The Tall T (1957)

A classic Randolph Scott Western. Here he plays Pat Brennan, a rancher captured by three outlaws and held for ransom. With him are "Mrs. Mims" (Maureen O'Sullivan)---daughter of a wealthy silver miner—and her new husband, who suggests that the outlaws ransom his wife as a way of keeping himself alive.

The story follows basically the same pattern as many of Randolph Scott's other films with Budd Boetticher – there's three villains, the charming and superficially likeable leader, one who's outright evil, and a young kid who's probably not innately bad, but just been mislead. (These are used to greater effect in the later films in the series, but are all present here). Richard Boone's performance as the leader is the highlight here – he finds himself liking Randolph Scott's character against his own better judgement, but probably doesn't have as much in common with the hero as he'd like to believe. As is usually the case in this series, Randolph Scott gives the villain a chance to simply ride away, but the villain inevitably never takes it, choosing to return for the money.

This was originally based on an Elmore Leonard short story, and I think the weaknesses occur primarily when it deviates from the story. That's mainly the introduction, which isn't bad and does a decent job of introducing the characters, but feels less interesting than the main body of the film.