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 is a modest movie. It lacks the scope of the big Hollywood Westerns of its time and the splashy zaniness of the Spaghetti Westerns that were to burst onto the scene later in the decade. What it does have is mostly solid performances (Scott in particular does good work here), a lean, economical script and a few stand-out sequences. For instance, I particularly liked the film's opening, a nearly wordless sequence in which Scott's character interacts with a tribe of Indians. A ransomed or kidnapped wife is a recurring element in Boetticher/Scott Westerns, but this movie brings some freshness to that old storyline.Bottom Line: A better-than-average Western. Worth your time.

Mysterious westerner Randolph Scott (as Jefferson Cody) arrives in Comanche Territory (in or around Texas) to exchange goods for beautiful brunette Nancy Gates (as Nancy Lowe), who was abducted and turned into a White squaw (sex partner) for someone in the tribe. Her husband is offering $5,000 for Ms. Gates' return. She and Mr. Scott quickly become involved in a Comanche attack on fellow bounty hunter Claude Akins (as Ben Lane) and his two young guns, Richard Rust (as Dobie) and Skip Homeier (as Frank). Successful in warding off the Native Americans, the men decide to travel together for extra protection. However, it soon becomes clear Mr. Akins plans to violently take out Scott and collect the $5,000 reward for himself..."Comanche Territory" was the last of several fine westerns from director Budd Boetticher and his team. The formula usually involves Scott taking an uncommonly beautiful woman somewhere alongside a potentially hazardous rival and some younger actors. This time, the most unknown actor in the cast makes the biggest impression as Mr. Rust's reluctant gunslinger (deemed "too gentle" by mentor Atkins) rides off with the film. It is through this character moving the story along – writer Burt Kennedy succeeds in making us forget Scott should have settled with Atkins after 20 minutes; even with the Comanche around, he'd have had a safer trip. Although we sometimes lose track of Scott's story, a powerful ending brings it all back home.******** Comanche Station (3/1/60) Budd Boetticher ~ Randolph Scott, Nancy Gates, Richard Rust, Claude Akins

Could have rightly been titled "Ride Lonesome, Again", as in the first and last scenes, Scott is leisurely riding alone through a rocky wilderness, in this last teaming with Bud Beotticher. As in the previous "Ride Lonesome", Randy eventually finds himself traveling with a young married woman and 3 other men of dubious character. Again, there are several dramatic hostile encounters with Native Americans(NAs) : Comanches with 'mohawks' in this case!! This time, it's the woman who has a reward($5000.) for her return(dead or alive!!), rather than a man, as in "Ride Lonesome". In both films, Scott's character is not interested in the bounty, but at least one of his traveling companions wants monetary or legal reward for the return of this person, and plans to kill Scott's character for that. I find the claimed 'dead or alive' condition for the reward payment totally bizarre, especially when we discover that her husband is blind!! As in the previous "Westbound", the member of the gang of villains who eventually refuses to toe the line with the arch villain winds up dead: a tragic component of the story. Thus, they differ from "Ride Lonesome" and the non-Boetticher Scott-starring "Ride the High Country" and "The Nevadan", where a young man with a dubious past is spared, with hope for reform.Based on historical information, the obsessive search by Cody(Scott) for his wife stolen long ago, is almost certainly futile. As dramatized in "The Searchers", the usual fate of older teen girls and women captured by plains NAs was rape, followed by death, often followed by dismemberment. Very occasionally, they might instead be kept for barter, serving as a slave(sex and otherwise) in the meanwhile. Both of the female captives in this yarn fall into this category, as do one of the female captives rescued by stealth or barter in two other westerns I am familiar with: the previous "The Charge at Feather River" and Ford's "Two Rode Together". In both these other films, the woman, unmarried when captured, expressed considerable anxiety in rejoining European society, as 'damaged goods', for their lengthy time as and consorting with NAs. In this film, the rescued woman(Mrs. Lowe) expresses similar anxiety with regard to her husband.Of course, some comparisons with "The Searchers" are in order. Cody comes across as much saner than Wayne's Ethan Edwards who, after spending all that time searching for Debbie, wants to shoot her when he learns she doesn't want to leave her adopting tribe and is married to a NA! Of course, Debbie eventually changes her mind somewhat. Historically, this changed attitude was very much the exception for captured children who spent any significant time living with NAs. This fact is well dramatized in the earlier "The Charge at Feather River" and the later "Two Rode Together". In contrast to Wayne's Ethan, Cody tells the woman that it wouldn't matter to him if she had consorted with NA men. This was also true of the main male characters in the other films mentioned. Unfortunately, historically, most long-held repatriated captives never felt comfortable as such, often retaining or wishing for important elements of their lost culture. In the present film, the woman has been with the Comanches for only one month, which makes a big difference!Once again, the action takes place in or near the spectacular Alabama Hills, with the High Sierras often in the background. Supposedly , this represents the country near Lordsburg, in the SW corner of NM: strangely well west of the historical western edge of Comanche territory!. Yes, they should have been Apaches, and not sporting 'mohawks'!("The Searchers" has a rather similar landscape problem).Claude Akins is excellent as Ben: Cody's opposite, who sees all NAs as inconsequential fair game, and who lacks heart, material profit being the only worthwhile goal, like Galt in "The Nevadan". He's talkative and folksy, concealing a sinister plan, contrasting with the taciturn loyal Cody and Mrs. Lowe. We might wonder why Ben rides to Cody's defense when he is attacked alone on a large plain by a small party of Comanches, when Ben is planning to kill Cody soon? I suspect Ben was worried that the Comanches would kill Cody, then turn on the others. Together with Cody, they stood a much better chance of beating them off.The film intersperses periods of rather boring leisurely riding with periods of exciting lethal confrontations and periods of heart-felt conversations. Ben's two young companions: Frank and Dobie, come across as 2 lost souls, who joined Ben only because they didn't think they had any other viable choices. Their periodic conversations tend to be boring, and neither survives to the final frame...There is minimal humor, with a resisted emergency bath in a horse watering trough by Mrs. Lowe near the top.... Cody's and Mrs. Lowes's big secrets aren't revealed until rather late in the film.As usual, the lead woman wants Scott's character to continue to show up periodically in her life, but he politely rides off into the sunset as a perpetual wandering soul, still tortured by the distant loss of his cherished wife.