film from descending into the same darkness that Decision ended up in is the presence of several positive characters - Juan and his father's lieutenant Gomez, Carbo (who while somewhat the player himself is nevertheless more honorable than any of the brothers) and the virtuous Buchanan himself.On the other hand, the townspeople who clamored for lynching both Buchanan (a bystander) and the admitted murderer de la Vega early on seem to have faded into the background; a few strong men have settled matters, for now, but Buchanan perhaps knows that Carbo may not be able to keep things on the up and up for ever. The Mexicans go back to Mexico, and Buchanan goes off to the West Texas he came from to buy a bit of land -- "You can have it" he says of the town to Carbo as he leaves, laughing.Overall this is funnier and a little less intense than the others in the series, though no lower in quality. Scott has a smile on his face almost the whole time; there are no women to speak of in the film; and there are several admirable characters who live through to the end. I'm not sure this gave me much to chew on, though again there's that distrust of authority, the corruption of the law that features in the previous Lang-written feature also. All in all, just a great rousing bit of fun.

Romanus Nies This is a western so far from reality as Moscow is from Phoenix, Arizona, although it is no comedy. Or is it? And that is why I write a comment of protest. Time and again the hero, which is certainly also an anti-hero, is sweeping through the landscape, never really knowing what to do, which is really funny to a certain degree. But it is as well totally unrealistic. Who wrote that screen-play and in what mental condition? All the figures in the story behave totally mad. I wonder whether the horses should have been more intelligent!I give an example. Randy, Pecos and the Mexican overwhelm the three little helpers of the sheriff who came to either kill or arrest them for a later hanging in a hut outside town. And what are these three guys doing? They take three lassos and bind them. Then Randy wants to go back to town to get his money which the sheriff had stolen,and the the other two ride to the Mexicans home. So far so good. Now starts the nonsense: no funny, just ridiculous: 1. the three villains get free from the three tons of binding material within approximately 10 seconds. Is this the way cowboys bind cows? They should know how to bind knots!2. next likability: You won't believe it, Randy and his two buddies let the horses of the villains parked right outside the hut! Why? Of course to make the persecution possible in case the villains get free! How foolish those poor fellows are! But it comes even better: 3.because being hunted without a shotgun aiming at one's a.. is no fun, nobody of our 3 (THREE!) cow-men thought of taking the guns of the villains along with them! 4. The Mexican and Pecos had just now a narrow escape! The Mexican waited for his hanging. He was set free but knows that the sheriff and the whole town is after him. So what will he do? He will ride home! Yes, but very, very slowly! I have never seen a western movie where two men rode so slowly across the wild wild west. It is clear what happened. The three villains got rid of the silky spiderweb, took thankfully their horses and their guns, caught within a minute the clever Mexican who had wasted so much time and shot clever Pecos who had wasted so much life. And of course Buchanan was caught too. I could give You more examples. The film is a total continuation of question marks and doubtful looks. I assume, this is not the way to make people in the American West believe that they stem from intelligent or capable forefathers (which they certainly do). Western movies are seldom very realistic, true, but too much exaggeration of (possible?) actions that make sense is too much I can bear. I found this movie in parts ridiculous. I wonder how anybody could decide to make it! I need hardly a day to write a better screenplay.