Classic Rewind: Comanche Station (1960)

So structurally and thematically similar to Ride Lonesome the two become nearly indistinguishable, Comanche Station is nonetheless another sharp-edged exercise in greed and lawless temptation.

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After rescuing a captured woman from the Comanches (in a nearly-silent opening scene), Randolph Scott’s Jefferson Cody runs into a trio of outlaws who were beating every bush looking for the same woman – turns out there’s a $5,000 reward for her return.

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This sets off a combustible psychological duel between the men who – even amidst constant Comanche threats – all wish to turn her in for the reward.

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There’s constant bickering and cryptic undercurrents involving the three men who can’t resist the allure of the reward money against the moral standing (or perhaps retributive catharsis) of Scott’s Jefferson Cody - a perfect punctuator to Boetticher’s western landscape of wrath, discontent and avarice. [A-]