Ride Lonesome

At the end of 50s, Budd Boetticher shot several B-Westerns in quick succession that became classics. The so-called Ranown cycle comprises seven films shot between 1956 and 1960 with Randolph Scott in the leading role, usually made in collaboration with screenwriter Burt Kennedy and producer Harry Joe Brown. In RIDE LONESOME, Scott plays a bounty hunter who is supposed to bring murderer Billy John to Santa Cruz. Two outlaws who hope that Billy’s transfer will mean their own crimes are forgotten intercept them along the way. Following a confrontation with the Indigenous population, a woman whose husband was shot dead also joins the group, while Billy’s former gang now led by his brother Frank is also on their trail. The chase sequence leads through craggy rock landscapes, dry, dusty deserts and dead forests, all captured on impressive CinemaScope.