Budd Boetticher

Ride Lonesome

Ride Lonesome

Mysterious motivations drive taciturn bounty hunter Ben Brigade (Randolph Scott) to capture a wanted murderer—but his quest is complicated when he is accosted by a pair of outlaws who have their own inscrutable reasons for riding along. Masterfully scripted by Burt Kennedy, who weaves a complex web of ambiguous loyalties and motives, and featuring supporting turns by genre icons James Coburn (in his film debut) and Lee Van Cleef, the first of the Ranown westerns to be shot in CinemaScope makes striking use of the enlarged frame—with a final shot that stands as perhaps the single most unforgettable image in the series.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1959
  • 73 minutes
  • Color
  • 2.35:1
  • English

Available In

Collector's Set

The Ranown Westerns: Five Films Directed by Budd Boetticher

The Ranown Westerns

4K UHD+Blu-ray Combo Box Set

6 Discs

$119.96

Ride Lonesome
Cast
Randolph Scott
Ben Brigade
Karen Steele
Carrie Lane
Pernell Roberts
Sam Boone
James Best
Billy John
Credits
Director
Budd Boetticher
Produced by
Budd Boetticher
Executive producer
Harry Joe Brown
Written by
Burt Kennedy
Director of photography
Charles Lawton Jr.
Art director
Robert Peterson
Film editor
Jerome Thoms
Set decorator
Frank A. Tuttle
Assistant director
Jerrold Bernstein
Recording supervisor
John Livadary
Sound
Harry Mills

Current

The Outlaw Variations: The Ranown Westerns’ Finely Drawn Antagonists
The Outlaw Variations: The Ranown Westerns’ Finely Drawn Antagonists

The protagonists in Budd Boetticher’s five classic Columbia westerns are paired with opponents who, venal though they may be, almost always have their reasons.

By Glenn Kenny

Some Things a Man Can’t Ride Around: Budd Boetticher’s Ranown Westerns
Some Things a Man Can’t Ride Around: Budd Boetticher’s Ranown Westerns

In his five collaborations with actor Randolph Scott and producer Harry Joe Brown, Boetticher presents an unsentimental vision of honor-bound men competing and banding together in a desolate landscape ruled by chance.

By Tom Gunning