Andre DeToth directed Riding Shotgun, a Western starring Randolph Scott, Wayne Morris and Joan Weldon.
Thomas W. Blackburn’s script was based on the 1942 short story “Riding Solo,” by Kenneth Taylor Perkins.
Borrowing a stylistic device from film noir, Scott narrates his inner thoughts at crucial moments in this action-driven revenge Western.
Scott plays Larry Delong, a stagecoach guard who’s ambushed by a gang of outlaws associated with Dan Marady, the man who had murdered his sister and nephew.
Delong searching for Marady, intending to kill him. When he returns to Deep Water, Delong discovers that he is held responsible for thea holdup of the stage on which he had been the guard. The robbery resulted in the deaths of the stage driver and of the man who sat in for Delong.
only his girl Orissa Flynn and Doc Winkler (James Bell) believe his warnings that Marady’s men are coming to rob the town.
Delong takes refuge in a cantina, and a lynch mob forms. Deputy Tub Murphy tries to hold them off until the sheriff’s posse returns.
Marady’s men, including accomplice Pinto (Charles Bronson), rob the bank when the townspeople are distracted. Delong escapes through an attic and sabotages the getaway horses of Malady’s gang.
In the climax, a shootout results in the death of Marady, mistakenly believing that Delong is out of bullets.
There’s too much voice-over for a rather simple revenge Western, aggravated by the fact that Delong doesn’t really reveal innermost feelings.
Cast
Randolph Scott as Larry Delong
Wayne Morris as Deputy Sheriff Tub Murphy
Joan Weldon as Orissa Flynn
Joe Sawyer as Tom Biggert
James Millican as Dan Marady
Charles Bronson as Pinto
James Bell as Doc Winkler
Fritz Feld as Fritz
Credits
Music by: David Buttolph
Cinematography by Bert Glennon
Edited by Rudi Fehr
Distributed by Warner
Release date: April 1, 1954
Running time: 73 minutes
Note:
I am grateful to TCM for showing this Western on October 9, 2019.
