I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

After Comanches took his wife away years ago, Randolph Scott's character spends his time tracking down stories of white women abducted by Comanches in hopes of rescuing his wife from captivity. How many white women under Comanche captivity he has come across is unknown, but the one he barters for in Comanche Station (Nancy Gates) also turns out not to be his wife. Even though he strikes out again in his own search, the fact that he is going to return Gates to her family forms a compelling storyline. Scott and Gates travel to a stage coach stop known as Comanche Station where Claude Akins and two young associates, Richard Rust and Skip Homier, await the stage coach's arrival to rob it. Needless to say the coach doesn't get there, but Akins knows Gates's husband has promised to pay $5,000 for her return, a detail of which Scott apparently was unaware. Thus the five ride off on the journey to return Gates, Akins intent on killing Scott, whom he knew before, in order to collect the reward for Gates, who is very beautiful. There is excellent acting along the journey, thanks to a stand out script by Burt Kennedy and direction by Scott's famous partner in westerns Budd Boetticher.

NOTES: Filmed entirely at Lone Pine, California, this is the last of the Scott-Boetticher westerns. It was preceded by Seven Men from Now (1957), The Tall T (1957), Decision at Sundown (1957), Buchanan Rides Alone (1958), Ride Lonesome (1959), and Westbound (1959).COMMENT: Randolph Scott does justice to his perfectly tailored role and though the film is a little heavy on the dialogue side, it still has more than enough action to satisfy the fans. Nancy Gates comes across as an attractive if somewhat colorless heroine, but the real support acting is turned in by the trio of villains: Claude Akins makes a commendably successful attempt to stamp his criminality with a more rounded characterization than the conventional black hat/black heart, while Skip Homeier and Richard Rust as his equally unconventional, not over-willing accomplices also impress strongly. Boetticher has directed with his usual vigor. And though the budget is small, other credits are likewise well up to scratch.OTHER VIEWS: Hollywood's six-guns have finally got around to firing just six shots, but that is still one too many, according to Randolph Scott. "Western films today are getting more of the authentic flavor of the old West, but there are still some interesting facts that are consistently overlooked. Nearly always, there's the six-gun that never seems to need re-loading," Scott told me. "This is more or less a joke in Westerns, watching the hero or badman snap off shot after shot with apparently no concern about an empty cylinder." According to Scott, most of the famous gunfighters of the West carried only five cartridges in their Colt. The hammer always rested on the empty chamber to prevent accidental firing caused by a bump which could easily jar the hair-trigger on the gun. "If you were facing a gent like John Wesley Hardin or Clay Allison, one shot would be all you'd need anyhow," Scott insisted. "Because, if you didn't hit him with your first shot, you would wonder why in Boot Hill."

"Comanche Station" was just one of a handful of truly great westerns that Randolph Scott made with director Budd Boetticher over a five year period between 1956 and 1960. It may be the best; these short, lean, psychologically astute and hugely exciting pictures defined the West without romanticizing it in any way. Often they dealt with the themes of revenge and retribution with Scott's character seldom lily-white. There was usually a journey involved and a woman, more often than not in need of Scott's protection, and several villains, so beautifully drawn in the scripts of Burt Kennedy that they usually transcended the caricatured villainy of western bad guys to emerge as altogether more complex characters.In "Comanche Station" Scott finds himself rescuing white woman Nancy Gates from the Comanches and escorting her back to her husband. They are joined on the way by Claude Akins and his gang whose motives in wanting to keep Gates alive are, shall we say, somewhat less noble. The younger members of Akins' gang are played by Skip Homeier and Richard Rust and there is an almost homo-erotic element to their relationship. You could always rely on Kennedy and Boetticher to dig deeper than the surface. It was also magnificently photographed in Cinemascope by Charles Lawton Jr. Essential viewing.

This is the third Boetticher/Scott Western I've seen, "Ride Lonesome" and "The Tall T" are the others. So far, "Commanche Station" is the best, followed by "The Tall T", then "Ride Lonesome". What's remarkable is how similar they all are. Same leading man, same Sierra Nevada location.......same plot. I gave this movie 6 out of 10 in the IMDb rankings. It did well in my ranking system, accumulating 14 points, a very solid score. Here's what I found admirable in this movie: I don't consider Randolph Scott an "A" Western leading man, but I would put him at the top of my "B" list. Interesting and believable back story to his character also. This was filmed entirely on location. I couldn't identify a single sound stage scene. This 80 minute special was obviously filmed on a very low budget. I know of no director who has squeezed more movie out of so few resources. The scenery on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada range in eerily beautiful and Boetticher uses it to maximum effect. The story has excellent dramatic tension. The characters are developed with mystery and subtlety. Unlike its earlier twin, "Ride Lonesome", there are no plot holes. Claude Akins does a tremendous job as the heavy. His character is devilishly likable. I'm going to go so far as to say I enjoyed his role more than Richard Boone's heavy in "The Tall T". There's some very good dialog, especially from Claude Akin's character. "Ma'am, if you was mine, I'd of come for you even if I'd of died in the doin' of it." A lot of stuff like that. Good Indian themes. Indians are presented multi-dimensionally i.e they actually have a reason for killing white people. Again an improvement over "Ride Lonesome". Some successfully executed subtle humor in the interplay between Aiken's two dimwitted henchmen. Another improvement over "RL". Interesting opening sequence with no dialog for five or ten minutes. Reminds me of the famed opening of "Rio Bravo", which was a Hawks tribute to silent films. "RB" was released a year before "CS". Did Boetticher copy Hawks? Now here's what kept the movie from being better: Generally I am willing to grant directors artistic license for inauthentic locations, but I don't see why they didn't just set this story in the Sierras where they were shooting it, instead of pretending they were in New Mexico. I'm not going to kill this for being a virtual remake of "Ride Lonesome", mostly because he cleaned up most of the obvious mistakes he made in the earlier film. I hate his Indian attacks. Indians did not ride around in circles and form perfect shooting galleries for well dug in white people. The soundtrack is awful.