After a bad beginning because I could not believe the way that bounty hunter Randolph Scott was able to bring in James Best, the rest of the film fleshes out nicely to another tension filled western directed by Budd Boetticher and written by Burt Kennedy who would soon be directing features of his own.
When Scott does bring in Best unfortunately he must rely on a pair of young guns, Pernell Roberts and James Coburn, to bring Best in. These two have one idea about what to do with Best, but Scott's working an agenda all his own. They settle down as allies of convenience. They have to because there are hostile Mescalero Apaches all around.
For a while they fort up at a stagecoach station operated by Karen Steele and her husband. The husband's away and later we find out the Apaches have killed him. She's also forced to join the group.
Besides Apaches, Best's brother Lee Van Cleef has heard about his capture. Van Cleef and Scott have a lot of history between them and that's part of the story as well.
Ride Lonesome borrows quite liberally from the successful James Stewart/ Anthony Mann western The Naked Spur where Stewart is also a bounty hunter forced to make some allies of convenience.
When the film gets down to business, the best part of it belongs to Pernell Roberts and James Coburn in his feature film debut. They are one pair of morally ambiguous characters and right until the very end you don't know exactly whose side they will come down on.
If only Burt Kennedy had devised a better way of capturing James Best at the beginning, Ride Lonesome would rank at the top of the Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher collaborations. As it is, it's still not a bad film from the two of them.
When Scott does bring in Best unfortunately he must rely on a pair of young guns, Pernell Roberts and James Coburn, to bring Best in. These two have one idea about what to do with Best, but Scott's working an agenda all his own. They settle down as allies of convenience. They have to because there are hostile Mescalero Apaches all around.
For a while they fort up at a stagecoach station operated by Karen Steele and her husband. The husband's away and later we find out the Apaches have killed him. She's also forced to join the group.
Besides Apaches, Best's brother Lee Van Cleef has heard about his capture. Van Cleef and Scott have a lot of history between them and that's part of the story as well.
Ride Lonesome borrows quite liberally from the successful James Stewart/ Anthony Mann western The Naked Spur where Stewart is also a bounty hunter forced to make some allies of convenience.
When the film gets down to business, the best part of it belongs to Pernell Roberts and James Coburn in his feature film debut. They are one pair of morally ambiguous characters and right until the very end you don't know exactly whose side they will come down on.
If only Burt Kennedy had devised a better way of capturing James Best at the beginning, Ride Lonesome would rank at the top of the Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher collaborations. As it is, it's still not a bad film from the two of them.