Ride the High Country

I was never a great fan of Randolph Scott or Joel McCrea when they were churning out their standard western fayre, but putting them together here as couple of ageing veterans works really quite well. “Judd” (McCrae) used to be a marshal, but now he’s picking up work when and where he can and his latest job is to escort a gold shipment through some risky territory. He decides that he will need a bit of help so ropes in his old friend “Gil” (Scott) and his friend “Heck” (Ron Starr). What we know but he doesn’t, is that they intend to appropriate the gold for themselves. You get the sense that “Gil” would sooner work with his old partner, but let’s just say it’s not going to stop them if he declines. Along the trail they encounter the young “Elsa” (Mariette Hartley) who lives with her oppressive father (R.G. Armstrong) and is pledged to the nasty piece of work that is “Billy” (James Drury). She and “Heck” hit it off and the latter suggests he take her away from the brutality. Initially sceptical, “Judd" reluctantly agrees and off they go - with “Billy” and his even more despicable brothers following them. Though he’s now distracted by his gal, “Heck” and “Gil” are still focussed on relieving “Judd” of his gold - but can they get away with robbery and escape their partner and their pursuers? Though there’s not an huge amount of jeopardy here, this is a characterful drama that allows both of it’s stars to show us that growing old in the saddle was not an easy task, now is knowing who to trust when there is a bag of shiny metal to play for as well. The impressive Hartley stands out, too, as the girl treated as little better than a commodity by a father who clearly does love his daughter, but who expects blind obedience when it comes to what is best for her - a showcase, I suspect, for attitudes to daughters the length and breadth of the “West”. Though there is plenty of rifle action, this is more of a critique on what makes someone decent. What integrity means and how useful that it amidst a population who do epitomise the dog-eat-dog approach to subsistence, sometimes even savage, living. The denouement also quite poignantly suggests a turning point as Sam Peckinpah offers us a glimpse of what might be coming in the footsteps of lawlessness and the bullet. It’s not your standard gun toting fayre, and even if Westerns are not your favourite genre, is worth a watch as a social commentary of a dying and of a nascent age.