Rawhide

Although in many ways a typical western it represents the genre very well.

Nice explanation/setup at the beginning of the film with a description of the overland mail. An interesting set of characters and a cast that is really solid across the board. Confined largely to one location it makes great use of the environment and the one set - for which the layout/geography is quite clear.

There are a number of twists and surprises which is nice. The Director Henry Hathaway uses some actual night shots instead of shooting day for night, which often doesn't work. Nice use of sound for the night scenes as well with noise of mules and coyotes providing both atmosphere and a plot point.

Very close to being a great western in my opinion, but it didn't quite grab me emotionally.

This film, sometimes predictable, is nonetheless quite watchable. And then, of course, if you start to think about what's happening on screen and the metaphorical possibilities thereof, you may feel like you've discovered a hidden gem.

Susan Hayward aficionados (I won't exactly say fans) will never be bored, as Miss Hayward gives it her typical spitfire all from the get-go, her performance liberally punctuated with her signature eye-squints, chin-jerks and tit-thrusts.

Compared to Hayward, in fact (and this hardly seems accidental), Tyrone Power's character is seen as quite emasculated. From the beginning of the film he has "lost" his gun, and it is Hayward, not he, who takes out the last bad guy. One scene has him preparing bacon, beans and coffee for the bandits that have wrought such murder and mayhem on the stage coach depot he reluctantly manages.

Visually, the film is quite striking, with an impressive mise-en-scène that alternates between wide shots expressing the vastness and solitude of the West and extreme--and unusually-constructed--close-ups that explore characters both good and evil and as well make us a part of the growing intimacy between Hayward and Power.

Finally, fans of gunplay will thrill to the extremity of the scene where one particularly incorrigible gunman makes his last stand by taking pot-shots at Hayward's toddler ward, Callie.

I was a teenager when I first saw this movie at the Carmel Theater in Hollywood. Tyrone Power was a WW II hero, and was a personal favorite from the 1940 western "The Mark of Zorro."

Hugh Marlowe had a nice, sympathetic role the year before in "All About Eve." So consider this teenager's surprise when he learns that Hugh is the bad guy.

Tyrone and Susan Hayward have appeared in several film together and here make a very good team once again. The rousing opening music theme was used before in the film "Brigham Young." Both films were directed by Henry Hathaway who might have said, "Let's use that music from Brigham Young." The strange thing is that there are different music credits for each film, so someone is not getting his just rewards and someone is getting credit undeservedly.

A previous review of this movie stated that this film was so predictable. Well, in the 50's all the heroes survived in motion pictures. The fun is here you don't know how the hero will survive (without a gun) and how he will save the others.

There is real suspense here and fear for the safety of the baby. This film is an excellent effort by both cast and crew and truly deserves a viewing.

In the film Rawhide things start out like any other day for Tyrone Power who plays the son of the stage line owner spending some time at one of the way stations learning the business from grizzled old timer Edgar Buchanan. A stage stops by and Susan Hayward and toddler are among the passengers.

But when a passing cavalry patrol brings news of a crashout by four very desperate criminals, one of whom was scheduled to be hung the next day, the driver decides he's not taking Sue and the little girl if there's going to be trouble. Even with a cavalry escort which you would think would have been enough to discourage any outlaws from robbing the stage. Sue stays at the station until word of capture or a stage going in another direction arrives.

The four outlaws do arrive and they are four really lousy specimens of humanity. Led by Hugh Marlowe the candidate for the rope, the others include Jack Elam, George Tobias, and Dean Jagger. They kill Buchanan and stay at the station hoping to holdup a stage carrying a gold shipment.

Marlowe is light years away from the nice guy playwright in All About Eve. You can hardly believe this is the same actor. But the guy making his first real mark in the cinema is Jack Elam. One of the most psychotic villains ever put on screen, Elam makes full use of his blind eye for some incredible facial expressions. His unconcealed lust for Hayward is driving Marlowe to his wits end who needs Power alive at least until the robbery is done.

Tyrone Power was 37 when he made Rawhide, a bit too old for the part he was playing, still he does a good job. This is a remake of an earlier 20th Century Fox film Show Them No Mercy which had a modern setting and the Power and Hayward roles were played by Rochelle Hudson and Edward Norris who were barely in their twenties.

But it's the outlaws here who really make this film. As Marlowe is quick to comment this isn't a crew he'd pick, they just happened to be around when he made his break and they went along for the ride. Tobias and Jagger play a pair of amiable duds, Marlowe is bitter and angry, but Elam is psychotic.

Henry Hathaway got good performances in this suspense filled western. Of the outlaws the idiot Jagger in the end has the most sense. See the film to know what I'm talking about.

Watched this again on the new DVD released & all I can say is WOW, I was impressed. This film has vaulted into my top 20 Westerns.

First of all from beginning to end its hitting on all cylinders. This is a Stage Station film in the tradition of "The Tall T" & "Comanche Station" of the later Bud Boetticher/Randolf Scott Ranown series, all of the action takes place in the stage station and its immediate surroundings.

The opening sequences of a stagecoach crossing the rugged barren wilderness including shots of it passing through snowbound passes are just spectacular. The Black & White cinematography is gorgeous, and add to that the historically accurate use of a team of mules pulling it makes this film one of the best portrayals of stage travel I've seen. Even the stagecoach itself is adorned with a "headlight" type lantern for night travel.

This is one of those films where you learn some bits of Western lore, its a good example of what was prevalent in that "golden age" of the Western 1950 -1971 when the audience through both films like this and the abondanza of Westerns on TV were inundated with things western where you were in the aggregate going to a sort of "Western University". Its a knowledge that is getting lost now and a good example is the illogical stupidity and implausible scenarios in the recent remake of 3:10 to Yuma.

But I've been digressing. Lets get back to Rawhide.

Care is also taken to show how the arriving team of mules is changed out for a fresh team. For those who are not familiar with western staglines most stage stops "stations" were located between 15 to 20 miles apart so that fresh teams could replace the arriving team. Each tandem of driver & shotgun made a run of about 100 miles a day, so they would go through between 5-7 stage stops in a shift. At some stage stations they had lunch or dinner for the passengers, All the aspect of working a stage station was depicted spot on. The set is perfect.

Dir Henry Hathaway does an impressive job in this film, his shots and compositions are beautiful & all the actors are convincing. This film boasts Edgar Buchanan's finest performance as Stationmaster Sam Todd, and Jack Elam is his creepiest as Treviss, Tyrone Power is Tom Owens, Susan Hayward as Vinne Holt a tough ex-saloon singer turned protector/surrogate mother of her dead sisters daughter, Hugh Marlow as the gang leader, George Tobias as Gratz, and a great performance by Dean Jagger as the slow on the uptake "one horse horse thief" Yancy. Its got a very well integrated low key un-intrusive to the story "love interest" between Power & Hataway a good example of they way it should be handled in all Westerns.

This film should be in anybodies Western Collection, 8/10 or better.