La sanglante embuscade

Joel McCrea stars in Gunsight Ridge as an undercover agent for Wells Fargo which has been getting regularly robbed on a certain stagecoach run through the territory of Addison Richard who is the sheriff. He's not getting the job done so McCrea's brought in.

The title refers to a particularly rough stretch of country where McCrea has his final showdown with the bad guy or at least the chief bad guy.

There are two sets of them, one is a group of four cowhands from George Chandler's ranch who do a little cattle rustling on the side, two of them western standbys L.Q. Jones and Morgan Woodward. The other is a man of mystery who plays an exquisite piano and goes by the unlikely western name of Velvet. This is a guy who clearly has some issues which in a better script would have been more explicitly dealt with. Mark Stevens may have had his career role in playing this man.

Addison Richard gives a nice performance as an aging sheriff who won't quit until the stagecoach bandit is taken dead or alive. McCrea does what he can to help and the sight of Richard's pretty daughter Joan Weldon gives him all that more interest.

Viewers might also note the presence of farm girl Carolyn Craig who helps both Stevens and then McCrea. She's one lonely girl with a budding libido and an itch to get off the farm. In a bit role as a bartender is Dan Blocker who with his frame and voice you can't miss.

Not one of Joel McCrea's best westerns, but his fans should like it.

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

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 ...

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.