L'attaque de la malle-poste

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.

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.

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.

Considering the two big stars, Power and Hayward, along with big-budget TCF producing, I was expecting a large-scale western. But it's not. Instead, the action is limited to a stagecoach way station out in the middle of nowhere. But what the movie lacks in scale, it makes up for with close-in dramatic tension. Tom (Power) better figure out a way to foil the gang of cutthroats before the gold-bearing stage comes through or he and Vinnie (Hayward) and probably her little girl are toast.

Gang leader Zimmerman (Marlowe) seems like a reasonable enough bad guy who just wants the gold and then skedaddle. The trouble is he's got wild man Tech (Elam) to contend with, and Tech wants Vinnie, no matter the problems this creates for her protector Tom or for the gang.

To say that Elam steals the show would be an understatement. He's one scary bad guy, leering and mugging it up like ten-miles of really bad road. No one has looked like him before or since. In fact, he so overshadows gang leader Marlowe that the final showdown is between him and Power instead of Power and Marlowe. But then Marlowe never was much of a screen presence. Anyway, despite the big names, the movie remains an Elam showcase since the rest of the cast pretty much low-keys it. I'm just wondering how director Hathaway got little toddler Callie (Dunn) to respond to cues since she can barely walk. Still, she's got a tense, demanding little role, and if Oscars were given to toddlers, she would deserve a Lifetime Award.

All in all, the western is both different and underrated, I expect, because it lacks sweeping action. Nonetheless, the lack of sweep is more than made up for in dramatic tension. Besides, the film includes one overriding curiosity—it features what may be Hollywood's handsomest man against what may be its ugliest. Now there's a real face-off.

Director Henry Hathaway helms this taut western drama about outlaws holding a group of people captive at a stagecoach station. Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward ignite good chemistry together right through to the climatic shoot-out. There's good support from Jack Elam (wonderfully evil), Dean Jagger, Hugh Marlowe, Jeff Corey and Edgar Buchanan. Seldom shown on TV this 1951 flick is available on video and is a treat for the western buff as well as for fans of the two dynamic stars.