Rawhide

Rawhide_360P

source: Rawhide

To me 'Rawhide' is one grossly underrated little western, just as enjoyable in it's own way as 'High Noon', 'Shane' or other classics of the period! A taut little film, wonderfully directed and filmed in the picturesque Alabama Mountains at Lone Pine, California. A top notch cast headed by screen legend Tyrone Power, proving once again what a fine actor he was, and never looking more devastatingly handsome, than in this film! Susan Hayward gives a spirited performance as the former river boat entertainer, and manages to look pretty as a picture at all times! Hugh Marlowe, normally quite a wooden actor, is surprisingly effective as the leader of the outlaw gang! Star turns by veteran character actors Edgar Buchanan, Dean Jagger and George Tobias, with a powerhouse debut by Jack Elam at his evil best, round out a perfect cast! If your a western fan, or, just like a good suspenseful drama, do yourself a favor, and don't miss this film! Now on DVD, and looking good!

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.

The film starts with a woman with a baby being told they cannot continue her journey by wagon from San Francisco to St. Louis. This is because a dangerous bandit is loose and the express company has a rule about putting children in dangerous situations. They are to stay at the express station (in the middle of nowhere) until the next day at the soonest. In the meantime, she orders everyone about like dogs. This makes perfect sense to not put a baby in harm's way...but Susan Hayward's over-the-top response doesn't. She simply acts like a stuck up monster and it was quite annoying--purely a cliché in every way ("the angry and spunky lady"). At this point, the film had a big strike against it. It's not good when many in the audience are rooting for someone, anyone, to punch this b..., I mean, witch, in the mouth! Now this sort of petulant role is not uncommon for Miss Hayward (I can name quite a few films in which she did this, but the most egregious example was in THE CONQUEROR), but this is definitely among the most ridiculous and overdone. Soon, the bandits arrive and take over the outpost--which is pretty easy because the only ones there (other than the two "guests") are Edgar Buchanan and Tyrone Power (an odd choice as a star in a Western). What happens next is all very well done, though also very, very familiar--with a plot that is reminiscent of Randolph Scott's TALL T (a superb film in every way) and Gary Cooper's MAN OF THE WEST. In fact, there are probably many more films of the genre like it--even non-Westerns such as the Bogart films, THE DESPERATE HOURS and KEY LARGO as well as Sinatra's SUDDENLY. In other words, the film is about a group of people who are being held hostage by a group of desperadoes. And, in the case of every single one of these films, you know that by the end the male lead who is one of the hostages will somehow manage to take out the entire gang AND save the innocents! Overall, while the plot is very familiar and Miss Hayward's early scenes would even have made Mother Theresa hate her had she seen it, I still think this is basically a good film that is watchable. Some pluses were Power's amazingly restrained performance, the adorable kid and Jack Elam playing his typical menacing psychopathic role--AND you get to see him strangling Hayward! Just don't expect it to be as good as TALL T or THE DESPERATE HOURS--these have taken this theme to amazing heights, though I must admit that at least RAWHIDE was among the first of the famous films I have mentioned. By the way, in the shoot out between Elam and Power, inexplicably both seem to fire bullet after bullet without reloading--and it appeared as if Power had no extra ammo.

Rawhide was also released as "Desperate Siege" and that title seems to me to be a better summation of the plot than its more familiar original. Masterfully shot in crisp monochrome the movie has overtones of hostage themed movies such as Split Second,The Petrified Forest and The Desperate Hours ,and owes at least as much to the thriller genre as it does to the Western Power is cast as the son of a stageline owner ,learning the business from the ground upwards at an isolated depot in the desert somewhere on the San Francisco to St Louis run .He is not enjoying the experience and has not fully adapted to life on the frontier and still clings to such niceties as shaving and taking regular baths ,much to the disgust of his boss the depot manager -played in customary style by the ever dependable Edgar Buchanan .One day a stage bearing among others a feisty young woman -winningly played by the charismatic Susan Hayward,-with a toddler in tow.when reports of outlaws on the loose is received at the depot she is not allowed to continue her journey as company regulations forbid the transportation of children in such circumstances Soon after a man purporting to be a lawman arrives and quickly reveals himself to be the head of an outlaw band which is intent on waiting at the depot for the arrival of the next stage which is transporting gold billion .He is played by Hugh Marlowe who shows a greater level of acting skill than was called upon in the low budget science fiction movies he is most associated with .Also in the gang is a giggling ,sexually obsessed psychopath (a chilling and emaciated Jack _Elam) and the more marginal figures played by George Tobias and Jeff Corey. Tensions build as Buchanan is killed while Hayward and Power are held captive and seek to escape while tensions develop between Elam and Marlowe as they battle for leadership of the gang The role reversal in the movie is quite striking -Hayward rather than Power taking the more assertive role in standing up to the outlaws ,and the differing natures of the outlaws is also well brought out ,Marlowe being a cultured and well educated man of good family gone off the rails owing to a woman This is intelligent ,well scripted and having more than a hint of the film noir A minor classic marred only slightly by a somewhat rushed ending

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.

Yes, I think "Rawhide" is a highly charged western and if I were any younger I'd be working through two boxes of popcorn while lost in this movie! It keeps you on the edge of your seat as you watch several outlaws take over the depot, all set for a robbery, and lie in wait for the coach to arrive. Also the fact is, when you combine two intense stars like Ty and Susan you're bound to get a compelling screen presence since both are always fascinating to watch. They carry the drama steadily along. Later on in the film however, there seems a shortage of dialogue and the story tends to get bogged down in a constant gloomy atmosphere of quiet desperation. One certainly feels the weight of isolation in this remote station along the stagecoach line in a time where lawlessness still needed to be subdued. It makes one realize how rough it must have been to live in those days of homesteading in the West. As usual, Elam is the baddy in here and he never fails to rouse my dislike although in later life he went in for comedy in a western or two, a nice change. Hugh Marlowe is also a familiar face -- of "All About Eve" fame. On the whole it's a riveting western to the end.

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.

Rawhide is a moderately suspenseful hostage drama with polished direction, great location filming, and a fine cast. Tyrone Power is a likable if somewhat bland hero. On the other hand, Susan Hayward's character was kind of annoying in the beginning but softens a bit as the film progresses. I wish the writers would have made her a strong independent woman without making the character look like a brat. Hugh Marlowe is an excellent actor but I didn't find him a very convincing villain, even an an outlaw banker! Then again, it's probably my own fault in that I can't look at him without thinking of him as the hero in Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers. One scene where he delivered was when he was pretending to be a lawman, talking to the newspaper reporter and he had to fight back his anger at the men who were gossiping about his treacherous personal life. A young and lanky Jack Elam steals the show as a dangerous (and lecherous) member of Marlowe's gang. He's great in this! Overall, this is a decent studio western with an entertaining twist filled climax. Also, I'd advise viewers who haven't watched this to please skip the trailer as it gives away the ending of the picture!