One of the worst movies I've ever seen

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

"The Ride Back" is a low budget black and white 79 minute western that is essentially a two character story featuring a half breed Mexican fugitive (Anthony Quinn) and the hot sweaty sheriff (William Conrad) who tries to bring him back from Mexico to the USA for trial.Quinn and Conrad play off of each other as each tries to out smart the other. Quinn claims his innocence but certain of his actions leaves us in doubt. Conrad's sheriff is an ordinary looking down on his luck law man who nevertheless vows to bring Quinn to justice. The two play psychological games with each other with a band of renegade Apaches stalking them all the way.Things change however, when they encounter a little girl (Ellen Hope Monroe) whose family has been massacred by the Apache. She fears the gruff grizzled sheriff while Quinn's fugitive uses her liking for him to his advantage. Then the Indians attack and.......................Conrad who was also the producer was probably instrumental in getting Anthony Quinn to play the fugitive. Quinn had just won an Oscar for "Lust for Life" and was in big demand by others. I'm sure that he didn't do this one for the money but saw the merits of a well written story. You can almost feel the intense heat as the principals cross the territory.Also in the cast are Lita Milan as Quinn's girl friend, Victor Millan as the village Padre and Jorge Trevino as the border guard.

Toward the middle and latter end of the 50s the B western shifted to television but many were still done for the big screen as well. Cowboy heroes were strictly relegated to the small screen and the ones done now were adult fare. The Ride Back was typical of these kinds used as second features for double bills.What makes this unusual though is the presence of a name actor, one who had just won his second Oscar the year before. Anthony Quinn's salary must have been three quarters of the budget or he was paying off a debt by appearing in The Ride Back. Quinn plays a fugitive here returning to Mexico to escape a murder charge. Whom he's taking The Ride Back with is Sheriff William Conrad.Conrad is no heroic sheriff, in fact he confesses to being a failure at most things he's tried is determined to succeed here. As for Quinn he swears it was self defense and doesn't think he'll get a fair trial as a Mexican. The whole film is about developing trust.When the Indians attack the two have to trust each other, but it's slow developing. A mute little girl they rescue as a survivor of an Indian attack serves as the catalyst for this purpose.Quinn and Conrad are an interesting pair of protagonists, no heroes or villains here, just people in a foul circumstance. No frills in this black and white film, but an interesting character study.

Strictly as a matter of timing, I was struck by the very opening sequence in which a young boy runs across a dusty Western street with a gun going 'bang, bang' at an imaginary outlaw. As I write this, the nation is undergoing a raucous debate over proposed new and stricter gun control laws following the Newtown, Connecticut massacre, and the media is filled with numerous stories of kids as young as five years old getting reprimanded or suspended from school for doing the same thing, sometimes for just pointing a finger to simulate a pistol. If the kid in the picture did that today, he'd probably be arrested for sure.You know, teaming William Conrad and Anthony Quinn was an interesting casting choice. It looks like they should have been in each other's role, such is their influence on supporting characters. The charismatic and good looking Kallen (Quinn) is supposed to be the bad guy, and the sweaty, bloated Hamish is the lawman. That dynamic is neatly explored in the second half of the story as the duo comes under Apache attack and rescue a young girl who lost her parents to the savages. Hamish confesses his insecurities and failures in life to Kallen, and even though Kallen has ample opportunity to make his getaway a number of times, he's developed an understanding and trust in the sheriff to get a fair trial for a murder back in the States.The film runs a compact seventy nine minutes and makes use of crisp black and white photography that's made even more cinematic whenever Lita Milan hits the screen as Kallen's Mexican firebrand fiancée. I would swear that Ellen Hope Monroe looks like she might have grown up to become some famous movie star (resemblance to Lee Meriwether?), but in checking the credits, she only made one other picture, and that one, "The Black Orchid", had Anthony Quinn in the lead role as well. She really didn't have that much to do here except look vulnerable, but as far as that goes, she made it work.

"The Ride Back" is a B&W Western from 1957 starring William Conrad (aka "Cannon") as a hard-luck Texas lawman sent to Mexico to bring back a charismatic man wanted for murder, played by Anthony Quinn.Plot-wise, the film is reminiscent of another B&W 1957 Western, "3:10 to Yuma," but "The Ride Back" was released about 4 months prior to "3:10" and was adapted from a "Gunsmoke" radio program episode. Conrad played Matt Dillon on the radio show in the 50s and early 60s but was too short and portly for the TV version that premiered in 1955 with James Arness starring as Marshal Dillon. Conrad produced "The Ride Back" in response.Viewing "The Ride Back" for the first time, it is interesting to see William Conrad some 15 years before starring in "Cannon" and Anthony Quinn is as larger-than-life as ever, not to mention the stunningly beautiful Lita Milan as Quinn's Mexican girlfriend. Yet I discovered that the true appeal of "The Ride Back" transcends these surface attractions.The first thing that happily struck me about the movie is that the filmmakers strove for realism in the manner of notable 50s Westerns by Stewart/Mann and Scott/Boetticher. Such realism is observed in the heavy use of Spanish in the early Mexican segments and the film's depiction of Indians. The Native Americans here are elusive wraiths more than anything else, but that's the best route to go at a time when more close-up portrayals of Indians typically came off artificial and even laughable, especially as seen through modern eyes.After the first half-hour the film morphs into a moving character study. ***SPOILER ALERT*** Hamish (Conrad) slowly realizes that Kallen (Quinn) is everything he's not: Hamish is brooding and self-loathing while Kallen exudes life and confidence; Hamish's wife hates him while Kallen's girlfriend is so devoted she chases him across the desert; Hamish is a loner while Kallen inspires love and loyalty, so much so that the Mexican villagers are willing to kill Hamish at Kallen's word; an orphaned girl withdraws from Hamish while naturally bonding with Kallen, etc. We also learn the reason for Hamish's obsessive hunt is that he wanted to finally do something right and prove himself to his wife and the people of his Texas community. As the story progresses Hamish is increasingly enlightened to the greatness of Kallen. It's a testimony to his character that this enlightenment doesn't result in hateful envy bur rather admiration and respect. ***END SPOILER***The title song was sung by Eddie Albert of "Green Acres" fame; a lot of people hate it but I thought it was pretty decent. Hey, it's better than similar Western theme songs from the era, like the horrible "North to Alaska" (wonderful film but lousy theme song).The film runs 79 minutes and was shot in California and Mexico.FINAL WORD: I was braced for an artificial 50's Western but got a potent character study instead. Who would have thought? The only negatives I can cite are that it's in black & white and has some slow, less-than-compelling parts. Regardless, I prefer it to the original "3:10 to Yuma." GRADE: B+ or A-