Ranown/Columbia. Director Budd Boetticher; Producer Budd Boetticher; Screenplay Burt Kennedy; Camera Charles Lawton Jr; Editor Jerome Thoms; Music Heinz Roemheld; Art Director Robert Peterson
Randolph Scott
Karen Steele
Pernell Roberts
James Best
Lee Van Cleef
James Coburn
Ride Lonesome has Randolph Scott as a bounty hunter whose interest in a young murderer (James Best) seems to be solely the money he will collect for his delivery. Along the way, he picks up a young widow (Karen Steele), and two feckless outlaws (Pernell Roberts and James Coburn). Soon Best's brother (Lee Van Cleef) is trailing them with his own band, intent on rescuing Best.
Ride Lonesome has several good plots and sub-plots going for it, creating a chase melodrama that is often a chase-within-a-chase. Scriptwriter Burt Kennedy has used genuine speech of the frontier and some offhand, often rather grim humor, to give the screenplay additional interest where the pursuit portions necessarily lag. Boetticher and his cast handle it well, only occasionally overreaching in brief scenes where Steele's sex seems stressed beyond reason.
Scott does a good job as the taciturn and misunderstood hero, but the two standouts are Best as the giggling killer and Roberts as the sardonic outlaw who wants to get away to a new start.
(Color) Widescreen. Extract of a review from 1959. Running time: 74 MIN.
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