Ride the High Country (1962)

Joel McCrea is Steve Judd, a former lawman of repute forced to take odd jobs now that he’s aged. Randolph Scott is Gil Westrum, his former deputy, who now makes his living running a carnival-stand where passers-by are encouraged to try to outshoot him.

Judd travels into mining country looking for a job guarding a gold shipment. It’s a chance to get some of his dignity backs. He invites Westrum along, not realizing he’s more interested in the gold than the job.

Along for the ride is Heck Longtree (Ron Starr), Westrum’s still-wet-behind-the-ears partner, and they’re soon joined by pretty Elsa Knudsen (Mariette Hartley), who’s so bored with her life under the thumb of a preacher’s father that she’s ready to ride off to a mining camp to marry a man she barely knows.

The mining camp doesn’t turn out to be merely as lucrative as Judd was led to believe. But that doesn’t change Westrum’s mind about the gold. And if he can’t talk Judd into going along with his plan, he’s ready to steal his retirement stake at he point of a gun.

Review:

Marvelous movie with one of the great endings in Western film history. Scott and McCrea excel, of course, and Hartley turns in a splendid performance as a young woman anxious to grow up in what marked her film debut.

Peckinpah gives us wonderful little details — Judd’s frayed shirt sleeves and the way he can’t afford to leave a dime at Westrum’s carnival stand — as well as larger scenes — the wedding procession — that are refreshingly unique.

Scott retired after seeing the film, and it’s a fitting final movie for him. McCrea planned to as well, but wound up making a couple more Westerns that paled in comparison to this one. James Drury plays the man Mariette Hartley’s character marries and Warren Oates is one of the brothers determined to help him break her in as the wife of a Hammond boy.

Directed by:
Sam Peckinpah

Cast:
Randolph Scott … Gil Westrum
Joel McCrea … Steve Judd
Mariette Hartley … Elsa Knudsen
Ron Starr … Heck Longtree
Edgar Buchanan … Judge Tolliver
R.G. Armstrong … Joshua Knudsen
Jenie Jackson … Kate
James Drury … Billy Hammond
L.Q. Jones … Sylvus Hammond
John Anderson … Elder Hammond
John Davis Chandler … Jimmy Hammon
Warren Oates … Henry Hammond

Runtime: 94 min.

Memorable lines:

Mr. Samson, bank president: “I must say, Mr. Judd, I expected a much younger man.”
Steve Judd: “Well, I used to be. We all used to be.”

Ron Starr, after getting his first look at Elsa: “Think of all that, going to waste up here.”
Gil Westrum: “Like the man said, gold is where you find it.”
Steve Judd: “If it’s not yours, don’t covet it.”

Gil Westrum: “Partner, do you know what’s on the back of a poor man when he dies? Clothes of pride. And they’re not a bit warmer to him when he’s dead than when he was alive. Is that all you want, Steve?”
Steve Judd: “All I want is to enter my house justified.”

Steve Judd: “I’m going to put you behind bars, Gil?”
Gil Westrum: “You’ll play hell gettin’ it done.”

Elsa Knudson: “My father says there’s only right and wrong, good and evil. Nothin’ in between. It isn’t that simple, is it?”
Steve Judd: “No, it isn’t. It should be. But it isn’t.”

Gil Westrum: “Don’t worry about anything. I’ll take care of it. Just like you would’ve.”
Steve Judd: “Hell, I know that. I always did. You just forgot it for a while. That’s all.”

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  1. ALLEN CHILDERS July 16, 2023

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