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Ride the High Country Overview:

Ride the High Country (1962) was a Adventure - Drama Film directed by Sam Peckinpah and produced by Richard E. Lyons.

Ride the High Country was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1992.

Ride the High Country BlogHub Articles:

Ride the High Country (1962): A Sam Peckinpah Western

By 4 Star Film Fan on Jul 31, 2019 From 4 Star Films

Admittedly at times, I fall into the trap of getting so caught up in the context of a film and its history I miss out on elements of the experience. However, when I watched Ride the High Country it didn’t feel like I was getting distracted by how this story pertained to others — at leas... Read full article

Ride the High Country (1962)

By Beatrice on Oct 27, 2017 From Flickers in Time

Ride the High Country Directed by Sam Peckinpah Written by N.B. Stone Jr. 1962/USA Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer First viewing/Netflix rental Two classic actors go mano-a-mano amid some stunning autumn scenery in this enjoyable Western. Steve Judd (Joel McCrea) is an aging ex-gunslinger and marshal who is ... Read full article

Warner Archive Blu-ray: Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea in Ride the High Country (1962)

By KC on May 22, 2017 From Classic Movies

One of the most amusing things about Ride the High Country is that as aging cowboys, Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea are in some ways playing themselves. While director Sam Peckinpah was at the beginning of his career, and still finding the style that would have film fans cooing about "balletic viole... Read full article

Ride the High Country (1962, Sam Peckinpah)

By Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 13, 2015 From The Stop Button

Ride the High Country is a fine attempt. It’s not a successful attempt, but it’s a fine one. Director Peckinpah seems to know what he wants to do, but he’s too trapped in Western genre tradition. Having icons Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott as his leads (they’re both great), G... Read full article

The Diamonds and Gold blogathon: Ride the High Country (1962)

By Caftan Woman on Apr 12, 2014 From Caftan Woman

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... Read full article

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Ride the High Country Quotes:

Steve Judd: I don't want them to see this. I'll go it alone.
Elsa Knudsen: My father says there's only right and wrong - good and evil. Nothing in between. It isn't that simple, is it?
Steve Judd: No, it isn't. It should be, but it isn't.
Elder Hammond: I got *him*.
Gil Westrum: Pardner, do you know what's on the back of a poor man when he dies? The clothes of pride. And they're not a bit warmer to him than when he was alive.
Billy Hammond: You know, Elder, I hate to get married with one of my brothers smellin' bad enough to gag a dog off a Gut Wagon.
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Ride the High Country Facts
In the original script, Randolph Scott's character doesn't survive the climatic shoot-out but Joel McCrea's does. During Sam Peckinpah's rewrite, he felt it more poignant that the Gil Westrum character (played by Scott) is redeemed by promising the dying Judd that he will deliver the gold, so the characters' outcome were reversed.
The film had originally been intended for Gary Cooper and John Wayne, but Cooper died before filming began.
According to David Weddle's book on Peckinpah, "If They Move, Kill 'Em!', four days into shooting, a snowstorm on the original Inyo National Forest location forced the entire cast and crew back to Los Angeles to resume shooting the film in the Santa Monica Mountains, which resulted in the soapsuds substitution for real Sierra Nevada snow in the scenes at the Coarsegold mining camp. The substitution not surprisingly irritated Peckinpah immensely, but he pressed on. Despite these problems, the film finished a mere four days over schedule, and only $52,000 over budget.
The canvas used to make the tents in the mining camp came from leftover sails from MGM's Mutiny on the Bounty. In addition, an outer set used for How the West Was Won was also utilized.
In the late 1980s Charlton Heston considered starring in a remake with Clint Eastwood. Heston accepted the title role in Major Dundee after seeing this film.
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