Ride Lonesome's great strength is its economic visual sensibility. This is announced from the very first shot, as the credits role over a stunning wide shot of a rock-laden landscape. Not only does Boetticher continue that very shot to begin the action, he ends up tracking downward into a pass that adds a menacing quality to this early sequence. The story is largely by-the-numbers, but the performances are compelling enough and the pace brisk enough for an enjoyable ride.

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Standard but well executed western. The acting is a bit stiff but otherwise the nice story of redemption makes this worthwhile.

Short but sweet - Lee van Cleef's arrival gave it a bump.

It's difficult to explain why I like Boetticher's westerns. This one for instance is so traditional in most ways. There is just something amiable about its combination of straightforwardness with a touch of complexity whereby nothing can be taken for granted. It has some superficial gloss but something seedy and grainy underneath, a sort of effortless grit. The cast rocks, featuring not only Boetticher's mainstay Randolph Scott but also the genre's luminaries Lee Van Cleef and James Coburn.

Mildly enjoyable revenge-themed Western. Decent performances and some good dialogue, but the film's best quality is its gorgeous scope cinematography, all those magnificent wide vistas and the final image of the burning tree. However, points off for some really vile racism, and a tinge of sexism too.

A fine Burt Kennedy script enables the Boetticher-Scott team to create a very fine western. Pernell Roberts as the "good baddie" is very fine, and the ending of the film is both unexpected and satisfying.

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