Comanche Station (1960)

This one does it. While I liked The Tall T (1957) and Decision at Sundown (1957), I felt like both were just missing "something." Comanche Station feels like they found the missing ingredient.

Right from the start, I noticed the landscape. Just a beautiful place to shoot a film. In addition, it was the way that Budd Boetticher does the shooting. Plenty of really nice tracking shots, including for when we're just following the characters moving on horseback. We get to see them having real conversations. It's very nicely done.

Randolph Scott seems to have a better overall ensemble cast, too. He doesn't have to do all of the heavy lifting. Although he's still the star, I also felt like he blended more into the story.

Frank (Skip Homeier) and Dobbie (Richard Rust) have some nice banter between them, and Claude Akins (Ben) is a nice foil to Cody (Scott).

And there's also a woman, Nancy (Nancy Gates).

In a sense, the Indians play the "bad guy" role. They are the ones who kidnapped Nancy. Cody accidently rescues her. He wasn't looking for her (we learn later he's been searching for his own wife), but when he comes across her, he secures her release.

Ben wants her, too, but just for the $5,000 reward money. Part of the story that needs revealing is: Why doesn't Nancy's husband come after her himself? There must be a reason, because a man who doesn't come after his own wife must not be very much of a man, at least that's the idea being forwarded.

Meanwhile, Ben has an idea about what will need to happen in order for them to receive the ransom money free and clear. It involves Cody, but it also involves Nancy. Frank and Dobbie aren't very excited about executing Ben's plan. In conversation amongst themselves, Frank and Dobbie discuss how it would be "okay" if Nancy was ugly, but they just can't stomach having to do what Ben wants them to do because she's pretty.

I just took a glance at the movie poster, which includes the $5,000 reward offer. But why would it be for the wife "dead or alive"? Why would the husband willingly pay $5,000 for a dead wife? On the other hand, perhaps this explains Ben's "plan."

But wouldn't it at least make sense to offer a higher reward for her to be brought back alive?

The ending does reveal why the husband couldn't go after his wife himself, and Cody rides off into the sunset with a smile. At least someone got their wife back.

Rating: 5/5 stars

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