RIDE LONESOME

US, 1959, 73 minutes, Colour.
Randolph Scott, Karen Steele, Pernell Roberts, James Coburn, Lee Van Cleef, James Best.
Directed by Budd Boetticher.

is a Randolph Scott vehicle, well made by Budd Boetticher, noted for his brief compact and well-made Westerns and bull-fighting films. The screenplay is by Burt Kennedy, who was to move into the direction and writing of Westerns in the early sixties and made such fine Westerns as the serious 'Welcome to Hard Times' and the satiric 'Support your Local Sheriff'.

James Coburn appears in an early role as does Lee van Cleef. The film has the basic vengeance theme as well as the issues of the bounty hunter. It is brief, well made and sustains its suspense and themes.

1. An interesting and entertaining Western?

2. The Western conventions used - the serious isolated hero as bounty hunter, the revenge theme, the callous criminal, ambushes, Indians, of the bounty hunters, the isolated wife, stagecoach, Indians, the shootout? How well used - with originality?

3. Colour, Cinemascope photography, the atmosphere of the score?

4. The plausibility of the plot - sufficient for the purposes of the Western? How realistic, contrived?

5. Brigade as hero? Randolph Scott's style, his entry into the film, the threats on his life, using his wits, his seeming hardness, his taking of Jack, the mistrusting of Boone and Whit, the compassion for Carrie, the luring of Frank? The Indians, using wits? Judged as a harsh bounty hunter, the explanation of his past to Carrie? The confrontation, the shooting? The vengeance and his going off? The significance of the title and his character?

6. Carrie as heroine - at the wagon post, her husband and her grief, being bartered for by the Indians, her being persuaded by Boone and Whit, by Jack? Her fidelity to Brigade and admiration for him?

7. Boone and his character, past, clash with Brigade, work with Whit? Frank's callousness? His being left with Jack? Whit and his devotion and following of Boone?

8. Jack as callous villain, young, taken in? Frank and his callousness and pursuit and the shootout? The hanging?


9. How well did the film sustain interest, suspense? The journey, its hazards? The changing of power positions? The manoeuvring of situations?

10. The basic themes of good and evil, integrity, justice, law, vengeance? A satisfying Western?