Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Watch us on Youtube Join the Archive Mailing List Read our Blog

The Tall T (1957);
Buchanan Rides Alone (1958)

The Tall T (1957)
July 14, 2012 - 7:30 pm
In-person: 
actor L. Q. Jones.

The Tall T (1957)

Directed by Budd Boetticher

The Tall T opens as a bucolic comedy before veering sharply into dark, violent territory. The sudden shift introduces a nerve-wracking unpredictability to the fate of Randolph Scott’s struggling rancher who’s taken hostage with the daughter of a wealthy mine owner by a trio of killers. Henry Silva delivers a riveting turn as a particularly sociopathic gunslinger in one of Boetticher’s most powerful explorations of the evil that men do.

Colombia Pictures Corp. Producer: Harry Joe Brown. Screenwriter: Burt Kennedy. Based on the novel by Elmore Leonard. Cinematographer: Charles Lawton, Jr. Editor: Al Clark. Cast: Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, Maureen O’Sullivan, Arthur Hunnicutt, Skip Homeier.

35mm, color, 78 min.

Buchanan Rides Alone (1958)

Directed by Budd Boetticher

There’s a precursory hint of Yojimbo here as Randolph Scott’s mercenary rides into the border town of Agry and quickly finds himself caught up in a war between members of the corrupt family that runs the place. Scott plays a more easy going gunslinger than in other Ranown Westerns but the narrative structure within which he exerts his will remains as precise.

Colombia Pictures Corp. Producer: Harry Joe Brown. Screenwriter: Charles Lang. Based on a novel by Jonas Ward. Cinematographer: Lucien Ballard. Editor: Al Clark. Cast: Randolph Scott, Craig Stevens, Barry Kelley, Tol Avery, Peter Whitney.

35mm, color, 78 min.