Ride The High Country - Plot

Plot

In the early years of the twentieth century, an aging ex-lawman, Steve Judd (Joel McCrea), is hired to guard a shipment of gold from a high country mining camp to the town of Hornitos, California. Six miners were recently murdered trying to transport their gold on the one trail leading down from the crest of the Sierra Nevada. In his prime, Judd was a tough and respected lawman, but now his threadbare clothes and spectacles serve as reminders that he is long past his prime. Judd enlists the help of his old friend and partner Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott) to guard the gold shipment. Gil, who makes his living passing himself off as a legendary sharpshooter named The Oregon Kid, enlists the help of his young sidekick, Heck Longtree (Ron Starr).

Judd, Gil, and Heck ride up into the mountains toward the Coarse Gold mining camp. Judd doesn't know that Gil and Heck are planning to steal the gold for themselves—preferably with Judd's help, but without it if necessary. Along the way they stop for the night at the farm of Joshua Knudsen (R.G. Armstrong) and his daughter Elsa (Mariette Hartley). Knudsen is a domineering religious man who warns against those who "traffic in gold" and trades Bible verses with Judd at the dinner table. That night, Elsa and Heck meet in the moonlight, but Knudsen breaks up their rendezvous. Back at the house, he hits her for her behavior. Unable to tolerate her father's domination and cruelty, Elsa leaves her home the next morning. She later joins Judd, Gil, and Heck on their ride to Coarse Gold where she intends to marry her fiancé.

When they reach the Coarse Gold mining camp, they soon discover that the girl's fiancé, Billy Hammond (James Drury), is a drunken lout who intends to prostitute her to his four thuggish brothers. Judd and Heck rescue the girl from the marriage, and the next morning, Judd, Gil, Heck and Elsa start back towards town with the gold. Along the way, Judd talks to Gil about right and wrong and how that's "something you just know." After all the lost years working in disreputable places, he tells Gil that he's now grateful to have gained back some of his self-respect and intends on keeping it "with the help of you and that boy back there." When Gil asks if that's all he wants, Judd replies, "All I want is to enter my House justified."

Realizing Judd will never go along with his plan to steal the gold, Gil plans to steal the gold without his help. During the night as Gil and Heck prepare to leave with the gold, Judd confronts them at gunpoint. Angered by his old friend's betrayal, he slaps him and challenges him to a draw, but Gil throws down his guns. Planning to put them on trial when they return to town, Judd is forced to change his plans when the Hammond brothers appear in hot pursuit of the girl. In the ensuing gunfight, two of the brothers are killed.

During the night, Gil leaves camp and heads back to the site of the gunfight, taking one of the brothers' horse and guns. Meanwhile, Heck has shown himself to be trustworthy, and even though he will most likely go to prison, Elsa tells him she'll be there when he gets out. When they reach Elsa's farm, the Hammond brothers are waiting, having already killed her father. A gunfight breaks out and soon both Judd and Heck are wounded. Just then Gil comes riding in to help his old friend, and together they challenge the brothers to a face-to-face shootout in the open. When the dust settles, the three brothers are dead, but Judd is mortally wounded. He tells his old friend, "I don't want them to see this. I want to go it alone." When Gil pledges to take care of everything just like he would have, Judd says, "Hell, I know that. I always did. You just forgot it for awhile, that's all." Judd looks back toward the high country and then dies.