Spikeopath Riding Shotgun is directed by Andre De Toth and adapted to screenplay by Thomas W. Blackburn fro the story "Riding Solo" written by Kenneth Perkins. It stars Randolph Scott, Wayne Morris, Joan Weldon, Joe Sawyer, James Millican, Charles Bronson and James Bell. Music is by David Buttolph and Warnercolor cinematography is by Bert Glennon.Before he would make the Western movies with Budd Boetticher that would define him as a Western movie legend, Randolph Scott worked tirelessly in the genre. He would make 6 films with Ray Enright and 6 with Andre De Toth, all of these are good value for the Western fan. They vary in thematic quality, but production value was always decent and there was always Randy at war with some gruff or poncey bloke, nice location photography and of course some gorgeous ladies as well. That's enough for genre fans who happily take these movies on their required terms.Anyone else got anything to say?Riding Shotgun has Scott as Larry Delong, a man who spends his time "riding shotgun" as a stagecoach guard. He has an ulterior motive, though, he's constantly on the look out for a known outlaw, Dan Marady (Millican), and he wants him dead. Sure enough Malady is about the place and Larry falls into a trap and finds things spiralling so out of control, that by the time he manages to get back into town, practically everyone hates him and thinks he's part of Marady's murderous gang.Hate makes a man careless.Cue a scenario where Delong, who has been wonderfully providing us with a film noir like narration throughout (love the wry David and Goliath observation), literally has to make a one man stand against the dimwit townsfolk and also Marady and his henchmen who are fronted by twitchy gun Pinto! (Bronson). It clocks in at under 75 minutes, it's brisk, it has Scott kicking ass big time and it looks lovely (unsurprising with Glennon photographing).Is it flawless? God no! There's some distinctly below average acting around Scott (Morris/Millican), while Fritz Feld as the Cantina owner (erm, called Fritz) where Delong holes up, is annoying in the extreme. While as radiant and perky as Joan Weldon is, she's no actress capable of grabbing a scene and shooting electricity through it. But this type of Scott Oater is comfort food to genre fans who once in a while like to down pistols and relax away from the more serious genre fare. 7/10

bkoganbing Riding Shotgun has Randolph Scott doing just that, riding shotgun for various stagecoach lines. He's been doing this for several years, but always on the lookout for a particularly mean and vicious outlaw played by James Millican. He's hot on the trail now, but Millican and his men also hate him with equal ferocity. They lure him off the line and hold up the stage, shooting it up pretty badly with driver and guard who replaced Scott both killed. The idea is to get the local sheriff to form a posse and start chasing the bandits while they come in and loot the town, particularly a gambling house known to have large sums on hand. When Scott gets there he arrives with a lot of hatred written on the faces of the town who figure if he didn't have something outright to do with the holdup, he's a coward then. He can't convince no one no how that Millican is coming with a really big gang.This film is directed by Andre DeToth who keeps the tension simmering in this film. Some in the town like Joe Sawyer the stageline owner want to lynch him on the spot, some like Deputy Wayne Morris who arrives back in the middle of action try real hard to maintain some kind of order and let Scott have his say.Charles Bronson has one of his early roles in this film as a particularly vicious member of Millican's gang. But Millican and Scott between the two of them are what the film revolves around. Millican is every bit as shrewd and tough as Scott who narrates the film says he is. This is not and has not been an easy man to take down.The final shootout is a classic, usually in Randolph Scott westerns they are. Riding Shotgum was one of his best B films from the Fifties. Come to think of it, Randy does never use a shotgun in this film.

Gary R. Peterson I just watched Riding Shotgun, which rounds out a Warner Bros Triple Feature DVD with two other Randolph Scott westerns of the 1950s. Despite the title, Randolph Scott rides shotgun for only the few opening minutes of the film, before falling for a ruse to lure him away from the stagecoach. The stagecoach, which is robbed and shot up, is itself another ruse to lure the sheriff and the bulk of the gun-handy menfolk away from town in a posse following a phony trail. Randolph Scott escapes the revenge-fueled fate a young (and clearly on a trajectory to stardom) Charles Bronson set for him and comes into town to warn the sheriff about the gang's plan.But upon arriving Scott finds the town has turned on him, suspecting him of being in cahoots with the stage robbers. Here is where the film's real story begins, and while certainly taking a few pages from the High Noon playbook, Riding Shotgun has its own unique twist on that tale. Here Scott is not alone in standing up to the town. Wayne Morris, as Deputy Tub, is the real voice of reason who keeps the rabble from getting too roused and turning to vigilante justice against an innocent man.Wayne Morris is always a welcome name to see in any movie's opening credits, even if he was not used to his fullest potential here. Morris' Deputy Tub reminded me a lot of Alan Hale, Jr. and I wondered if the Skipper wouldn't have been better cast in the role (he had appeared with Scott in the previous year's Man Behind The Gun).While it would be easy to dismiss Tub as being ineffective and derelict in his duty, there is a rationale and a deliberateness behind his actions. Tub actually de-escalates the tension by stepping away from the situation and indulging in lunch and later some pie and coffee. His easy dismissal of the trigger-happy Deputy Ross as getting what was coming to him shows Tub's a seasoned westerner and far from being a coward. It took experience and intelligence to approach the cornered Scott with diplomacy and a deal instead of rushing into the cantina with his guns blazing, like the greenhorn hot dog deputy Ross did earlier. He shows this unruffled calm again later when he punctures the blustering bravado of the wannabe-shotgun rider by simply handing him his gun and with a stare silently challenging him to put up or shut up.Rabble rousing and the psychology of crowds is a theme running through the film. I was reminded me of the early Lee/Ditko Spider-Man stories where one bystander's cynical remark is repeated and ratcheted up by the next person's until everyone is adding their uninformed suggestions as to what should be done and done right now. One especially telling scene is between the two young ladies expressing their outrage over the situation. At one point one girl asks the other, "isn't it exciting?" to which the other breaks into laughter and giggles, revealing their indignation is just a posture and that they're enjoying the spectacle; never mind it might result in a man being gunned down. Despite the fine clothes some of the townsfolk wear, their claim to civilization is just a thin veneer and little if anything separates them from the murderous gang, one of whose members passes among them unnoticed (except, tellingly, by a harlot).Something I found funny was how the gambling hall is filled with men playing cards, completely unaware or uninterested in the unfolding drama outside that has captivated the balance of the town. Something the producers intended to be funny was the outlaw gang's falling off their horses, but it approached slapstick and seemed out of place in the tension-filled climax. Fritz Feld provided some good comic relief as the put-upon father of a brood of kids with a nagging wife. And didn't you just know that his mirror wasn't going to survive to see the end credits? Some familiar faces in uncredited parts include Frank Ferguson (maybe best known as the apoplectic McDougall in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein) and Howard Morris in his first film, playing a strange and menacing fellow fingering a rope that is far from the beloved Ernest T. Bass character he'd later play on The Andy Griffith Show (and ironically for an actor who did so many cartoon voices, he doesn't utter a word in this movie despite considerable screen time).While Riding Shotgun isn't the expected action-filled western with scenes of horseback riding and rolling stagecoaches as the title implies, it does have a compelling tension-filled story, good acting and it more than entertains in its tight 74 minutes.

berumte Larry DeLong(Scott) is Riding Shotgun on stagecoaches, keeping them safe. After a holdup, the town first thinks that he's a coward and then decide that he must be a part of the gang -- and they're gonna get him! Meanwhile, the real baddies are heading to town to rob the bank and only Scott can prevent that. Not quite up to High Noon standards, but a good yarn. Randolph Scott comes through, once again!