Man in the Saddle

4/5/2014

Rancho Skulduggery. Man in the Saddle is directed by Andre De Toth and adapted to screenplay by Kenneth Gamet from the novel written by Ernest Haycox. It stars Randolph Scott, Joan Leslie, John Russell, Ellen Drew, Alexander Knox, Richard Rober and Guinn Williams. Music is by George Duning and cinematography by Charles Lawton Jr. More known and rightly lauded for the series of Western films he made with Budd Boetticher, it often gets forgotten that Randolph Scott also had a long working relationship with Andre De Toth. Man in the Saddle was the first of six Western films the two men would make together, and it’s a pretty impressive start. Sometimes you see words such as routine and standard attributed to a lot of Westerns from the 1950s, and Man in the Saddle is one such film that

6/26/2025

Randolph Scott’s production company had a hand in this, but it’s still all a fairly formulaic western. He is “Owen” who is having troubles with his empire-building neighbour “Will” (Alexander Knox). This latter man has a sort of marriage of convenience with “Laurie” (Joan Leslie) who has some history with “Owen” too. Aware that his marriage is a bit of a sham, “Will” determines to make sure he grinds his erstwhile rival into the dust. With the temperature rising and the body count starting to mount, it might be down to “Laurie” to think of a solution to save the day. Will anyone listen? It’s a perfectly watchable film this, but the plot doesn’t really offer much that’s new and as usual with Scott, he seems to be just going through the motions without really imposing himself on the film. Th