It is my pleasure to be co-hosting Rich Watson's (
Wide Screen World) brainchild,
The Diamonds and Gold Blogathon, highlighting some of the great film performances from actors past the age of 50 (which we all know is the new 30!). Tomorrow this site will be devoted to ladies of a certain age. Today, my contribution looks at three popular actors together in one of the best westerns from any era.
Ride the High Country was a 1962 release based on a script by N.B. Stone, Jr. (TVs
Zorro,
Cheyenne,
Bonanza, etc.) that writer/director Sam Peckinpah reworked to create a personal vision in the story of two aging lawmen at the dawn of the 20th century. Peckinpah's film serves as a forward-looking farewell to an era of filmmaking and a tribute to a vanished breed of men.
Joel McCrea (1905-1990) was born in California and followed through on an interest in the motion picture industry by appearing as an extra in films in the 1920s and studying acting to prepare for the hoped-for big break. Blessed with good looks and an athletic build, McCrea was a perfect match for films. Signed by RKO he appeared in increasingly larger roles in interesting films such as
The Lost Squadron,
Bird of Paradise and
The Most Dangerous Game. He proved a fine match opposite popular leading ladies such as Miriam Hopkins (
The Richest Girl in the World,
Barbary Coast,
These Three), Ginger Rogers (
Primrose Path,
Chance at Heaven) and Irene Dunne (
The Silver Cord).
McCrea was an understated actor whose work smoothly speaks for itself in bona fide classics such as Alfred Hitchcock's
Foreign Correspondent, Preston Sturges'
Sullivan's Travels and
The Palm Beach Story, William Wyler's
Dead End and George Stevens'
The More the Merrier. By the mid-1940s McCrea, also a rancher by trade found himself comfortably in the position of a screen cowboy in such well-remembered titles as
Ramrod,
The Virginian,
Colorado Territory and
Stars in My Crown.
"I liked doing comedies, but as I got older I was better suited to do Westerns. Because I think it becomes unattractive for an older fellow trying to look young, falling in love with attractive girls in those kinds of situations ... Anyway, I always felt so much more comfortable in the Western."
- Joel McCrea
Joel McCrea as Steve Judd
In Ride the High Country 57-year-old McCrea plays Steve Judd, a former renowned marshal fallen on hard times. He has taken a job of transporting gold from an isolated mining camp to a bank. The trail is dangerous as miners have been murdered in recent attempts to get to town, and the take is expected to be in the tens of thousands. Judd is an honourable man who is loyal to his personal code of right and wrong, and to his employers. Successfully completing this assignment is a matter of pride and one which Judd hopes will encourage others to see him as a worthy of hire. Joel McCrea as Steve Judd gives us a character who is down, but not out; a philosophical man who has retained his values and his good humour. The stakes involved in his trek to the mining camp of Coarse Gold are large and Steve thinks he has found someone to help him in the task.
Someone with the same sense of pride, Gil Westrum is also a former lawman now running a sideshow carnival booth going by the name of the Oregon Kid with a list of imaginary villains run to ground. Westrum earns his living soaking the rubes with the help of a younger partner Heck Longtree played by Ron Starr. Westrum agrees to go along on the job for old time's sake, and for the money.
Randolph Scott as Gil Westrum
In what would be his final film role in a 34-year film career, 63-year-old Randolph Scott (1898-1987) plays Gil Westrum. He commented to McCrea at the end of filming that it was time to hang them up as they'd never find another script as good. It was mainly in B westerns such as To the Last Man, Wagon Wheels and The Thundering Herd, which kept the young actor from North Carolina gainfully employed in his early Hollywood career. However, he became a popular and well-rounded lead and second lead in many familiar titles including A Successful Calamity with George Arliss, Murders in the Zoo starring Lionel Atwill, the adventure-fantasy She, The Last of the Mohicans as Hawkeye, two Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals, Roberta and Follow the Fleet, and two Shirley Temple movies Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Susannah of the Mounties.
It was westerns where Randolph Scott excelled and seemed most at home in such top-flight titles such as Frontier Marshal, Jesse James, Western Union, and Belle Starr. By the late 1940s Scott, forming his own production company with Harry Joe Brown (Ranown) would focus exclusively on westerns. The mid-budget westerns proved extremely popular and profitable, featuring an interesting array of age-appropriate leading ladies including Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury, and Ann Dvorak.
Produced by John Wayne's Batjac in 1956, Scott starred in 7 Men from Now written by Burt Kennedy and directed by Budd Boetticher. Scott and Boetticher would collaborate on seven highly regarded westerns solidifying Scott's screen character as a man who might do the right thing for the wrong reason or vice versa. His characters were often edgy loners, suspicious and secretive in nature. Gil Westrum plays off that Scott persona and gives us an interesting and layered character.
