Gurlyndrobb
While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Bergorks
If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
Brendon Jones
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
FightingWesterner
Stage-line security guard Scott is lured away from town by a member of his arch-enemy's gang and tied up to die from exposure. Escaping, he returns to find the stage robbed and everyone thinking he's in cahoots with the villains, with no one believing him when he tells them that the robbery was a ruse to get the law out on a goose-chase so that the real deal could go down. In fact, the whole town is ready to lynch Scott!Though some of the portrayals of the ignorant townspeople are clearly over-the-top, Riding Shotgun is a very well-made and well-paced little western that really delivers the goods in terms of action and especially suspense.There's a great role for a young Charles Bronson, who in his western debut (excluding an episode of The Roy Rodgers Show where he plays a boxer) as a sadistic member of the outlaw gang. The scenes where he joins the lynch mob and stokes them are pretty neat.There's also a great role for Wayne Morris, who's probably best remembered for his role as a cowardly officer in Stanley Kubrick's Paths Of Glory, as the town's remaining deputy who desperately tries to prevent needless bloodshed.
Robert J. Maxwell
Considering the budget, and considering other constraints on its quality, this is pretty good -- efficient movie-making at its best.Randolph Scott is a shotgun rider on a stagecoach. The coach is held up and some former enemies capture Scott, hog tie his ass, and leave him to scorch to death in the sun. Tie up Randolph Scott? Hah! He rides into town to warn the good folk of the gang's plans, which is to divert the posse into chasing some loose horses so that the gang can loot and pillage the town. I'm not sure exactly how you pillage a village but I'm morally certain that's what they have in mind.The problem is that no one in town believes Scott's warnings. What's worse, they believe him to be in cahoots with the dozen gang members, led by James Millican, with Charles Bronson in support.Narrow-minded hostility surrounds Scott as he tries to spread the alarm and bring back the posse. No one believes him except his girl, Joan Weldon. The deputy, Wayne Morris, is doubtful of the hysteria but, in any case, is in no position to stand alone against them. The town doctor is neutral and wants to see due process exercised.A couple of observations. This is Scott's only Western that I'm aware of in which he provides a noir-like narration. There's nothing wrong with that in principle but in practice it sounds a bit weird. This was released in 1954, and films noir had dominated American dramatic films for the previous ten years.Fritz Feld was the psychiatrist with a twitch in "Bringing Up Baby." Here, he plays a treacherous but comic saloon proprietor. His joint is a filthy dump and he himself is unshaven, ragged, and weaselly. He's saddled with a Mexican wife and five children -- none of them boys. When he's excited, his Spanish tirade turns into German. That's understandable because he was born in Berlin. He's a welcome presence.Joan Weldon, Scott's supportive girl friend, doesn't have a Hollywood-beautiful face but she seems to radiate intelligence and a little charm. Anybody who was a singer with the San Francisco Opera has my vote. Also, I blush, but must admit it always found her sexy.The movie also does something interesting, probably unwittingly. It demonstrates the destructive potential of rumor. Now, gossip is a necessary means of social control in human society. (Lecturer writes "gossip" on blackboard.) One of the main reasons we don't do bad things is that, if we're found out, our family, friends, and neighbors will not like us so much. But gossip is like water. A certain amount is required for survival but too much of it, out of control, is destructive. We need tap water, not a flood. And we see rumor get subtle autonomy in this movie. The marginalized Scott is holed up in a filthy saloon and every move he makes is interpreted as "bad" and exaggerated by the hostile villagers. If a man tries to shoot Scott, and Scott shoots him in the gun-wielding arm, the story is told that Scott has killed his victim. Everything he does is interpreted by his enemies as deliberately mean. The movie is really a good demonstration of this point. (Imagine if the villagers had the internet.) "Riding Shotgun" doesn't have the poetic quality of some of the Boetticher/Scott/Kennedy Westerns of the same period, but I was easily able to enjoy it for what it was.
bsmith5552
"Riding Shotgun" is another in the Randolph Scott series of westerns released by Warner Brothers in the 1950s.This one is another variation of the High Noon theme of one man left alone against the villains without the support of the town. Larry DeLong (Scott) has been searching for Dan Maraday (James Millican) who murdered his sister and nephew during a stagecoach hold up. He has been riding shotgun for various stage lines with the hope that way he will finally meet up with his nemesis.Maraday's gang, led by Pinto (Charles Bronson) captures DeLong and leaves him to die in the hot sun. They then rob and shoot up the local stagecoach on which Larry was supposed to be the shotgun guard. By sending the coach into town shot up, Maraday hopes to draw the sheriff and his posse out of town so that they can ride in and loot the casino. But DeLong escapes and rides into town to warn the townspeople. The town believes that Larry is one of the gang because he was seen riding away with a member of the gang. Led by stagecoach owner Tom Biggert (Joe Sawyer), the town turns against Larry and corners him in a dingy saloon owned by Fritz (Fritz Feld). Deputy sheriff Tub Murphy (Wayne Morris) returns from the posse with orders to hold DeLong. Unfortunately he is ineffective and unable to arrest DeLong. The townspeople then decide to try to smoke him out.Meanwhile Maraday and his gang ride into town during the commotion. DeLong manages to escape and confront the gang.Randolph Scott basically played the same character in all of his 50s westerns, the stern faced William S. Hart type of hero. He always made them believable. Wayne Morris had starred in his own series prior to this but is essentially wasted here as the ever hungry, over cautious, overweight deputy. Joan Weldon as the heroine also has little to contribute. James Millican had appeared in several Scott westerns before his untimely death in 1956. Charles Bronson (still using his real name of Buchinsky) has a meaty role as the chief henchman. Veteran "head waiter" Fritz Feld gets a welcome change of pace as the slovenly Fritz.Some other recognizable faces include Paul Picerni as the shotgun guard who dies in Scott's place, Howard Morris as a psychopathic "man with the rope" and if you look closely you might spot western veterans Bud Osborne, Buddy Roosevelt and Dub Taylor in various townsfolk.Another good entry in the the Randolph Scott series.
Mozjoukine
Seeing "Riding Shotgun" again after half a century is a welcome reminder of the peak that the western film of the fifties achieved.Director De Toth, who actually had ranch experience despite his Hungarian origins,obviously took great satisfaction in finding such a variety of effective angles and pieces of western imagery to present what is a well constructed story. When our weathered hero has to shoot out the candle in Fritz Feld's "dirty little cantina" it not only provides a chance for master cameramen Bert Glennon ("Stagecoach") to do an effective light change but it also gives us a couple of reels of the disturbing image of the blackened door-way that no one in the town is game to enter, not sure if Randy is dead or not.The film making is better than most of the bigger pictures could muster.The Warner western street re-dressed. Interesting cast - Joe Sawer in a non comedy role, punching it out with Scott, Charlie Bronson getting started, Millican in his best part - are those Frank Ferguson, Cesare Gravina and Bob Steele in uncredited walk-ons?Pretension free, work like the Scott-De Toth series made going to the movies a rewarding, addictive habit.
