Ride The High Country (1962)

An aging ex-lawman (Joel McCrea) is hired to transport gold from a mining camp to a bank. It's too dangerous to go it alone so he hires an old sidekick (Randolph Scott) and his protege (Ron Starr) to help him, unaware the the two plot to steal the gold for themselves. Directed by Sam Peckinpah (THE WILD BUNCH), this is a stunning beauty of a western and Peckinpah's first masterwork. Poetic seems like such a pretentious adjective to describe a movie western but I can't think of another word that so accurately describes the movie in a nutshell. The film is simplicity itself yet it has the weight of complex thematics. By the time they did RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, McCrea and Scott (in his final film role) had over 60 years of experience between them and the history they bring to the film cannot be underestimated. As the young couple, Mariette Hartley and Ron Starr are impressive and while Hartley has had a long career, Starr only did 4 movies and quit acting in 1971. Mention must be made of the cinematography of Lucien Ballard who makes exquisite use of the wide screen format. A bona fide classic. With Warren Oates, James Drury, R.G. Armstrong and Carmen Phillips.