MGM had no faith in Ride the High Country and dumped it on the market as the lower half of double features, despite the protests of Peckinpah and producer Richard Lyons. It was ludicrously paired with such movies as the sex comedy Boys' Night Out (1962) and the Italian-produced medieval drama The Tartars (1961).

Despite favorable reviews, the poor marketing resulted in a commercial disaster for Ride the High Country. But it became a critical and box office smash in Europe, where it was released as Guns in the Afternoon and garnered awards. In the course of its foreign run, it became one of MGM's biggest grossing films in Europe.

According to one of the cast members, L.Q. Jones, when the studio discovered that the real moneymaker on the double bill was Ride the High Country and that audiences weren't staying around for the main feature, they re-released it to better results.

As a result of the renewed attention, Ride the High Country became a dark horse Academy Award contender for direction and screenplay. But Peckinpah, who received no credit for his script work on it, told both MGM and the Academy, "If this film is nominated for Best Screenplay without my name on it as writer, I will sue every one of you!" The movie received no nominations.

Ride the High Country won first prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Grand Prize at the Brussels Film Festival and the Silver Goddess for Best Foreign Film at the Mexican Film Festival.

In 1992, the film was chosen by the National Film Preservation Board to be one of the motion pictures preserved on the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.

Mariette Hartley was nominated by the British Academy as Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles.

"That Hollywood can't tell the gold from the dross has seldom been so plainly demonstrated. Ride the High Country, deemed unworthy of a first-class run, has been gradually leaked- like a secret- to various theatres around the country. ... Everything about this picture has the ring of truth, from the unglamorized settings to the flavorful dialogue and the natural acting. [It] is pure gold."- Newsweek, 1962.

Under Sam Peckinpah's tasteful direction, it is a minor chef d'oeuvre among Westerns. [It] has a rare honesty of script, performance and theme. ... When actors with the unforced dignity of McCrea and Scott go, the old breed of Western will go with them."- Time.

"From the opening scene, the film projects a steady, natural blend of wisdom and humor, excellently photographed in color against some lovely vistas."- Howard Thompson, New York Times

"It works, with a difference. The film presents an offbeat and attractive heroine..., the pleasure of watching two old pros working comfortably with what is for them unaccustomed material, and the most deglamorized version of the West since the old William S. Hart movies."- Saturday Review.

"Perhaps the most simple and traditional and graceful of all modern Westerns. ...The cinematography is by Lucien Ballard at his peerless best."- Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies (Henry Holt, 1984). Kael saw the film for the first time on a double bill with Peckinpah's Major Dundee (1965) and was so excited by it, she tracked the director down at his home in Malibu to tell him how much she liked it. She became one of his biggest critical champions and a friend for years to come.

"Peckinpah's finest achievement, and one of the best westerns ever made…" - Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic (Fireside).

"A nice little conventional unconventional western_ - Stanley Kaufmann.

"It is Sam Peckinpah's direction, however, that gives the film greatest artistry. he gives N. B. Stone Jr.'s script a measure beyond its adequacy, instilling bright moments of sharp humor and an overall significant empathetic flavor." - Variety Movie Guide (Prentice Hall).

"..unpretentious, intelligent, droll, and full of quiet charm....Peckinpah lovingly reflects the beauty of the landscapes, obtains performances from Scott and McCrea that are among their best, and creates some of his most memorable scenes..." - Georges Sadoul, Dictionary of Films (University of California Press).

"Peckinpah's superb second film...with a couple of great set pieces (the bizarre wedding in the mining camp, the final shootout among the chickens). ... Truly magnificent camerawork from Lucien Ballard."- Tom Milne, Time Out Film Guide 2000 (Penguin Books).

"..a complex and inspiring western.." - Peter Cowie, Eighty Years of Cinema (A.S. Barnes).

"Ride the High Country is, I think, a masterpiece; and it marks an important milestone because in a way it's both the last of the old Westerns and the first of the new. And actually as well as symbolically it represented a turning point in the history of Western films: it marked the retirement of both McCrea and Scott..." - Brian Garfield, Western Films (Rawson Associates).

Compiled by Rob Nixon & Jeff Stafford