Mon 22 Dec 2008
Western movie review: RIDE LONESOME (1959).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[9] Comments
RIDE LONESOME. Columbia Pictures, 1959. Randolph Scott, Karen Steele, Pernell Roberts, James Best, Lee Van Cleef, James Coburn. Screenwriter: Burt Kennedy; director: Budd Boetticher.
When I was but a lad, Randolph Scott’s westerns were among my favorites, but I always wondered why he always played somebody different every time one of his movies came to town.
Roy was always Roy, Gene was always Gene, and Durango was always Durango (but his alter ego Steve always seemed to have a different last name, a sneaky fact I never realized until IMDB came along).
Having a cowboy star named Steve was all I needed, nothing more.
I never saw Randolph Scott’s later westerns, though. By the time the late 50s came along, I was interested in other things, and it’s only recently that I’ve discovered that the later ones are considered to be among his best.
I suspect that many of you are way ahead of me on this.
In Ride Lonesome, for example, he plays a lean and somewhat mean bounty hunter named Ben Brigade. His prisoner is a young outlaw (and killer) named Billy John, played to callow perfection by James Best. Also on Billy John’s trail, but arriving too late are a couple of other outlaws (Pernell Roberts, in his pre-Bonanza days, and James Coburn, whose film debut this movie was).
The reward money is not what motivates these last two. It’s the amnesty that the governor of the state has promised to anyone who brings Billy John in. Reluctantly they team up with Brigade, though, to make a stand against of a marauding band of Indians who have already killed Carrie Lane’s husband, manager of a stage stop in almost the middle of nowhere.
That makes five of them who, once the Indian threat has passed, must also reckon with the fact that Billy John’s brother (Lee Van Cleef) is not going to take lightly the prospect of his hanging. As Ben Brigade, Scott is laconic to the point of barely moving his lips, his aging features chiseled as if out of well-weathered stone.
A couple of segments of dialogue will illustrate, courtesy of IMDB to get them correct, but they’re the same ones that caught my ear as I was watching:
Ben Brigade: I’d hunt you free.
Mrs. Carrie Lane: You don’t seem like the kind that would hunt a man for money.
Ben Brigade: I am.
I see that I have not yet mentioned Karen Steele, the young and impossibly blonde actress who plays Mrs. Lane, and she of the statuesque figure with measurements that even Barbie could envy. (Most of Karen Steele’s career seems to have been on television; this is one of only a very few movies she made. I truly regret not having a color closeup photo to show you.)
Not surprisingly, Brigade’s temporary allies eye her with lust in their eyes as well as their heart, and even Brigade himself seems to be susceptible to her charms, once or twice. But Billy John is not Brigade’s only mission, and as the title suggests, it’s a lonesome one.
In the list of my all time favorite western movies, I’m thinking it over, but I’m not yet sure that this one’s on it, or that it should be. Other reviewers have praised it highly, but at just over 70 minutes long, the story’s not quite deep enough for me to be convinced. But what it is is extremely good. The color photography is terrific, and all of the actors involved do top notch jobs.
I don’t know why I’m resisting. But as I was watching, the story didn’t quite feel real enough, a little stagey perhaps, or maybe a little too pat for its own good. But as I’m writing this, I’ll tell you what. The movie’s calling me to watch it again, and there’s no way I won’t.
Not only that, but I have a feeling that when I do, it’s going to move up a few notches in my own but totally objective personal ranking.
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:14 am
Randolph Scott made some excellent westerns with director Budd Boetticher and writer Burt Kennedy. Five of them, Ride Lonesome among them, have recently been issued in a dvd box set entitled The Films of Budd Boetticher. Also included is a long documentary about these films.
One of the things that impress me about Randolph Scott is that he looks, dresses and acts like a westerner. He was completely different from the usual B western hero and of course these movies are on a higher level. Scott is not your typical hero, young, handsome, wearing perfect outfits, and ready to break out in song. He has a world weary, mature look that I find very believable and interesting. His late fifties films and Ride the High Country are fine examples of the western movie at its very best.
December 23rd, 2008 at 1:51 am
Given this is the only late 50s Randolph Scott western I may have seen in the last 10 or 12 years, and therefore based on a sample of size one, I don’t see any way to disagree with you, Walker. The boxed set is on my want list right now, even as I type.
— Steve
December 23rd, 2008 at 5:39 am
I echo Walker Martin’s comments.
The Boetticher/Scott films are almost uniformly terrific, the only exception being Westbound which, while not being a bad flick, is not in the same league as the others.
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:59 am
Scott and Boetticher made seven westerns between 1956-60, and four of them are considered classics: “Seven Men From Now” (my own favorite), “The Tall T”, “Ride Lonesome”, and “Comanche Station”. The other three are “Decision at Sundown”, “Buchanan Rides Alone”, and “Westbound”, which are OK but not essential. All are available on DVD except “Westbound”, and it has been showing up pretty regularly on the Encore Western Channel.
December 23rd, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I didn’t go into detail in my original comments, but here’s an example that will help explain why I called the story “stagey.” It’s the opening scene, so I’m not revealing anything serious, I don’t believe.
Brigade has been following Billy John and a gang of about five other outlaws, so the odds are say six to one against him.
Rather than let one of his followers lie in wait for Brigade and pick him off as he rides by, Billy John sets up an elaborate “trap” by waiting alone in a clearing in the rocks with the rest of the gang up in the hills surrounding them.
Once Brigade has the drop on Billy, the latter, afraid that Brigade will shoot before he can be killed, waves the others off and meekly allows himself to be captured.
This didn’t make any sense to me, and it stuck with me all through the rest of the movie.
I also think the Indians gave up all too easily, but perhaps — here’s where I’ll have to watch again — their leader was killed, and the others gave up and rode away, never to be seen in the story again.
I’m not denying the general consensus that the Scott-Boetticher westerns are classics. Certainly there’s nothing in Roy and Gene’s movies that can compare, not one iota!
— Steve
December 24th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Steve, I just rewatched Ride Lonesome and was going to argue with you about the two scenes that you had problems with because I thought it all boiled down to Billy John and the Indians simply underestimating Randolph Scott.
But then I realized that what makes these 1950’s Randolph Scott movies different from the usual western is not the plot but the acting and persona of Scott. Sure Boetticher and others were involved but these movies are mainly remembered because of Randy.
I cannot imagine another actor doing as well in these films. Imagine for instance Gene Autry, Roy Rogers or any of the other b western stars in the roles and the films would be just routine or worse. Randolph Scott is in the running for best actor in western films. He really looked, acted, and talked like the Man of the West.
December 24th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Walker
Your comments are right on. (Especially where you said you were going to argue with me but didn’t.)
When I watch a movie for the first time, I tend to concentrate on the story.
When I watch it for a second time, that’s when I pay more attention to the actors and their movements, their way of speaking, and even the way they carry themselves.
I don’t usually watch for what the director is doing until maybe the third time — the way he sets up a scene, the lighting, the length of the screen shots, the close-ups, and so on.
For most movies, I never go past one viewing, but I said earlier, this is one movie that’s already calling me to watch it again.
— Steve
October 13th, 2009 at 8:20 am
just to say i`ve just fell in love with karen steele, what a shame she died in 1988
June 30th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
“Ride Lonesome” is my favorite of the Ranown westerns. in it’s minimalist style..it ranks up there with Mann’s “Naked Spur” and Peckinpahs masterwork,”The Wild Bunch”.