LGM Film Club, Part 214: Comanche Station

Budd Boetticher was not really a great director in the sense of being a visionary. But he was a very solid studio director who could churn out solid film after solid film. Comanche Station, from 1960, is a great example of this. The last of his many films with Randolph Scott, it follows a loner who rescues a captive woman from the Comanches (this is a common theme unfortunately in the world of westerns, but really of American art and letters going back to the 1600s and only ending in recent years) and then has to get her back safely from both the Comanches and a group of three outlaws, one of which he has a long history with. Will he be able to do it? Well, I think we know the answer to this. While this has some of the problems of your cheaper western–the only thing worse than the fake language used by “Indians” in the movies (which this film does not use much of at least) are the scenes where the Indians attack but all that really means is riding around in circles to be shot at and then ride away without killing anyone–when you get to the end, you realized you’ve watched a pretty good western.

Like a lot of less than elite old movies, the entirety is on YouTube, so have at it unless you are watching Seahawks-Rams.