When was Ride the High Country filmed?

‘Ride the High Country’ is an American Western film, internationally also known as ‘Guns in the Afternoon’. Released back in 1962, the western revolutionist film was the second movie to be directed by Sam Peckinpah, who also played a major role in coming up with the script. Joining him was the pair N.B. Stone Jr. and William S. Roberts. As for the cast members, this film starred Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, and Mariette Hartley. The cast also included the likes of Edgar Buchanan, James Drury, Warren Oats, and Ron Starr. ‘Ride the High Country’ was later selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant in the year 1992. This was given, considering the popularity of the film, and thus, here we shall look into the filming locations of ‘Ride the High Country’.

Randolph Scott retired from acting once he saw the completed film, as he wanted to quit while he was ahead and that he would never be able to better his work further, making this his last movie. Joel McCrea also retired after this film. However, he later agreed to appear in a few more films. Joel finally retired from acting at the age of 69 after shooting Mustang Country. The embittered characters and realistic gunplay are what made Peckinpah become famous. The film was a Revisionist take on its genre.

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When was Ride the High Country filmed?

Still from Ride the High Country

Plot

The story revolves around Steve Judd, who is an ex-lawman, his old friend Gil Westrum, Gil’s protégé Heck Longtree and a young woman named Else Knudsen, played by Joel McCrea, Randolph Scott, Ron Starr, and Mariette Hartley, respectively. Steve Judd takes a job transporting gold deposits from a mining camp in the Sierra Nevadas across the mountains to the bank after falling on hard times. He asks his old friend and ex-lawman as well, Gil Westrum, to assist him with this job, to which Gil agrees. They are accompanied by Gil’s protégé Heck Longtree on the dangerous journey.

They later rescue the desperate young woman, Elsa Knudsen, from a horrific life with her abusive father along the way. The men take Elsa to her fiancé, Billy Hammond, played by James Drury, after which the young couple gets married. However, Steve, Gil, and Heck will eventually have to rescue her again when she learns that she will have to endure Billy’s brothers, who intend on “sharing” her for their sexual pleasures.

Steve later learns that Elsa was not the only complication along his journey. He finds out that Gil and Heck intend to steal the gold shipment. Steve, however, is able to thwart their plan to steal the gold, after which Gil runs off and leaves Steve and Heck on their own to face Billy’s brothers, who they have been ambushed by to take back Elsa.

While running away from the situation, Gil’s conscience gets the best of him, and he returns to help Steve and Heck defeat Billy’s brothers. However, in the midst of fighting, Steve gets fatally wounded, and Gil promises him that he will fulfill his mission and get the gold to the bank.

MGM released the movie as a bottom-of-the-bill horse opera, which resulted in the first of many battles to come for Peckinpah with studio executives. The film was initially ignored in the States but was a major success abroad, released in Europe as ‘Guns in the Afternoon,’ and over the years, it became recognized as an important work. Although this was the last of Scott’s films, it was the debut film for Hartley.

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When was Ride the High Country filmed?

Ride the High Country location

Ride the High Country Filming Locations

The filming locations for Ride the High Country were situated in Los Angeles. According to David Weddle’s book on Peckinpah, “If They Move, Kill ‘Em!”, after four days of shooting, a freak snowstorm on the original Inyo National Forest location forced Peckinpah to move the entire cast and crew back to Los Angeles to continue shooting the film in the Santa Monica Mountains. This resulted in them having to use soapsuds instead of the real Sierra Nevada snow for the scenes at the Coarsegold mining camp. Peckinpah was extremely unhappy with the substitution, but he had no other choice but to continue. Despite these problems, the film completed filming just a mere four days over schedule, and only 52,000 dollars over budget.

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When was Ride the High Country filmed?

Ride the High Country (released in the UK as Guns in the Afternoon) is a 1962 American Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, andMariette Hartley. The supporting cast includes Edgar Buchanan, James Drury, Warren Oates, and Ron Starr. Written by N. B. Stone Jr.

In 1992, Ride the High Country was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."[2] It features Randolph Scott in his final screen performance.[3]

Contents[]

 [hide] *1 Plot

Plot[edit][]

In the early years of the twentieth century, an aging ex-lawman, Steve Judd (Joel McCrea), is hired to guard a shipment of gold from a high country mining camp to the town of Hornitos, California. Six miners were recently murdered trying to transport their gold on the one trail leading down from the crest of the Sierra Nevada. In his prime, Judd was a tough and respected lawman, but now his threadbare clothes and spectacles serve as reminders that he is long past his prime. Judd enlists the help of his old friend and partner Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott) to guard the gold shipment. Gil, who makes his living passing himself off as a legendary sharpshooter named The Oregon Kid, enlists the help of his young sidekick, Heck Longtree (Ron Starr).

