Obviously, the relation is very tight. Given the fame of 3:10 to Yuma, one would expect this movie to be inspired by 3:10 - but The Ride Back premiered one month before 3:10! Could it be that The Ride Back is inspired by Elmore Leonard's story? It is so close to it that Elmore Leonard should be credited!
shareActually, the script is based on Antony Ellis' radio play The Ride Back which aired as the tenth episode of radio's Gunsmoke on May 28, 1952. That's ten months before Three Ten to Yuma (the original title) appeard in print for the first time in the March 19853 issue of Dime Western magazine. Radio's Matt Dillon was played by William Conrad, who liked the story and used it for this project. I've always felt that anyone who wondered how Conrad would have essayed the Dillon role on TV should catch this performance - it's very close in many ways to his best Gunsmoke radio work.
Unfortunately, The Ride Back is a lost episode of the radio series.
Thanks janni for the info. I too noticed the resemblance, and from the same production period. Just as a follow-up-- there's an episode of Gunsmoke titled The Unmarked Grave from 1956 that's even closer in detail to 3:10 than Ride Back. It too would have been from the same production period. Seems like somebody owes someone something, but I'm not sure what or who.
shareI noticed the similarity to "3:10 to Yuma" as well.
shareHey folks,
Am I missing something here? I don't understand how this film can be considered a knock off of "3:10 To Yuma." In "The Ride Back," a sheriff goes to Mexico to bring a wanted man back for trial. In "3:10 To Yuma," a rancher, not a sheriff, is enlisted to take a wanted man to a train station and hold him for a train to Yuma to stand trial. There is no Mexico, and there is no sheriff in "Yuma." How does anyone arrive at the conclusion that "The Ride Back" was a knock off of Elmore Leonard's "3:10?" That's sort of like saying "Butch & The Kid" was a knock off of the "James Brothers" story since they both were based on bank and train robbing.
Several folks have said this film was so much like "3:10." I don't get it. What am I missing here?
Best wishes,
Dave Wile
The data that mva 1958 provides above proves that "The Ride Back" is not a knock-off of "3:10 to Yuma," although some might think that since the latter is a much more popular film.
As you point out, the films are very different, but the plot reminded me of "3:10 to Yuma" in that a 'good guy' has to supervise a criminal for a period of time and, during that time, the criminal has an effect on the 'good guy' (or vice versa, as shown in the remake).