The Ride Back Reviews

Conrad (who more frequently worked as a producer of westerns) plays a loner lawman who decides to take captured outlaw Quinn across the Mexican border back to Texas. This will entail four days' travel through desert and Indian territory, but despite the protests of his girl friend (Milan), Conrad is determined to make the trip. The trek turns into a psychological cat-and-mouse game, in which Quinn constantly challenges Conrad's authority, planting doubts in his captor's mind about the lawman's job and life. Eventually, the two come upon the site of an Indian massacre, where they find a single survivor, a little girl whom they take along with them. During another Apache attack, Conrad is wounded, and Quinn sees his chance to escape. But guilt catches up with him for the first time in his life, and Quinn returns to lead the wounded man and little girl to safety, even though he knows this will mean he will have to stand trial for murder. The intensity of its two leads lifts THE RIDE BACK a cut above most westerns. Each man acts according to the set of attitudes and the role society has thrust upon him, but along the trail a friendship of necessity emerges between them, wordlessly and tentatively. This was the feature debut for director Miner, who had previously made a fine documentary, THE NAKED SEA, and who allows the story here to unfold slowly, with a steady increase in intensity. Unfortunately, this film was virtually ignored upon release and sank into obscurity.