Absolutely Fantastic

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

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

Budd Boetticher's "Comanche Station" isn't as entertaining as "Ride Lonesome." Randolph Scott's stalwart hero rescues the wife of a white man, Nancy Lowe (Nancy Gates of "Hitler's Children"), abducted by Indians. Later, three mangy owl-hoots join him at the stagecoach swing station, Comanche Station, that gives the place its name. Later, Ben Lane (Claude Atkins of "Rio Bravo") and two younger gunslingers, Frank (Skip Homeier of "Day of the Badman") and Dobie (Richard Rust of "The Great Gundown"), ride along with Jefferson Cody (Randolph Scott) as he escorts the woman back to her husband. Burt Kennedy penned the "Ride Lonesome" screenplay and he seems to have recycled the basic elements for "Comanche Station." Like "Ride Lonesome," the Scott hero in "Comanche Station is taking somebody to a far-off destination, just as he was taking a captive outlaw to a noose in the former film. Predictably, the Native Americans are on the warpath, and they are determined to kill the protagonist Cody as is his old adversary, Ben Lane, who lets nothing stand in his way. Along the way, the Native Americans kill Frank with an arrow, while Ben Lane dreams up an idea that he can take Cody. The rugged scenery is a plus for this dusty horse opera. Claude Akins makes a great villain, while Scott is his usual, straightforward knight in denim armor. The characters aren't as interesting, and the narrative plods and is often predictable.

"Comanche Station" rides into "The Searchers" territory, but also feels a little like the funky television westerns of the 1960's such as Steve McQueen's "Wanted Dead or Alive" or Nick Adams "The Rebel".When Jefferson Cody (Randolph Scott) rescues Nancy Lowe (Nancy Gates) from the Comanche their troubles are just starting when they meet up with a trio of outlaws led by Ben Lane (Claude Atkins). The journey back to civilisation is a tense one, as Cody now has to protect Nancy from their saddle companions as well as the Indians. There is the inevitable showdown, but the ending does have a surprise. Director Bud Boetticher's westerns with Randolph Scott have been reappraised over the last couple of decades, especially this one, the last they made together.The film looks terrific. Boetticher had an eye for country. He gets as much out of the rocky setting as Ford got out of Monument Valley.It's also a fascinating collision of acting styles. Randolph Scott by this stage of his career looked positively granite-hued, and represented the rugged individuals who had forged a place for themselves in the American West – a man of few words, but sure of himself. Scott played this sort of role throughout most of his career, but I always felt that he walked the walk, and talked the talk with a bit more authority than John Wayne. During WW1 Scott had enlisted in the U.S. Army and dodged sniper bullets and shellfire in France as an artillery observer, all detailed in Robert Nott's book "The Films of Randolph Scott".The opposite of Scott's stoicism comes from the input of Skip Homier and Richard Rust as Frank and Dobie, Ben Lane's two sidekicks. Both brought a touch of method to the saddle and their troubled teens could just as easily have been stalking the sidewalks of late 1950s New York – James Dean would have felt right at home riding with this party. Even the Indians with their identical hairdos look more like a gang than a tribe.Ford and others had probably given us enough of the way The West really was. Not so worried about authenticity, Boetticher gave this western a contemporary edge that still works today.

This is the final film that was directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott. Like their previous collaborations, they both work together to produce Westerns that manage to rise above the mediocre norm. In this film, a fairly typical plot idea is executed very well--with a grace and style that make the film well worth seeing.Randolph Scott, as usual, plays a nice but tough guy. He's brave enough to come into a Comanche stronghold in order to negotiate for the release of a White woman kidnapped by the tribe. However, trouble is in store when three drifters come upon Scott and the woman. It seems that the leader of this group (Claude Akins) is a real rogue and plans with his men to kill Scott and the woman. It seems that the woman's husband has offered a reward for her--and it can be collected dead or alive! So what did I like about the film? First, as usual, Randolph Scott is amazing. He plays the perfect cowboy hero--tough, slow to speak and anger but also a decent man through and through. Plus, he's much more believable than the bigger than life characters John Wayne usually played. I loved Wayne's films, but he was always too tough and too in command. Scott is much more like a very capable 'everyman' character. Second, as usual, Boetticher deliberately underplays the action--producing a muted but also quite believable film. Third, the film had a really nice ending--quite the twist.You can't do a lot better than a Scott/Boetticher western. While this isn't their best, it certainly is quite good.