Michael O'Keefe
This is an overlooked classic Western that helps cement director Sam Peckinpah's career. Down and out, strapped for cash, two former lawmen Steve Judd (Joel McCrea) and Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott) are hired by a bank to deliver a huge amount of gold from a mining camp in the high Sierras down to the bank. More or less swan songs for McCrea and Scott as their long lasting careers wane. To be exact, this is the final effort of Scott. The two old friends wrestle with ethics as one wants to take the proceeds and run, while the other intends to finish the assignment agreed to. The action scenes are full of realism and the two stars turn in memorable performances. The sweeping vistas are terrific.Rounding out the cast: Mariette Hartley, R.G. Armstrong, Ron Starr, James Drury, L.Q. Jones and Warren Oates.
jacobs-greenwood
An above average Western featuring two of the genres most recognizable stars, Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott (in his last film). Both men have a history together as outlaws, but McCrea has gone straight and is now in charge of getting the gold from the mines to the bank. To help him, he hires his old friend Scott who, along with a young hothead (Ron Starr), is in town dressed up like "Buffalo Bill" and demonstrating his fancy shooting.Scott believes he can persuade his old partner to split the gold with him before they return, and must act as a buffer between the impatient young ruffian and his old friend. While en route, the three encounter a religious farmer (R. G. Armstrong) and his under socialized daughter (Mariette Hartley), who steals away to join them.The trouble really begins when they get to the remote mining town, encountering an inbred mountain family of hoodlums (which includes Warren Oates) and its judge (Edgar Buchanan).Directed by Sam Peckinpah, and written by N.B. Stone Jr., it was added to the National Film Registry in 1992.
dworldeater
Ride The High Country is an early film by Sam Pechinpah. Starring two old school western stars from the 30's, 40's and 50's Randolf Scott and Joel Mc Rea, who have never worked together, but have excellent chemistry here. Even though Ride The High Country was made fairly cheap, the film looks awesome. Plus performances are solid and Sam's tight direction and attention to detail bring this production well above average. There is great dialogue, shootouts and fistfights to be had. Rounding out this production is a great support cast of Pechinpah regulars that would work with Sam in the future, that includes Warren Oates, RG Armstrong and LQ Jones. Much of Sam's personal philosophy and moral code is played out here in the great open American frontier. While The Wild Bunch is Sam's masterpiece, Ride The High Country shows his unique vision and talents early on, plus Ride The High Country is solid and a great and highly enjoyable western in its own right.
weezeralfalfa
We have a group of 3, later 4, traveling together along a primitive mountain horse trail from the valley town of Hornitos, CA to a primitive mining camp(Coarse Gold). Although not always obvious at first, the 4 have 4 goals between them for so traveling together. Young Elsa Knudsen is running away from her overbearing father to marry a man in the mining camp she barely knows. Old-timer, sometimes former lawman, Steve Judd(Joel McCrea) is going to pick up a shipment of gold nuggets for the bank, after various miners have been robbed and killed recently making this journey. He enlists an old sometimes lawman buddy, Gil(Randy Scott), currently reduced to being a Buffalo Bill-imitating side showman in a carnival, and Gil's young partner, Heck, to back up in case of trouble. The problem is that Gil actually plans to steal the gold, with Heck's reluctant complicity. Gil hopes to later convince Steve to join them. Meanwhile, Heck hopes to seduce the flirtatious Elsa along the way, and perhaps convince her to abandon her fiancé for him. This yarn is full of rather familiar characters and situations for westerns. There is the attempted gold shipment heist. The seedy mining camp, populated by an assortment of criminals, opportunists, drunks, gamblers and bawdy gaudy prostitutes. There is Edgar Buchanan, in a familiar role as the always drunk corrupt judge in this camp. We have a naïve young woman being fought over by unsavory men, as she is attempting to escape her possessive father's grasp. We have an old gunslinger in Steve, who is trying to justify his life by doing good deeds to hopefully cancel out some past bad deeds. We also have an old gunslinger in Gil, who feels no need to justify his existence by always doing the useful and honorable thing. He may help Steve achieve his goals, or he may do what he thinks is best for him. Finally, we have a band of 5 brutish brothers in the mining camp, who leave Gil unscathed in their several gun battles, but eventually mortally wound Steve, leaving Gil and Heck to decide what to do with the gold. Steve's death eliminates the threat of their being jailed for their past attempted robbery.The screenplay has elements roughly similar to those in several westerns I am familiar with. In some respects, it rather resembles "Vera Cruz", with Steve taking on Cooper's role as the more honorable of the pair, while Gil is the counterpart of Lancaster's greedy character. However, the ending is quite different. Instead of a shootout between the two men, Steve and Gil partner in a mimicry of the legendary OK coral gunfight between the Earps vs. a gang of rowdy cowboys. It also differs in that the more honorable one of the pair, rather than the greedy one, dies. Thus, we have to hope, with no assurance, that Gil will live up to his promise to the dying Steve that he will complete Steve's mission of delivering the gold, and will live an honorable life thereafter. It also somewhat resembles "Along the Great Divide", in which Kirk Douglass is transporting a suspected cattle thief and murder plus his daughter to a distant town for trial, while the trio are being harassed periodically by the victim family, intent on killing the suspect without a trial.We don't find out why old Gil and young Heck are friends. Heck is simply required by the plot. Although later in film, Heck is portrayed as being perhaps worthy of Elsa's trust and love, we aren't very comfortable with his character, because he was talked into stealing the gold, and because he tries to rape Elsa at one point, after he got the understandable impression that she was encouraging him, while supposedly on the trail to marry another man. Thus, we also wonder about Elsa's character: whether she is any more loyal wife material, at present, than the bawdy Kate and her prostitutes. Hence, the only character we are really comfortable with is Steve, because he consistently does the honorable thing, in breaking up Heck's rape attempt, initiating and carrying out the contentious rescue of Elsa from the clutches of the evil Hammonds, and in attempting to deliver the gold to the bank in the face of treason by his companions.On the surface, the Hammonds are prospectors. We may suspect, but are provided no evidence, that they carried out the recent thefts and murders on this trail. What is so special about Elsa to them, with plenty of willing prostitutes available, to make them risk their lives to recapture this now fearful bride? Do they know that the party of 4 is carrying much gold, thus providing an additional reason for attacking them? Steve's strategy of shaming the remaining brothers into exiting the house to fight a gun battle in the open comes across as very contrived. I can't believe they were that compliant or cared one iota about their sense of honor!This is an unusual story in that Randy's character is first billed and the ultimate survivor, whereas McCrea's character clearly is the more heroic, encouraging Randy's character to live up to his standards, and eventually to replace him when he dies. Thus, Steve serves as the better father model for young Heck, as Heck eventually recognizes.I have noted the many similarities with the plot of the previous "Ride Lonesome", in another review.
