The Ride Back (1957)

A troubled sheriff, a failure at everything in his life, tries to redeem himself by extraditing a popular gunfighter from Mexico to stand trial for murder.

Director:

Allen H. Miner

Writer:

Antony Ellis

Stars:

Anthony Quinn, William Conrad, Lita Milan

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Anthony Quinn	...	Bob Kallen
William Conrad	...	Sheriff Chris Hamish
Lita Milan	...	Elena
Victor Millan	...	Father Ignatius
Jorge Treviño	...	Border Guard (as George Trevino)
Ellen Hope Monroe	...	Little Girl
Joe Dominguez	...	Luis
Louis Towers	...	Boy

Storyline

A Sheriff goes into Mexico in search of a man wanted back in the States. Finding him, he starts back. But it's a long way back, he has a reluctant captive, and there are unfriendly Indians along the way. The Sheriff admits his life has been a failure but this mission he plans to accomplish.

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Plot Keywords:

sheriff | mexico | failure | murder | handcuffs | 

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Taglines:

It Rides a Trail NO Western Ever Rode Before!

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Genres:

Drama | Western

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 September 1957 (Finland)

Also Known As:

The Way Back

Filming Locations:

Janss Conejo Ranch, Thousand Oaks, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Associates & Aldrich Company, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

79 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was based on a story originally written for the radio version of "Gunsmoke" in 1952, which also starred William Conrad at the time.

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Quotes

Sheriff Chris Hamish: That's the reason you're going back to stand trial, Kallen. Because of me, you understand? Because of me!
Bob Kallen: Hamish, you're better off dead.

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Soundtracks

"The Ride Back"
Music and Lyrics by Frank De Vol
Sung by Eddie Albert

User Reviews

Anthony Quinn over-acting

This would have been a pretty good movie if someone else had been cast in the role of Kallen, instead of Anthony Quinn. Like in most of his lead roles, Anthony Quinn is a huge ham, and overacts to the max. At the beginning of the movie, Quinn is the biggest macho in town who has to literally fight off the girls. As he is leaving the town, all the peasants show up with machetes and offer to kill Sheriff Hamish (William Conrad). Quinn, being such a major macho, says he will do his own killing.

In most of the scenes, you have William Conrad, in his low rumbling tone of voice, and Anthony Quinn, who was always shouting his lines. I cannot say how awful Quinn's acting always was. He played the same role in every movie, and usually shouted at everyone all the time. Here, it is worse, since this is a low budget B movie, and most of the scenes are with Conrad and Quinn. There are maybe another ten characters in this movie, and the only one that has more than a couple of minutes is Lita Milan, who plays Quinn's rabidly adoring girlfriend.

If you can get past the obnoxious performance by Anthony Quinn, you will notice that this story is very similar to dozens of episodes of Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Cheyenne, etc. Sheriff has to bring back outlaw from Mexico. It has been done many times, and most of them were better than this story. I think they were trying to shoot for something along the lines of the chemistry of Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis (The Defiant Ones) with all the arguments and fighting, but Anthony Quinn never had any chemistry with anyone, and it shows.