Ride Lonesome

Directed Budd Boetticher
Starring Randolph Scott and Purnell Roberts
109 mins 1959

This is one of group of westerns that have become known collectively as, The Ranown series. So called because Ranown Pictures bankrolled them. The other films were The Tall T and Comanche Station - each of the films shared themes, locations and the unbeatable combination of writer, Burt Kennedy, star Randolph Scott and director, Budd Boetticher.

This films sees Randolph Scott playing bounty hunter, Ben Brigade. At the start of the picture he is escorting a murderer to Santa Cruz to be hung. But he soon comes up again opposition.

The film was shot in the Alabama Hills and around Lone Pine, California. The shots at the foot of the High Sierra with the 14,494 feet high Mount Whitney as a backdrop are breathtaking. The visuals alone make the movie well worth seeing but the fact that it is a tense, furiously paced western that often has the feel of the Stewart/Mann westerns makes it essential for any western fan.

Purnell Roberts (Bonanza's Adam Cartwright) is brilliant as the cocky tough guy and James Coburn makes his screen debut here as a gangly low life. Not for nothing are the films Randolph Scott made with director, Boetticher considered classics in the same mould as Anthony Mann's westerns and John Ford's better works in the genre.

If you've not seen this one then you need to remedy that as soon as possible and, as is more likely, if you have give it another whirl. The film is available on budget price DVD, with versions available in most regions. So there's no excuse really for not owning this classic western movie.