Gunsight Ridge

Gunsight Ridge is a "B" western with an "A " cast. Excellent story line ,understated score and fine photography all combine to tell the story of an agent played by McCrea who is sent to solve a series of robberies.Mark Stevens pretends to be a washed out mine owner while really robbing banks and stages. McCrea hires on as a deputy sheriff while investigating the crimes. When the sheriff Addison Richards is killed,McCrea vows revenge.Unusually somber atmospheric tone makes Gunsight Ridge a classic western. Rating ....Seven stars out of ten.

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.

Pretty fair Western. The script meanders some, but with characters coming in and out of the story line, it's not a conventional screenplay. McCrea plays a stagecoach agent on the trail of hold-up man Mark Stevens. They're not exactly routine good-guy bad-guy. As a deputy sheriff, McCrea enjoys collecting county taxes and getting a 10% cut-- and how many tax collectors have you seen in a Western? Also, bad guy Stevens plays the moody piano, not well, but enough to suggest a sensitive soul lurking somewhere inside-- and how many Western villains have you heard named "Velvet"!. Then there's teen-age Carolyn Craig alone on the prairie, doing a good frontier imitation of Debbie Reynolds, and ready to hook up with anything in pants. I like the four rowdy cowhands who take about 10 minutes to totally trash a cabin. The scene may be unnecessary, but it sure looks like someone's having a lot of fun. Also worth noting is the final shootout, which takes good advantage of the scenery and reminds me of the final shootout in the classic Winchester 76. All in all, there are some offbeat touches for a cowboy movie of the 1950's. And besides, any film with that great Western star Joel McCrea is worth watching.

Other posters are right to mention this film's formal qualities—strong acting, excellent b/w cinematography, and poignant touches like the villain's piano interludes and Carolyn Craig as the farm girl—along with the film's historical status as a late specimen of the B western film when television was chock-a-block with shoot-em-ups.

This transitional historical moment gives Heartbreak Ridge a hybrid quality, as it combines the movie western's intensity and depth of character with the TV western's bare staging. The script itself could hardly offer less to work with, with the back-stories for the hero and villain being provided only by Joel McCrea's Irish affectations and Mark Stevens's 2 or 3 lines about having the talent to play the piano but not the money or leisure. "Gunsight Ridge" is a good title, but if like me you wait in westerns for at least some allusion to explain a title, for this one you have to wait until someone casually mentions a border obstruction that will provide the setting for the final showdown.

The western in any medium is always fairly minimalist—the more I've watched, the more words seem only pauses in action, landscape, and music. Given such plain fare, skill matters more than brilliance: for instance, Joel McCrea could ride a horse, and the cinematographer knew how to capture his skill. Cameo bonus: the groom in the quirky border town marriage is the late Jody McCrea, who would play the comic Bonehead in early 60s surfing-beach movies with Annette and Frankie.

In this western starring Joel McRea, the star goes undercover along the Arizona border to investigate several nasty border ruffians. Mark Stevens co-stars and as always turns in a fine performance. The script is good and holds the viewers interest throughout.

Joel McRea was at his best in this western detective yarn..... a story not unlike those from his radio series Tales of the Texas Rangers . A great cast of western character actors make the most of an interesting story.

Any western with this cast would be exciting and this film does not disappoint. Enjoy this one, they don't make 'em like this anymore ...