Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

moonspinner55 Beautifully-filmed Budd Boetticher outdoor saga, one in a series of westerns the filmmaker produced with star Randolph Scott (usually from a screenplay by writer Burt Kennedy), involves former sheriff-turned-bounty hunter attempting to bring in wanted killer across desolate Arizona terrain, inadvertently coming to the aid of shapely widow whose husband was captured and killed by Indians. Film opens with terrific desert stand-off, but rather quickly lapses into genre clichés with the arrival of two randy gunmen (Pernell Roberts and a debuting James Coburn) paying the lady a hostile visit. Aside from Charles Lawton Jr.'s glorious color cinematography, Randolph Scott's unruffled, low-key charm is really the only thing this routine adventure has going for it. Dialogue scenes are stilted, as is the male camaraderie. ** from ****

wes-connors Seasoned bounty hunter Randolph Scott (as Ben Brigade) catches killer James Best (as Billy John) in the old west – but it's a trap. Outlaws in the hills have their weapons aimed at Mr. Scott. Though surrounded, Scott smoothly talks his way out of the situation. On their way to Santa Cruz, the premeditating men pick up perceptive Pernell Roberts (as Sam Boone) and his sidekick James Coburn (as Wid). This was the first feature film role for Mr. Coburn, then primarily a TV actor. While Scott and Mr. Roberts vie for biggest gun in the group, director Budd Boetticher drops a sex bomb into the picture with pointed blonde Karen Steele (as Carrie). The "big guns" contest ends right there. Now, the contest becomes who is the sneakiest...The smart money is on Scott..."Ride Lonesome" is another fine western from director Boetticher and his frequent collaborators, producer Harry Joe Brown and writer Burt Kennedy. For this one, cameraman Charles Lawton Jr. contributes outstanding color photography. A "wide screen" without thousands of extras made several otherwise accomplished directors look momentarily lost in the 1950s, but Boetticher does extraordinarily well, here. For landscape and imagery, this is probably the best of his Randolph Scott pictures. A close second (a least) is "Comanche Station" (1960). Also notable is the fine soundtrack by Heinz Roemheld, even if it does occasionally sound distractingly like somebody is going to start singing "All 'er Nothing'" (from "Oklahoma!").********* Ride Lonesome (2/15/59) Budd Boetticher ~ Randolph Scott, Pernell Roberts, James Best, James Coburn

LeonLouisRicci If you are not particularly a Western movie fan, but are a film buff who feels an obligation to visit all genres, there are some Directors that epitomize and rise above the pack. It is with these Artisans you can savior that which is the best of an admitted overload of mediocrity and banality.The Westerns of Directors...Budd Boetticher, Anthony Mann, Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone, and if you want to get into the more mainstream, John Ford.Here we have one of seven films that Boetticher did with Randolph Scott and with the always excellent writer Burt Kennedy's curt, colorful dialog. Speaking of colorful. This one was filmed in Cinemascope and the stylistic inclusion of landscape as character is on display here in all it's encompassing beauty. There is nary a close-up in this film and there is no need. It is so well framed the characters are developed by their words, position, and posture. As always the Director delivers style as well as substance and populates the movie with interesting multi dimensional characters and the cast is outstanding. This is primal as well as evolutionary and humorous as well as deadly serious. A rich and elegant film that is a parade of people through a place within a time when there was an individual and not a collective code of honor.

Lechuguilla Well, certainly that majestic desert landscape is beautiful, with those wide-open spaces, sand, rocks, mountains, and general absence of civilization. And DP Charles Lawton, Jr. does a nice job capturing the expansiveness of the place, with people seeming insignificant amid the sprawling vastness.That said, I find little of interest in the story or the characters. Bounty hunter Ben Brigade (Randolph Scott) seeks to capture a youthful killer, played by James Best. But other characters intervene to muddle the motivation and overall plot … such as it is.The story's pacing is slow. And there's not a lot of action, apart from perfunctory frontier business. Characters talk; they ride; they talk some more; ride some more. Midway through, some Indians yelp and holler, and provide a little menace, as they circle the fortress and raise their spears of war.I know this was a low-budget effort. And it shows. We can almost imagine film crew just off screen as characters talk and dawdle. Only one set exists. And there are no interior scenes at all. The film gets a lot of mileage out of extensive dialogue and slow talking.Wooden-faced Randolph Scott gives his usual performance as a mannequin, so expressionless and stilted is his manner. That he was in so many films must surely be explainable by his network of Hollywood connections ... I can think of no other reason.The film's score is overbearing and dreadfully nondescript. Use of camera filters is conspicuous in night scenes.Dull, plodding, and very slow, "Ride Lonesome" makes for somniferous viewing. But that desert landscape is indeed quite beautiful.