STACK Mar #137

24 / 99

visit EXTRAS
24 MARCH 2016
back when the frontier was untamed
and they believed in justice, loyalty
and honour. But the West they shared
has practically vanished and they now
have very different ideas on how to
deal with the change and their own
obsolescence.
Although both arthritic, saddle-sore
and bullet-scarred, Judd still remains
loyal to his code of honour. Westrum
on the other hand has become more
cynical, and unbeknownst to his
partner, plans to steal the gold as
payback for the long years of dutifully
putting his life on the line for ungrateful
people who now care nothing for past
service. Westrum’s view on his lot is
reflected early on in the film when he
says to his partner, “Steve, do you
know what’s on the back of a poor
I n the summer of 1962, a low-budget
western was given a general release
as the lower half of a double-bill that
featured the turgid Italian-made costume
drama The Tartars .
To the average moviegoer, the western
appeared to be just another standard cowboy
movie that at the time were still regularly rolled
out by most of the Hollywood studios in
support of their A-feature films. Indeed close
examination of the cast, which included old-
time cowboy actors, Randolph Scott and Joel
McCrea, would appear to confirm its B-movie
status.
However, word quickly spread through
critical reviews and amongst cinemagoers that
rather than being just another “oater”, this
movie was more a minor classic western. The
film’s popularity grew to such an extent that
many US theatre managers took it upon
themselves to reverse the billing on
their marquees to advertise Ride the
High Country as the main feature of the
double-bill.
The story centred on two former
lawmen, marginalised by old age and
circumstance, who undertake one
last ride as hired guns. Their contract
is to bring in a shipment of gold from
a mining camp in the High Sierras –
described to them as “a sinkhole of
depravity”– and deliver it to a small
town bank.
On the journey they meet various
characters including a young runaway
girl, who is intent on marrying one of
the notorious Hammond clan who are
pan-handling in the gold fields. The
two main protagonists, Gil Westrum
and Steve Judd (played by Scott and
McCrea) reminisce about the old days
Major Dundee (1965) Directed by Sam Peckinpah
The Background
Part 1:
The notorious Hammond clan in Ride the High Country
Many US theatre
managers took it
upon themselves to
reverse the billing
on their marquees to
advertise Ride the
High Country as the
main feature of the
double-bill.
Westrum (Randolph Scott) and Judd (Joel McCrea) walk
toward the Hammond gang for the final showdown in
Ride the High Country