# Ride Lonesome (1959 film)
**Ride Lonesome** is a 1959 American Western directed by Budd Boetticher and written by Burt Kennedy, starring [Randolph Scott](https://www.edgepedia.org/randolph-scott) as bounty hunter Ben Brigade, who captures a wanted murderer and uses him as bait to draw the man's brother, the outlaw who killed Brigade's wife, onto his trail[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/53000). It was the sixth collaboration between Boetticher and Scott and one of the five films now known as the Ranown cycle[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/236951/ride-lonesome) • [3](https://cinema.ucla.edu/series/ride-lonesome-the-films-of-budd-boetticher/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | February 1959, United States; 73–74 minutes; CinemaScope; Eastman Color by Pathé[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53000-RIDE-LONESOME?cxt=filmography) |
| Production | Ranown Pictures Corp., for Columbia; produced by Budd Boetticher, executive producer Harry Joe Brown; filmed 14–28 August 1958 in Lone Pine, California[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/53000) |
| Principal cast | Randolph Scott (Ben Brigade), Karen Steele (Carrie Lane), Pernell Roberts (Sam Boone), James Best (Billy John), Lee Van Cleef (Frank), James Coburn (Wid)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/53000) |
| Milestone | First of the Ranown westerns shot in CinemaScope, and the film debut of James Coburn[5](https://www.criterion.com/films/32214-ride-lonesome) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/53000) |
| Budget and schedule | Shot in seventeen days for under a half-million dollars[6](https://dhjhkxawhe8q4.cloudfront.net/new-mexico-university-press/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/02212350/sp23_catalog_web_revised.pdf) |
| Cycle position | Fifth film in the Ranown cycle, named for the production company of Randolph Scott and Harry Joe Brown[6](https://dhjhkxawhe8q4.cloudfront.net/new-mexico-university-press/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/02212350/sp23_catalog_web_revised.pdf) • [7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8204-some-things-a-man-can-t-ride-around-budd-boetticher-s-ranown-westerns) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Bounty hunter Ben Brigade (Randolph Scott) captures the killer Billy John ([James Best](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-best)) and sets out for Santa Cruz, where Billy is wanted for murder. Billy expects his brother Frank ([Lee Van Cleef](https://www.edgepedia.org/lee-van-cleef)), a notorious outlaw, to come after him; what Billy does not know is that Brigade is counting on it. Frank murdered Brigade's wife years earlier, and Brigade intends to use his prisoner as a lure[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/53000) • [8](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10474).
Along the trail the party picks up unwanted companions. At a deserted stagecoach way station they meet Carrie Lane ([Karen Steele](https://www.edgepedia.org/karen-steele)), the station master's wife, whose husband has been killed by Apaches, and two outlaws, Sam Boone ([Pernell Roberts](https://www.edgepedia.org/pernell-roberts)) and Whit ([James Coburn](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-coburn)), who want to take Billy John themselves so they can claim an amnesty for their past crimes[8](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10474) • [9](https://www.insp.com/shows-and-movies/ride-lonesome-1959/). Comanche attacks and the group's conflicting agendas shape the journey, which becomes, in the Museum of Modern Art's description, "a poker game of shifting alliances and revelations"[8](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10474). Brigade kills Frank, shoots Billy down from the tree, turns Billy over to Boone to claim amnesty, and rides off alone; Boone and Whit intend to go straight and take up farming.[10](https://www.dhm.de/assets/Zeughauskino/Download/Filmbl%C3%A4tter_diverseReihen/95_Western1939-1962/Drei_Filme_von_Bud_Boetticher__USA_1958_.pdf) • [4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53000-RIDE-LONESOME?cxt=filmography).
## Production
Ride Lonesome was produced by Ranown Pictures Corp. for Columbia Pictures. The company name, first used with this film, is a portmanteau of "Randolph" and "Brown" (a pun on "renown"), replacing the earlier Scott-Brown Productions; it gives the Ranown cycle its name[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/53000) • [7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8204-some-things-a-man-can-t-ride-around-budd-boetticher-s-ranown-westerns). Location filming took place in [Lone Pine, California](https://www.edgepedia.org/lone-pine-california), in the Alabama Hills, a landscape Boetticher used repeatedly and, in MoMA's words, "made his own"[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/53000) • [9](https://www.insp.com/shows-and-movies/ride-lonesome-1959/) • [8](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10474).
The film was shot in seventeen days for under a half-million dollars, which one study calls "a masterpiece of cinematic minimalism"[6](https://dhjhkxawhe8q4.cloudfront.net/new-mexico-university-press/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/02212350/sp23_catalog_web_revised.pdf). It was the first of the Ranown westerns photographed in [CinemaScope](https://www.edgepedia.org/cinemascope), and the Criterion Collection notes that it makes striking use of the wider frame, ending on a final shot that stands as perhaps the most unforgettable image in the series[5](https://www.criterion.com/films/32214-ride-lonesome). The crew included cinematographer Charles Lawton Jr., editor Jerome Thoms, art director Robert Peterson, and composer Heinz Roemheld[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/53000).
James Coburn made his motion picture debut in the role of Whit; Scott was reportedly impressed enough with Coburn to ask Boetticher to give him more lines[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/53000) • [11](https://wwe.rfhthjmb.dns-dynamic.net/m/ride-lonesome).
