The most important thing: Does Buchanan (Randolph Scott) leave town with his money? It's funny, because he does get the money from the Sherriff's safe, but it's $250 short. But as far as I can tell, he leaves town with $1750 plus Juan's (Manuel Rojas) amazing horse. Thus, his plan to buy a stake in west Texas is intact.
While Buchanan may ride alone, he does need the help of some friends to avoid hanging. At first, he's just a stranger in town, and since they know he has money, when he's in the wrong place at the wrong time, it seems like the Sheriff decides it's easy to hang him and steal his money. The Sheriff's brother, however, makes sure that Buchanan receives a trial, and Buchanan is found not guilty. Nevertheless, the Sheriff has no intention of giving back the money and sends two men to ride Buchanan out of town. The plan is for them to shoot Buchanan.
However, Buchanan and Pecos (L.Q. Jones) discover that they're both Texas men with the same dreams. Rather than shoot Buchanan, Pecos ends up shooting his partner, and he then sides with Buchanan, who needs to return to town to get his money back.
Meanwhile, the Sheriff's brother, the Judge, has agreed to ransom Juan for $50,000. When the Sheriff hears about it, the greedy bastard decides he wants the money for himself. In the end, no one is very "good" in this movie, but the Judge is slightly better than the brother.
In one crowd shot towards the end, I noticed one older woman in the crowd. Other than that, I thought the movie was complete void of any females. It's just weird to watch a movie without any love interests, or even any women in the background. Well, there are women in the film. I scanned back through, and there are two women walking down the street (backs turned) when Buchanan rides into town, a woman in the bar having an argument with a man when Buchanan walks in (she gets slapped, and Buchanan smiles), the Judge's servant... but the number of women and the roles they play in this film are very limited.
Buchanan, of course, is older -- Scott is pushing 60 -- but even he doesn't have dreams of women. He just has dreams of working a small plot of land. He's okay having Pecos join him, but even when they talk about the future, they don't add women to the equation.
Compared to The Tall T and Decision at Sundown, I found myself not quite as engaged with the story. Was it the lack of women? Probably not, but there did seem to be something missing here that was present in the other two movies.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
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