Ride the High Country features some lovely exchanges between Steve and Gil which recounts their history and their present situation. Particularly telling is
their reminiscing about a girl and what might have been. Steve is looking for a sort of redemption for his life and a chance to "enter his Father's House justified". Gil feels the world owes them both more than they received out of the dangers they have faced and the chances they have taken. Gil is determined to steal the gold with which they are entrusted and feels he is just. Steve will only do the right thing, no matter the cost or who must pay.
Mariette Hartley, Ron Starr, Joel McCrea, Randolph Scott
The journey to Coarse Gold brings a young woman into the entourage. Elsa Knudsen played by Mariette Hartley is running from her dictatorial father, played by R.G. Armstrong, to marry one of the mining Hammond brothers, Billy played by James Drury. Elsa's presence leads to conflict when an attraction arises between her and Heck, and the Hammonds (John Anderson, Warren Oates, L.Q. Jones, and John Davis Chandler) turn out to be less than forthright citizens. Marrying Billy is a mistake for Elsa and a wonderfully disturbing scene in the movie. The wedding takes place in a whorehouse with its garish inhabitants and customers. The ceremony being unceremoniously performed by a drunken judge, Tolliver by name, played by Edgar Buchanan.
Edgar Buchanan (1903-1979), beloved as Uncle Joe on TVs Petticoat Junction, was a dentist who turned his practice over to his wife and began a career as a movie extra at the age of 35 in 1939. The extra career didn't last long because by 1940s The Sea Hawk, Edgar Buchanan's ability as a scene-stealer of the highest order was recognized. The adventure epic was quickly followed with prime roles such as Applejack in Penny Serenade, "Doc" Thorpe in Texas and Sam Yates in The Talk of the Town.
Edgar Buchanan as Judge Tolliver
Previous to Ride the High Country, Buchanan had appeared in six movies opposite Randolph Scott including The Desperadoes, The Walking Hills, and Abilene Town, and twice with Joel McCrea in Buffalo Bill and Wichita. In Ride the High Country the 60-year-old Buchanan excels as Judge Tolliver in the horrific wedding scene, marshaling his lost dignity to proclaim:
"I am not a man of the Cloth, and this is not a religious ceremony. It is a Civil marriage, but nonetheless, it should not be entered into unadvisedly, but reverently and soberly. You know, a good marriage has a kind of simple glory about it. A good marriage is a rare animal, hard to find - almost impossible to keep. I don't know - you see - well, people change. It's important for you to know at the beginning that people change. You see, the real glory of marriage don't come at the beginning. It comes later and it's hard work."
The wedding night turns to a nightmarish shambles when the Hammond brothers attack Elsa, and Steve and Heck agree to take her back to her home. The Hammonds object, but agree to leave the matter in the hands of the miners' court. Gil Westrum fixes the proceedings with a visit to Judge Tolliver. It is a pleasure to watch Randolph Scott and Edgar Buchanan in the scene where Westrum bullies the judge into relinquishing his license to void the wedding. Nothing they had appeared in together before was ever quite as chilling as that scene. You can tell that they knew this was the goods!
Westrum finds the hungover Judge Tolliver in a back bedroom at Kate's and offers him some liquor.
Tolliver:
Thank you, sir. What can I do for you?
Gil:
Clear up a little technicality, if you will. They're holding a Miners' Court. About that marriage last night, they'll want to know if it was legal.
Tolliver:
Of course it was legal!
Gil:
Well, I believe that. But the Court may want proof. In the form of a license. To perform marriages. You got one?
Tolliver:
See for yourself.
Gil (reading):
Signed by the Governor of California. Yes sir, there's no question at all about the legality of this document. Now Judge, when you testify at that Miners' Court I'm going to ask you one question: 'Do you possess a license to marry people in California?' And you're going to answer, 'No'. Am I clear?
Tolliver:
But that's a lie.
Gil:
No, it isn't. You don't possess it. I do (pocketing the license).
Tolliver:
Now, hold on, Mister...
Gil:
Listen to me, you fat-gutted soak, you're going to do as you're told. Understand?
Tolliver nods.
Gil:
Do you recall the question I'm going to ask you?
Tolliver nods.
Gil:
And what do you answer?
Tolliver:
No.
Gil:
Very good. Let's go.
Of course, the Hammonds aren't going to make this simple and the violent force they comprise, combined with the Westrum's treachery from within the group creates the tension and action of the final act of Ride the High Country.
Good acting is a combination of work, inspiration, material, and talent. When you can add experience into that mix you can create truly memorable movie moments. Ride the High Country has an interesting ensemble of younger performers about to make their mark in the industry, but it is the work of the old pros, Joel McCrea, Randolph Scott and Edgar Buchanan that make the film a classic which was placed on the National Film Registry in 1992.
