DKosty123 There is a lot of experience in this 1959 Randolph Scott film. Scott is about 62 when this one was shot and it shows. He is still a good actor but the script makes him a romantic lead and that is a bit of a stretch here. Both the ladies are less than 40.Virginia Mayo at 39 is still quite fetching though she really has a small role. The younger Karen Steele, oh mama, looks like she has a body that will not quit. There are scenes with both women together and it is kind of like dueling blonde's on the screen in this Technicolor B feature. The plot is really far fetched. The Union needs gold shipped from the West Coast in order to continue financing weapons to fight the Confederates? The Union had all the factories so this makes little sense. It does give the actors something to fight about - Confederates stealing gold shipments, but I doubt in 1864 it could have been a factor to change the war.The color and the cast and the best looking women in many a Western gives this one some eye candy in case you have trouble with the rather predictable plot.

bkoganbing Westbound finds Captain Randolph Scott of the Union Army headed in that direction to return to his civilian occupation, that of manager for the Overland Stage Company. As the main transporter of gold for the Union Treasury, Overland has had its share of holdups and other problems caused by Confederate raiders and the army puts Scott on detached duty to return to run Overland.Scott's told to make his headquarters in Julesburg which is a hotbed of Confederate sympathy. The man Scott is replacing has absconded with all the horses and records of the company. While Scott's in the army, that man Andrew Duggan also absconded with the woman that Scott intended to marry. Virginia Mayo is now Mrs. Duggan.Randy does what he can to cobble together Stagecoaches, horses, and people to drive them. But Duggan who is a Southern sympathizer has at his disposal a nasty pack of gunslingers headed by Michael Pate.Westbound is an unusually short film, more in the tradition of those Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and other B cowboys from Republic. But the film does cram quite a lot into its 68 minute running time. This is one of the better Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher collaborations. It also has a nice bouncy theme for when the stagecoach is running.Definitely a film that will make one a Randolph Scott fan if you haven't been before.

dallesmac Agree with other viewers that "Westbound" is the least of the seven Budd Boettcher/Randolph Scott westerns. But the assured work of both Director Boettcher and Star Scott take this up a notch or two from the run-of-the-mill fifties oater. Nice work too from Michael Pate as the arch villain (watch the way he moves). And it's good to see Virginia Mayo, even in a throwaway role. In most other respects, though, this just isn't up to Boettcher's other work with Scott, and the fact Boettcher dismissed and virtually disowned it is no surprise. The movie lacks the tough, lean feel that makes the others real classics that can be seen over and over. One viewing is enough for "Westbound."

lorenellroy Westbound does not form part of the "Ranown "cycle of Westerns on which star Scott and director Boetticher collaborated in the 1950's and which included such stone classics as Comanche Station,The Tall T and Ride Lonesome .These were the work of the excellent screenwriter ,later director, Budd Kennedy while this has a workmanlike script from a pair of studio hacks The storyline is a little thin and this is the only major weak spot in a tense and crisp Western which takes the Civil War as its backdrop .Scott plays a Union cavalry officer assigned to re-establish a stage line that he once managed before the war ,the purpose being to ship gold from California to the Federal banks .He must overcome a Confederate agent ,in the form of Andrew Duggan and still he finds time to romance the feisty and gallant heroine played by Karen Steele Boetticher directs with style and aplomb ;there is a lively musical score and some limpid colour cinematography by J Peverell Mackay that adds real lustre to the look of the picture . Add some strong performances and you get an above average minor Western with a crisp running time and lots of lively action by way of diversion .It is a very neat little movie indeed and recommended to Western fans in particular