Riding Shotgun (film)

Riding Shotgun
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAndre de Toth
Written byThomas W. Blackburn
Based onstory "Riding Solo"
by Kenneth Perkins
Produced byTed Sherdeman
StarringRandolph Scott
Wayne Morris
Joan Weldon
CinematographyBert Glennon
Edited byRudi Fehr
Music byDavid Buttolph
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • April 1, 1954 (1954-04-01)
Running time
73 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1.4 million[1]

Riding Shotgun is a 1954 American western film directed by Andre de Toth and starring Randolph Scott, Wayne Morris and Joan Weldon. The film was based on the short story "Riding Solo" by Kenneth Perkins, originally published in the September 1942 issue of Blue Book. The production is unusual in that Scott narrates his inner thoughts at crucial moments in the action.

Plot

Stagecoach guard Larry Delong is ambushed by a gang of outlaws associated with Dan Marady, the man who murdered his sister and nephew. Delong has been searching for Marady, intending to kill him. When he returns to the town of Deep Water, Delong discovers that nearly everyone there believes he was involved in a holdup of the stage on which he had been the guard. The robbery resulted in the deaths of the stage driver and of the man who sat in for Delong.

With no one other than Orissa Flynn, his sweetheart, and Doc Winkler heeding his warnings that Marady's men are coming to rob the town, Delong is forced to take refuge in a cantina. A lynch mob forms, with deputy Tub Murphy trying to hold them off until the sheriff's posse returns.

Marady's men, including an accomplice, Pinto, rob the bank while the townspeople are distracted. Delong escapes through an attic and sabotages the getaway horses of Marady's gang. A shootout results in Marady mistakenly believing, fatally, that Delong is out of bullets.

Cast

References

  1. ^ "1954 Box Office Champs". Variety Weekly. January 5, 1955. p. 59. - figures are rentals in the US and Canada