Judd, Gil, and Heck ride up into the mountains toward the Coarse Gold mining camp. Judd doesn't know that Gil and Heck are planning to steal the gold for themselves—preferably with Judd's help, but without it if necessary. Along the way they stop for the night at the farm of Joshua Knudsen (R.G. Armstrong) and his daughter Elsa (Mariette Hartley). Knudsen is a domineering religious man who warns against those who "traffic in gold" and trades Bible verses with Judd at the dinner table. That night, Elsa and Heck meet in the moonlight, but Knudsen breaks up their rendezvous. Back at the house, he conks her for her behavior. Unable to tolerate her father's domination and cruelty, Elsa leaves her home the next morning. She later joins Judd, Gil, and Heck on their ride to Coarse Gold where she intends to marry her fiancé. Along the way she and Heck flirt and he tries to force himself on her but is stopped by Judd.

When they reach the Coarse Gold mining camp, they soon discover that the girl's fiancé, Billy Hammond (James Drury), is a drunken lout who intends to prostitute her to his four thuggish brothers, Elder (John Anderson), Sylvus (L.Q. Jones), Jimmy (John Davis Chandler) and Henry (Warren Oates). Judd and Heck rescue the girl from the marriage, and the next morning, Judd, Gil, Heck and Elsa start back towards town with the gold. Along the way, Judd talks to Gil about right and wrong and how that's "something you just know." After all the lost years working in disreputable places, he tells Gil that he's now grateful to have gained back some of his self-respect and intends on keeping it "with the help of you and that boy back there." When Gil asks if that's all he wants, Judd replies, "All I want is to enter my House justified."

Realizing Judd will never go along with his plan to steal the gold, Gil plans to steal the gold without his help. During the night as Gil and Heck prepare to leave with the gold, Judd confronts them at gunpoint. Angered by his old friend's betrayal, he slaps him and challenges him to a draw, but Gil throws down his guns. Planning to put them on trial when they return to town, Judd is forced to change his plans when the Hammond brothers appear in hot pursuit of the girl. In the ensuing gunfight, two of the brothers, Jimmy and Sylvus, are killed, and Billy, Elder and Henry escape.

During the night, Gil leaves camp and heads back to the site of the gunfight, where he takes a horse and gun from one of the dead brothers . Then he follows Judd, Heck, and Elsa down the only trail. Meanwhile, Heck has shown himself to be trustworthy, and even though he will most likely go to prison, Elsa tells him she'll be there when he gets out. When they reach Elsa's farm, the Hammond brothers are waiting, having already killed her father. A gunfight breaks out and soon both Judd and Heck are wounded. Just then Gil comes riding in to help his old friend, and together they insult and challenge the brothers to a face-to-face shootout in the open. When the dust settles, the three brothers are dead, but Judd is mortally wounded. He tells his old friend, "I don't want them to see this. I want to go it alone." When Gil pledges to take care of everything just like he would have, Judd says, "Hell, I know that. I always did. You just forgot it for a while, that's all." Judd looks back toward the high country and then dies. The film's final shot is of a mountain that was behind him.

Cast[edit][]

Production[edit][]

Filming locations[edit][]

  • 20th Century Fox Movie Ranch, Malibu Creek State Park, 1925 Las Virgenes Road, Calabasas, California, USA
  • Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park, 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Inyo National Forest, 351 Pacu Lane, Bishop, California, USA
  • Mammoth Lakes, California, USA (Twin Lake)
  • Merrimac, California, USA[5]

Reception[edit][]

The movie was released on the bottom half of a double bill. William Goldman says he spoke to an MGM executive at the time who says the film had tested strongly but they felt the film "didn't cost enough to be that good".[6]

According to MGM records, the film made a loss of $160,000.[7]

The film was a NYT Critics Pick: according to Bosley Crowther, who saw it in a double bill with The Tartars, greatly preferred Ride the High Country, calling it a "perfectly dandy little Western" and "the most disarming little horse opera in months." According to Crowther:[8]

The two young people are quite good, especially Miss Hartley, a newcomer with real promise. R. G. Armstrong and Edgar Buchanan also contribute telling bits. We know little about the director and scenarist, but Mr. Peckinpah and Mr. Stone certainly have what it takes. And so, if anybody ever doubted it, do a couple of leathery, graying hombres named McCrea and Scott.

Ride the High Country was hailed as a success upon its release in Europe, beating Fellini's classic 8½ for first prize at the Belgium Film Festival and winning the Paris film critics award for best film. Critics were particularly enthusiastic about the film's mix of the conventional and the revisionist in its treatment of the Western.[citation needed] They hailed Peckinpah as a worthy successor to classic Western directors such as John Ford.

The film's reputation has only grown in following years, with Peckinpah's admirers citing it as his first great film.[9] They also note that all of the themes of Peckinpah's later films, such as honor and ideals compromised by circumstance, the difficulty of doing right in an unjust world, the destruction of the West and its heroes by industrial modernity, and the importance of loyalty between men are all present in Ride the High Country for the first time.[citation needed] In 1964 the film won the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association.

In his autobiography In the Arena (1995), Charlton Heston wrote that he was considering remaking the film in the late 1980s, presumably with Clint Eastwood as a co-star.[citation needed] After viewing Ride the High Country Heston proposed Harry Julian Fink's script of Major Dundee (1965) to Peckinpah.[1]

According to an introduction to the movie on Turner Classic Movies, the original casting was for McCrea to play the Gil Westrum part and Randolph Scott to play Steve Judd. After reading the script the two men agreed that a switch of roles was in order.