Comanche Station

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.

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.

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.

After Comanches took his wife away years ago, Randolph Scott's character spends his time tracking down stories of white women abducted by Comanches in hopes of rescuing his wife from captivity. How many white women under Comanche captivity he has come across is unknown, but the one he barters for in Comanche Station (Nancy Gates) also turns out not to be his wife. Even though he strikes out again in his own search, the fact that he is going to return Gates to her family forms a compelling storyline. Scott and Gates travel to a stage coach stop known as Comanche Station where Claude Akins and two young associates, Richard Rust and Skip Homier, await the stage coach's arrival to rob it. Needless to say the coach doesn't get there, but Akins knows Gates's husband has promised to pay $5,000 for her return, a detail of which Scott apparently was unaware. Thus the five ride off on the journey to return Gates, Akins intent on killing Scott, whom he knew before, in order to collect the reward for Gates, who is very beautiful. There is excellent acting along the journey, thanks to a stand out script by Burt Kennedy and direction by Scott's famous partner in westerns Budd Boetticher.

While the western genre is not my favourite one of all film genres (not sure which one is my favourite due to trying to appreciate them all the same), there is a lot of appreciation for it by me. There are a lot of very good to great films, with the best work of John Ford being notable examples.

'Comanche Station' is the final collaboration of the seven films director Budd Boetticher and lead actor Randolph Scott did together in the late 50s. By all means 'Comanche Station' is not their best pairing (perhaps towards the lesser end, which is not a knock as this merely means it's only because the best of them are so great), but one can totally see the appeal of their collaborations and both Boetticher and Scott are well served, the film being a good representation of both. It is a very good note to go out on and of their films it is perhaps the most overlooked. Which is a shame because it's a very good film with many excellent elements.

By all means not perfect. Nancy Gates is rather bland in a role that is rather underwritten. The film loses momentum on occasions.

However, Scott is as stoic and charismatic as ever with an appealingly craggy edge, being both likeable and tough. Every bit as good is a truly menacing Claude Akins, relishing his quite meaty villainous character. The two work very effectively together and their final confrontation is one of 'Comanche Station's' high points. Boetticher's direction is efficient and lean.

A big shout has to go to the production values. While there is grandeur and atmosphere to the settings it's the photography that's the star, especially in the unforgettable wordless opening sequence, one of my favourite openings of Boetticher's/Scott's films together. The music is rousing yet never intrusive and the more eventful parts blister.

There is thankfully no fat or ramble to the thought-probing, tight and sharply focused script and the storytelling is brutally bleak and movingly elegiac, mostly nicely paced too. 'Comanche Station' may not have the same depth of characterisation as other Boetticher/Scott outings or character complexity, but the two lead characters are interesting and the character interaction is a major plus point numerous times. Notably with Scott and Akins in their final confrontation, which positively blisters.

On the whole, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox