"Ride Lonesome" was the sixth of seven Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher "B" plus low budget little westerns. Again, Scott plays a loner with a past and an axe to grind.Scott is Ben Brigade a bounty hunter who has captured murderer Billy John (James Best) and plans to bring him to Santa Cruz to be hanged. The two proceed along until they come to a seemingly abandoned stagecoach swing station. Ah, but not so. Emerging from the shadows are Sam Boone (Pernell Roberts) and his pal Whit (James Coburn). Also on hand is the wife of the station master who is away, Carrie Lane (Karen Steele). Boone and Whit's reasons for being there are unknown at this point.It turns out that the local Apache chief has an eye for Mrs. Lane and offers a horse in trade for her. Unfortunately, the horse turns out to have belonged to her missing husband. The Indians leave but Brigade knows that they will return in greater numbers and decides that he must move on. Boone and Whit offer to accompany him and Billy John along with the now widowed Mrs. Lane. Before they leave, Boone tells Brigade that he plans to take the prisoner away from him. You see an amnesty has been offered to whomever brings Billy John in and Boone has a past and wants to be exonerated.The group of five leaves but not before Billy John informs them that his brother Frank (Lee Van Cleef) in in pursuit. They hole up in a run down building when the Indians attack. The Indians are repelled and the group proceeds on their way crossing desert like country in the open. This causes Boone to believe that Brigade is purposely leaving a trail for Frank to follow and that Frank is the man that Brigade really wants. It turns out that Brigade and Frank have a past and that Brigade wants to settle the score.When they arrive at a clearing dominated by an old rotten former hanging tree they await Frank's arrival. Brigade also has to consider Boone's threat to kill him if necessary. Frank arrives and........................................................Director Boetticher and writer Burt Kennedy must have run out of ideas. They re-use several scenes from earlier films in the series. Sam Boone speaks the line, "There are some things a man just can't ride around", which was spoken by Scott in "The Tall T" (1957). Also, the emergence of Boone and Whit from within the shadows of the station, was used in the same film with Richard Boone and his cronies likewise stepping out of the shadows. The scene where Boone offers Whit a partnership in his small ranch should he obtain his freedom, is similar to the one in "Buchanan Rides Alone" (1958) where Scott offers a similar partnership arrangement to L.Q. Jones.Randolph Scott plays yet another grim faced loner with a past and nary a smile. Pernell Roberts was about to embark on the TV series "Bonanza" the same year as this film. For James Coburn, this was his first film and led to his being cast in a major role in "The Magnificent Seven" (1960). James Best had been under contract at Universal and made many westerns. He would go on to play Sheriff Roscoe on the long running "Dukes of Hazard" TV series.

Among the westerns that Budd Boetticher directed com Randolph Scott, I rank as the top three: Ride Lonesome, Comanche Station and The Tall T, in that order. In fact there are three big films with a curiosity: in all three Boetticher put a beautiful woman between criminals creating for the characters of Scott - in each of the films - a situation of permanent stress, in that there was the need to maintain control over the activities of bandits while needed to protect the woman. And the stories have a certain similarity in the sense that women seek approaching Scott settling since the beginning of the relationship a strong sense of confidence in his character. All three are arguably tasteful films, both in photography, as in the development of action with actors properly scaled. And the filming location: Alabama Hills in Lone Pine, California has a powerful effect on the outcome of each of the films. Among the three I have greater sympathy for "Ride Lonesome", perhaps by the presence of Karen Steele, perhaps for the great interpretation of Pernell Roberts, perhaps the wonderful final scene of the burning tree ... And not enough these three monumental westerns leased in Lone Pine, Boetticher also performed "Seven Men from Now" also with Scott. And in it we Gail Russell, a story a little different from the three mentioned films, but also a great spectacle. Many consider it the best film of the double Boetticher- Scott. Really Boetticher was a master. And these are his three masterpieces.

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.

