TheLittleSongbird While the western genre is not my favourite one of all film genres (not sure which one is my favourite due to trying to appreciate them all the same), there is a lot of appreciation for it by me. There are a lot of very good to great films, with the best work of John Ford being notable examples.In the late 50s, starting in 1956 with 'Seven Men from Now' and right up to 1960 with 'Comanche Station', lead actor Randolph Scott collaborated with director Budd Boetticher in seven films. For me, along with 'Seven Men from Now' and 'The Tall T', 'Ride Lonesome' is one of their best and is a very great example of how to do a western, comparing favourably with other films in the genre. On its own merits too, as a film overall, 'Ride Lonesome' is a wonderful film.Complaints are next to none, though for my liking it is too short, another 15-20 minutes could easily have been there, and the opening capture implausible.However, 'Ride Lonesome' is superbly filmed, with exemplary use of CinemaScope, and makes the most of, to full advantage in fact, the vividly desolate scenery/landscapes that are like characters of their own. The music is another example of being rousing but never intrusive. Boetticher's direction is throughout efficient, great sense of style, vivid atmosphere, fine direction of the action and very successful in keeping everything going.The meaty, snappy, terse and fat-free script helps hugely as does the continually lively pace that makes the storytelling continually compelling and taut, with lots of fun and suspense and blistering action. 'Ride Lonesome' is one of the best Scott/Boetticher outings in terms of characterisation, while clichés they are meaty and intriguing ones. The ending is memorable.Scott's charismatic, easy-going yet tense performance was one of his best in an interesting flawed hero role and the supporting cast are more than up to his level. Karen Steele exudes glamour, class and charm, James Best has fun, Pernell Roberts is sardonically humorous and charming and Lee Van Cleef seers and snarls unforgettably even in a small role. James Coburn's feckless film debut is also worth looking out for. All in all, wonderful. 9/10 Bethany Cox

talisencrw In the past year or so, I've made a determined decision to get more accustomed to pre-1970's films from around the world, particularly genres I've previously given short change to, such as musicals, war films and westerns. I have to admit it's greatly enhanced my appreciation of cinema in general. It's amazing how great some of these films actually are.Since cinema is the greatest love of my life, I also collect books on film, trying to find out anything and everything I can. As the old Calvin Klein commercial goes, 'A man has many loves, but only one Obsession'. An unexpectedly great and relatively inexpensive find was 'The Editors of American Cowboy's The Top 100 Westerns of All Time,' from 2011. Looming at #52 was this, and its write-up sounded intriguing, so I've always kept my eyes open for it. Sure enough, last month I saw a Randolph Scott Westerns 6-pack for a very low price, and I pulled the trigger (pardon the pun).This was exceptional and clearly deserves its lofty status. There is so much action, intrigue and beauty jam-packed in Burt Kennedy's script for this 72 minutes. Every shot is finely composed and exquisitely filmed. I dare you to find a better supporting cast. Sure, the four-hour epics by the Sir David Leans and Victor Flemings out there are great, but I'd rather see a simple story, brilliantly told than the gluttonous two-to-three-hour pieces of self-important crap you find these days. Let that be my epitaph.I was so close to even giving this a perfect grade. It's honestly THAT good.

PamelaShort 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.

Robert J. Maxwell 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.