MartinHafer
The film begins with Mike Ryan (Joel McCrea) heading to a town by stage. They end up being robbed and when one of the robbers loses his mask, his partner blows him away...as he's a man who wants no one to know his identity. That's because in town he's a respectable guy...which is why the sheriff is having a hard time figuring out who's been robbing the stage coaches. Now that Mike's in town to help, perhaps they'll finally have some action.I had to laugh when folks in the movie kept complaining how old the sheriff was and how they needed a young guy...like 52 year-old McCrea (who actually looks a bit older). Still, he was fine in westerns and this one won't disappoint...nor will it particularly impress because so much of the story seems ordinary and familiar.
Scott LeBrun
"Gunsight Ridge" is an adequate, likable B Western that finds its star, Joel McCrea, in fine form. For the most part, it's routine, but it does have some nice touches, especially in the way that it treats its villain, Velvet Clark (Mark Stevens). Clark is definitely the bad guy, but we are treated to scenes in which he reveals what his preferred line of work would have been, had the reality of his situation not interfered. There's a rich array of character actors, and some very beautiful ladies. Both the music (by David Raksin) and cinematography (by Ernest Laszlo) are well done. Francis D. Lyon directs quite capably, and does particularly well at staging a suspenseful "last stand" finale that plays out without any score.McCrea stars as Mike Ryan, a stranger who comes to a small town for a purpose known only to him. He impresses the local sheriff (Addison Richards) enough to get himself deputized, and he handles things such as collecting taxes from locals, while also helping out to determine the identity of the bandit who's been robbing stages. Forming a subplot are the run-ins that Mike has with the ill-behaved boys who work at the nearby Lazy Heart ranch.McCrea is quite engaging, playing a lead character who's every bit the good, honest, dependable hero. His supporting cast reads like a who's who of veteran talent. In addition to Richards, there's Robert Griffin, I. Stanford Jolley, George Chandler, Slim Pickens (who's quite amusing in his brief part), Herb Vigran, L.Q. Jones, Morgan Woodward, Dan Blocker, and Hank Patterson. Jones and Woodward are fun as two of the antagonistic Lazy Heart ruffians. McCrea's son Jody has a small part as a young man getting married. Joan Weldon, Darlene Fields, and Carolyn Craig are all quite pleasing to look at in the female roles. Best of all is Stevens, who's appropriately intense and not entirely unsympathetic."Gunsight Ridge" is not particularly memorable, but it is sufficiently entertaining for an agreeably paced 86 minutes.Seven out of 10.
Spikeopath
Gunsight Ridge is directed by Francis Lyon and written by Talbot and Elisabeth Jennings. It stars Joel McCrea, Mark Stevens, Joan Weldon, Addison Richards, Darlene Fields and Carolyn Craig. Music is by David Raksin (title tune sung by Dean Jones) and cinematography by Ernest Laszlo. McCrea plays Mike Ryan, an undercover Stage Line agent who while investigating a series of robberies takes the job of a deputy Sheriff in a border Arizona town. Gunsight Ridge is a neat little Western, better than most of its black and white type because it rises above its formulaic story to reveal interesting characters and good strands of plotting. In the mix is the detective work as Ryan hunts stagecoach robber Velvet Clark (Stevens) whilst also enforcing law in the town. There's a gang of ruffians on the outskirts of town known as The Lazy Heart Boys, who offer a side-bar of criminal activity, while Ryan and the Sheriff's daughter (Weldon) start to build an attraction. There's cold blooded murder on show, a rampaging stagecoach sequence through the rocky terrain and a finale up in them thar rocks that satisfies greatly. It is also a film that looks and sounds terrific. Raksin's score is full of thunder and sorrow, while Laszlo's moody photography is atmospherically noirish. It's the characterisation of Velvet Clark that is the trump card though. He is shown to be a ruthless killer and thief, yet he also has a sympathetic edge. He is given some depth by the writers, shown to be a frustrated pianist, he's tortured by his artistic leanings and how he has ended up on the wrong side of the law. With McCrea doing another in his line of straight backed and stoic man of the people turns, the dual aspect of good and bad characters works beautifully. There's other little character moments of worth as well, such as Carolyn Craig playing a young farm girl romanticising herself with the outlaw Clark, and old Sheriff Jones (Richards) obsessed with catching the robber because he doesn't want his perfect record blemished. Comfortably recommended to fans of 1950s "B" Westerns. 7/10
stripes-7
Francis Lyon always chose to have one (usually short and out of context) spot in his films that displayed some sort of tenderness, some sort of heart, in a figure that seemed to have neither. In this film, the guy in the black hat (Mark Stevens) happens up on an old abandoned shed in the middle of the desert. He goes in to find that there is nothing of use, but spies an old upright piano. It's long been neglected and is covered in dust. He blows the dust off and sits down to this abused keyboard. Suddenly, he is playing a very beautiful little piece that belies his present roughness and coldness and lets the audience know that it was not always this way with him.That he came from somewhere better, in another place, another time. David Raksin wrote this music. Its very quiet, simple and goes straight to the heart. It's been exactly fifty years since I have heard it last, but I remember every note as if it had been only yesterday.Perhaps one day it will appear again, but for now, I must depend on my memory if ever to hear those quaint chords again.
AD
