Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The 1950s was a great decade for the western. While the masterpieces may have belonged to John Ford and Fred Zinneman, the two directors that had the best body of work in the genre that decade were Anthony Mann and Budd Boetticher. These two made many great westerns with their stars of choice -- Jimmy Stewart for Mann and Randolph Scott for Boetticher. These weren't simple horse operas or mindless actioners. These westerns were smart, tense stories driven by the psychology of their characters instead of the plots, which were often deceptively simple.This film is one of the Boetticher/Scott westerns and it's one of the best. The plot, again, seems simple enough: a bounty hunter (Randolph Scott) is bringing in a killer (James Best) whose ruthless brother (Lee Van Cleef) is expected to try and stop him. Along the way he is joined by two criminals (Pernell Roberts of Bonanza fame and James Coburn in his film debut) and a beautiful blonde (Karen Steele). Roberts and Coburn join Scott in hopes of taking the prisoner themselves in return for an offer of amnesty for his capture. Scott has another reason for bringing Best in besides the bounty.Wonderful cast with a standout performance from Pernell Roberts, an actor better known for his television work. The support from Best, Coburn, and Van Cleef is nice. Karen Steele looks lovely and does fine but her brassiere is most definitely from the 1950s. You'll know what I mean when you see her. Hopefully she didn't put anybody's eye out. Scott doesn't have lots of lines as his character is the silent type. But he was an underrated actor who said a lot with very little. Great direction from Boetticher with his favorite screenwriter Burt Kennedy turning in a good script. Relatively short runtime ensures the movie doesn't overstay its welcome. It didn't feel too short at all. Fans of westerns will definitely want to check this one out.

Randolph Scott gives a solid, and somewhat sedated performance , along with an impressive cast in Ride Lonesome. Pernell Roberts has one of the strongest parts in this film, and gives a noteworthy performance also. Soon after this film, he would become a household name as the elder son in the hit television series Bonanza. This is James Coburn's first break in movies and he equally proves to be a very talented actor. Lee Van Cleef and James Best, along with Karen Steele as the spicy widow, help round out the cast in this excellent Budd Boetticher western. The extraordinary use of cinematography, with some of the most amazing landscape ever seen, helps to enhances the four characters in this tight, intense and impressive western. The combining results create a must see film, that belongs in the classic westerns category. I have seen this movie several times, have always enjoyed it and I do not want to give a synopsis of this film. Rather, I encourage the reader to watch and appreciate this fine western story and to judge it for themselves. No doubt, Randolph Scott fans will not be disappointed in what would be one of his most outstanding westerns, to soon close out a very remarkable and successful career.

Randolph Scott plays a hardened bounty hunter named "Ben Brigade" who is intent on bringing his prisoner, "Billy John" (James Best) back to Santa Cruz, New Mexico for trial. Unfortunately, Billy John's brother, "Frank" (Lee Van Cleef) and his outlaw band are hot on his trail. It also doesn't help that a recently widowed woman, "Mrs. Carrie Lane" is sought after by Apaches and is slowing Ben down. Likewise, two other bounty hunters, "Sam Boone" (Pernell Roberts) and "Whit" (James Coburn) also want to take Billy John in to Santa Cruz as their prisoner. Anyway, this movie has just about everything: Outlaws, bounty hunters, rampaging Indians and a beautiful woman needing protection. And while Randolph Scott has definitely put on a few years, he still manages to give a decent performance as a man who doesn't care about anything other than his next bounty. That said, this is a surprisingly good Western which should satisfy all fans of that genre.

Randolph Scott captures young killer James Best and intends to take him to Santa Cruze to be hanged for murder, and collect the reward. Along the way he runs into two miscreants, Pernell Roberts and his sidekick James Coburn, who would like to take Best in themselves, in return for which they would received amnesty. ("Ain't that a great word?") They also provide protection to a woman, Karen Steele, who wears a pointed 1950s brassiere throughout and is there chiefly to stimulate the glands of Roberts. (Scott, after listening to Roberts praise the various physical and characterological properties of Steele: "She ain't ugly.") The conflict intrinsic to this arrangement is that Scott, on the one hand, and Roberts and Coburn on the other, seem to be at cross purposes. If Scott doesn't hand over the prisoner, then Scott gets the bounty but Roberts and Coburn don't get their amnesty. Roberts reluctantly informs Scott that, sooner or later, Scott will be shot. Meanwhile they must hang together under threats from Apaches and from Best's brother and his gang, who are in hot pursuit.Of the several movies that Randolph Scott and director Budd Boetticher made together, I think I probably enjoy this one the most -- this and "Seven Men From Now." It's a leisurely travel story set among the stucco-textured rocks of Movie Flats, California. The story is simple, the location shooting impressive, and the dialog by Burt Kennedy sings with a kind of folk lyricism. (If you get amnesty, "You don't have to shiver every time you see a man wearin' tin.") Scott is his stalwart, taciturn self. Coburn's dim-wittedness provides some gentle humor. Pernell Roberts fakes a Southern accent and seems to be enjoying the camera a little too much, which turns him into a self-satisfied Hollywood actor instead of a sympathetic and colorful criminal. The nicest performance may be that of James Best as the callow, somewhat sensitive, but doomed murderer. He's given the line that warns Karen Steele to stay away from the body of a man slaughtered by Indians: "Ain't nothing' for a woman to see!" Yet, watching these collaborative efforts in sequence, as I've been doing -- why it sets a man to wonderin' what it is that keeps them entertainin' stead of a mite more than that. Of course the budgets were low, but some directors have been able to overcome such strictures. The musical scores were by Heinz Roemheld and they're pedestrian. The five scripts written by Burt Kennedy are better than the rest. And there's an awful lot of repetition. There's nothing wrong with quoting yourself. John Ford often had men splashing a glass of whiskey into a fireplace and having it flame up. Howard Hawks repeated himself often, including single lines like, "Good luck to you." Hitchcock had his cameos and Huston often dubbed his voice somewhere into the mix. But those were self-conscious tricks, a kind of joke, whereas here the repetitions seem to stem from a conviction that the audience doesn't pay enough attention to notice them.Not to go on about it. It was an enjoyable series and this example is an exemplary one.