RIDE LONESOME

Apparently Randolph Scott appeared in over 60 Westerns, but this is the first I've seen, and (spoiler alert) it's probably going to be the last.

Scott plays Ben, a bounty hunter who is trying to deliver a young murderer, Billy, to Santa Cruz, despite various obstacles which he has to overcome.

Firstly there's some pesky Native Americans (or to be more specific Mescalores) who are apt to pop up at any time.  For a film made in 1959 the portrayal of Native Americans here is not very progressive.  

Then there's a guy called Sam.  Although they are now on opposite sides of the law, he and Ben know each other from way back and there's a mutual respect bordering on friendship between them.  

Sam and his sidekick Whit (James Coburn in his debut performance) are tagging along because Sam would desperately like to be the one to bring Billy into Santa Cruz.  This would be not so much for the money as for the amnesty he would receive that would wipe out his outlaw record and allow him to start a new life.  This is so important to Sam that if necessary it seems that he might kill Ben for it.  

Sam would quite like to start that new life with Carrie, whose husband was murdered by the Mescalores at the start of the film.  She's played by Karen Steele, who seven years later would make quite an impression on teenage me by her appearance in a Star Trek episode ('Mudd's Women').

The treatment of her character here is hard to stomach.  Leaving aside the fact that she is essentially irrelevant to the plot, the film goes out of its way to emphasise that she is simply an object of lust.  In one scene she is shown in profile, so as to emphasise her figure, whilst Sam and Whit leer at her from a distance.  In another scene the Mescalores want to trade a horse for her, which about sums up the attitude of the film towards her.

Ben's main concern is neither the Mescalores or Sam, but Billy's brother Frank (Lee Van Cleef) who is pursuing the party. 

It slowly emerges during the course of the picture that Ben is deliberately making it easy for Frank to catch them up, because Ben's real objective is not to bring Billy to justice but to wreak revenge on Frank, for killing his wife some time in the past.  

There's a climactic confrontation between Ben and Frank with the inevitable outcome (Frank's death), so that Ben can then happily hand Billy over to Sam.  

The story is decent enough, but somehow, despite its short running time (a mere 73 minutes), it seemed to drag.  Between the early scenes setting things up and the final action, there's not a lot going on to hold the interest.

Being brutally honest, Randolph Scott is not much of a leading man, in terms of acting ability or screen presence.  Lee Van Cleef and James Coburn are underused, and the rest of the cast are nondescript.  Budd Boetticher's direction is adequate but he's unable to create any dramatic momentum.

RATING: x Curb Your Enthusiasm