## Place in the Ranown cycle
Between 1956 and 1960 Boetticher and Scott made seven westerns together, most of them for Columbia under the Scott-Brown and then Ranown banner, almost always with producer Harry Joe Brown and writer Burt Kennedy[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/236951/ride-lonesome). Five of the Columbia films, Decision at Sundown (1957), [The Tall T](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-tall-t) (1957), [Buchanan Rides Alone](https://www.edgepedia.org/buchanan-rides-alone) (1958), Ride Lonesome (1959), and [Comanche Station](https://www.edgepedia.org/comanche-station) (1960), came to be known as the Ranown cycle[3](https://cinema.ucla.edu/series/ride-lonesome-the-films-of-budd-boetticher/). At a time when the trend ran toward large-scale Westerns such as High Noon (1952), the low-budget Ranown films were, in the UCLA Film & Television Archive's description, "minimalist excursions into pure form"[3](https://cinema.ucla.edu/series/ride-lonesome-the-films-of-budd-boetticher/).
The plot of Ride Lonesome varies the revenge formula of two earlier team efforts, [Seven Men from Now](https://www.edgepedia.org/seven-men-from-now) (1956) and Decision at Sundown (1957), in which Scott's laconic character avenges his wife[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/236951/ride-lonesome). A book-length study by the television writer Kirk Ellis, a two-time Emmy Award winner, calls Ride Lonesome both the best and the most representative film of the cycle, which has been called "the most remarkable convergence of artistic achievement in the history of low-budget moviemaking"[6](https://dhjhkxawhe8q4.cloudfront.net/new-mexico-university-press/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/02212350/sp23_catalog_web_revised.pdf).
## Reception and legacy
[Turner Classic Movies](https://www.edgepedia.org/turner-classic-movies)' essay by Jeremy Arnold ranks the film among the finest of either Boetticher's or Scott's career, praising its balance of action, humor, and character moments and an ending that "culminates in something resembling Greek tragedy"; Boetticher had to press Columbia's studio leadership to secure the ending he wanted for the Sam and Whit characters[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/236951/ride-lonesome). The film's spare dialogue and psychological westerns have drawn filmmaker admirers including [Clint Eastwood](https://www.edgepedia.org/clint-eastwood) and Martin Scorsese, according to the Eye Filmmuseum[12](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/ride-lonesome/1418430).
The film remains in circulation. [Sony Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/sony-pictures) has issued a remastered digital and Blu-ray edition[13](https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/ridelonesome), and Criterion includes it in its 4K UHD and Blu-ray box set The Ranown Westerns: Five Films Directed by Budd Boetticher[5](https://www.criterion.com/films/32214-ride-lonesome). It streams on services including FlixFling and Tubi, with digital purchase from $12.99 on Apple TV, Prime Video, Google TV, and YouTube[14](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/ride-lonesome/11650/where-to-watch/). In Germany it was first released on 14 September 1959 under the title *Auf eigene Faust*[10](https://www.dhm.de/assets/Zeughauskino/Download/Filmbl%C3%A4tter_diverseReihen/95_Western1939-1962/Drei_Filme_von_Bud_Boetticher__USA_1958_.pdf).
## References
1. [Ride Lonesome (1959), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/53000)
2. [Jeremy Arnold, "Ride Lonesome," Turner Classic Movies (2009)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/236951/ride-lonesome)
3. [Ride Lonesome: The Films of Budd Boetticher, UCLA Film & Television Archive](https://cinema.ucla.edu/series/ride-lonesome-the-films-of-budd-boetticher/)
4. [AFI|Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53000-RIDE-LONESOME?cxt=filmography)
5. [Ride Lonesome (1959), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/32214-ride-lonesome)
6. [Kirk Ellis, Ride Lonesome, University of New Mexico Press catalog](https://dhjhkxawhe8q4.cloudfront.net/new-mexico-university-press/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/02212350/sp23_catalog_web_revised.pdf)
7. ["Some Things a Man Can't Ride Around: Budd Boetticher's Ranown Westerns," The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8204-some-things-a-man-can-t-ride-around-budd-boetticher-s-ranown-westerns)
8. [Ride Lonesome. 1959. Directed by Budd Boetticher, MoMA](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10474)
9. [Ride Lonesome (1959), INSP](https://www.insp.com/shows-and-movies/ride-lonesome-1959/)
10. [Zeughauskino film sheet: Drei Filme von Bud Boetticher, Deutsches Historisches Museum](https://www.dhm.de/assets/Zeughauskino/Download/Filmbl%C3%A4tter_diverseReihen/95_Western1939-1962/Drei_Filme_von_Bud_Boetticher__USA_1958_.pdf)
11. [Ride Lonesome, Rotten Tomatoes audience reviews](https://wwe.rfhthjmb.dns-dynamic.net/m/ride-lonesome)
12. [Ride Lonesome, Eye Filmmuseum](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/ride-lonesome/1418430)
13. [Ride Lonesome, Sony Pictures Entertainment](https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/ridelonesome)
14. [Ride Lonesome (1959): Where to Watch, Moviefone](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/ride-lonesome/11650/where-to-watch/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Westerns before 1980 › Released 1930 to 1960*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license