Ride Lonesome is directed by Budd Boetticher, written by Burt Kennedy and stars Randolph Scott, Karen Steele, Pernell Roberts, James Coburn, James Best & Lee Van Cleef. Charles Lawton Jr is the cinematographer (in CinemaScope for the Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California location) and Heinz Roemheld provides the musical score. Film is part of the Ranown Western cycle involving Boetticher, Scott, Kennedy and producer Harry Joe Brown.Bounty hunter Ben Brigade (Scott) captures wanted outlaw Billy John (Best) and tells him he's taking him to Santa Cruz to be hanged. Best boasts that his brother Frank (Cleef) will soon be arriving to ensure that doesn't happen. Brigade isn't the least bit bothered by this statement. The two men stop at a Wells Junction, a remote swing station, where they encounter Boone (Roberts) & Whit (Coburn), two drifters, and Mrs Lane (Steele), the station attendant's wife. With Mr Lane missing and the Mescalero Apache's on the warpath, the group decide to collectively travel to Santa Cruz, but hot on their trail are the Indians and Frank's gang. There's also the small matter of motives within the group, seems Boone & Whit, too, have a special interest in Billy, while Brigade may have something far more ulterior driving him on.As the decades have rolled by, the Boetticher/Scott Westerns have come to be rightly regarded as genre high points. Between 1956 to 1960 they produced 7 pieces of work. The weakest of which were the more jovial Buchanan Rides Alone (1958), and the Kennedy absent WB contract filler, Westbound (1959). The remaining five each follow a familiar theme that sees Scott as a man driven by emotional pain, movies with simmering undertones and pulsing with psychological smarts. Poll a hundred Western fans for their favourite Boetticher/Scott movie and you will find any of the five being mentioned as a favourite: such is the tightness and intelligence of each respective picture.So we are out in the desolated Old West, it's harsh and weather beaten. Our five characters are either troubled by death-prior and pending-or searching for a life that may be a touch too far from their grasp. As their journey unfolds, loyalties will be tested and shifted, uneasy bonds formed, psychological and sexual needs bubble away under the surface. All viewed by the enveloping Alabama Hills: with Mount Whitney the chief patriarch overseeing his charges. Ride Lonseome, is a stunning movie, an elegiac piece, one that's bleak yet not without hope, a collage of tones seamlessly blended together to create one almost magnificent whole. The first Boetticher movie in CinemaScope, the film is directed with great economic skill, the whole width of the screen is creatively used by the director, placing the characters in the landscape like Anthony Mann used to do with Jimmy Stewart. His action construction is smart and it should be noted that there is not one interior shot in the film. Lawton Jr sumptuously shoots in Eastman Color, actually a perfect choice for the rugged terrain and the wide, lonesome inducing open spaces provided by the Scope format. While Kennedy's script is sparing, perfectly so, the dialogue is clipped but very telling. And crucially there's no manipulation in the narrative.Then of course there's the cast. Scott leads off with one of his brave, ageing man of few words portrayals, a character with inner sadness gnawing away at him. With just one glance and a couple of words, Scott actually provides more depth than most other actors in the genre were able to do with more meatier parts. With the lead protagonist established, Boetticher surrounds him with fine support. Coburn was making his film debut and with his tall frame and distinctive voice he leaves a good impression, mostly because he works so well off of Roberts' more outwardly tough turn. Their partnership gives the film a believable friendship at its centre, lovable rogues perhaps? And they also provide some of the lighter moments that Boetticher and Kennedy use to tonally keep us guessing. Steele is just sultry, a blonde fire cracker in the middle of a potential hornets nest. While Best does a nice line in snivelling weasel, his characters trait being that he shoots his victims in the back. As for Cleef? He's barely in it, but after his characters introduction into the story, his presence hangs over proceedings like a dark heavy cloud. He will be back, tho, and rest assured it's worth the wait.Does Ride Lonesome have flaws? Yes. One thing is that at 73 minutes it's too damn short. But moving away from that particular greedy itch of mine, the film does carry some Western clichés. Most notably with the Indian participation in the story. Be it chases, portentous smoke signals or an adobe corral attack-where our group are of course outnumbered-it's stock Cowboy & Indian fare. Not helped by Roemheld's music, which only reinforces the clichés. Thankfully in Boetticher's hands the clichés are overcome by the scenes raising the pulse, and in one particular sequence, providing the basis for a terrific tracking shot. Roemheld does deliver the goods for the finale, tho, and what a finale it is too. Featuring a tree shaped like a cross, the ending has sparked many an interpretation. Some way too deep (French critics) & some just bizarre (internet sleuths), when actually the interpretation is simple; hell they even got Martin Scorsese to explain it on the DVD. The memorable shot involving the tree, as the music pounds away, can induce pounds of goose-flesh on the skin, powerful it is. As endings go in the Boettticher canon? It gives Comanche Station's riderless horse finale a run for the title of being his, and Scott's, best. A near masterpiece from a true auteur. 9/10