utgard14 Amusing western starring baseball legend Lou Gehrig. The Iron Horse plays himself in this as he heads Out West to live on his (fictional) sister's ranch. There he joins forces with singing cowboy lawyer Smith Ballew to battle perennial heavy Cy Kendall and Arthur Loft, who have a nice little protection racket going. Fun stuff, although not always for the right reasons. Simple coloring book-level of intellect and craftsmanship went into this, but I can't say it isn't entertaining in its way. It's a low budget oater with a baseball player as the star. No one should expect Stagecoach.

MartinHafer A couple years before he died, Lou Gehrig (yes, THAT Lou Gehrig) co-starred in an amiable little western called "Rawhide". The title refers to the name of Gehrig's ranch---to which he's retiring. However, when he arrives he finds there is a 'protective association' that controls all the local ranches. What this actually turns out to be is a protection racket run by some mobsters. In other words, if you don't join, 'accidents' happen to your spread and you can't buy needed materials. However, Lou is tough and he and his new buddy (the crooner Smith Ballew) decide to fight instead of knuckling under to their bullying tactics. Much of the rest of the film is a battle of wills and fists between these men.The film had some very nice singing. Ballew had a very good voice and the lyrics were catchy. As for Gehrig, I am pretty sure his singing was dubbed. I also was surprised by his speaking voice, as it was 100% New York--and sounded nothing like Gary Cooper in "Pride of the Yankees". Because of this, it further accentuated the 'fish out of water' aspect of the film with this city boy taking up an odd new life as a rancher! It's all a bit surreal but also pleasant and worth seeing just for its curiosity factor.

sddavis63 In a bizarre kind of way, this is a fairly typical sort of western. It features a lot of cowboys, a lot of horses and a few gunfights. It's also, however, set in the late 1930's and it stars - wait for it - Lou Gehrig (yes - THE Lou Gehrig of New York Yankees fame) as - again, wait for it - Lou Gehrig, who's decided to retire from baseball, and get some peace and quiet out on the range as a rancher. But far from peace and quiet, Lou finds himself in the middle of a battle with a local robber- baron type who controls the town and all of the ranchers.Now, Gehrig was I'm sure a better baseball player than he was an actor, and yet he wasn't too bad in this either, and he manages to introduce even a bit of humour into it, particularly in the scene where he first learns to ride a horse. His very presence also brings forth a sense of pathos right from the start. Remember that the movie was made in 1938. It opens with Gehrig speaking to reporters at a train as he's preparing to leave New York City and explaining that he's quitting baseball. We, of course, know now that in fact within little more than a year he would be out of baseball, and not long afterward he would be dead. You can't help but think of that as the movie opens. So there's some fun, there's typical western stuff, there's unintentional sadness because of the way Gehrig's life turned out and there's even a singing cowboy/lawyer played by Smith Ballew, whose songs are absolute pure corn - so much so that they make you laugh a bit too. Some of the story is a bit strange. Lou buys the ranch in partnership with his sister (played by Evelyn Knapp) - but as far as I know Lou didn't have any sisters at this point in his life (he was the only one of his parents' four children to survive into adulthood.) Why not have him buy the ranch with his wife Eleanor? Wouldn't that have made more sense? And where was Eleanor anyway? Did he leave her behind? I mean, if you're going to cast Lou Gehrig as himself why not use his real biography? Strange stuff.Anyway, all that confusion about Gehrig's life aside, you have to say that no, this isn't a great movie. But any movie that actually stars Lou Gehrig as Lou Gehrig (and it's the only movie he was ever in, and one wonders if he might have thought of acting as a post-baseball career that unfortunately never happened) is worth watching! (6/10)

classicsoncall It's always cool to come across an unexpected treat as I did today, looking for a film to view from my collection of 'B' Westerns put out by Mill Creek Entertainment. This one co-starred baseball legend Lou Gehrig along side singing cowboy Smith Ballew, and it was a genuinely fun picture to watch. Gehrig plays himself, heading West to Montana to relax on his sister's cattle ranch. I'm curious how baseball/movie fans of the era reacted when he pronounced early in the picture - "Take it or leave it, I'm through with baseball" - must have been a shock to the system! The plot Gehrig finds himself in is a fairly typical one though. The local Ranchers Protective Association is being run by stand in boss Ed Saunders (Arthur Loft), and he's forcing the locals to join his organization as he and his henchmen take a hefty cut of the rancher profits for themselves. The Gehrig's see no need to join, and when Saunders turns up the heat, they hook up with attorney Larry Kimball (Ballew) who's been anxious to take up the fight against the bad guys with a client willing to go the distance.This is the first film I've seen with Smith Ballew, though I'm familiar with his reputation. A popular singer in the Thirties, he appeared in a number of Westerns doing just that, crooning as a singing cowboy. One of the oft repeated trivia notes attributed to Ballew is that he dubbed John Wayne's singing voice in "Riders of Destiny", but Ballew denied that repeatedly before he died. Wayne's recollection was that it was probably Bill Bradbury (brother of Bob Steele and son of director Robert North Bradbury), who did the singing, with money earned to support his college education.Speaking of John Wayne, it struck me more than once that Gehrig might have shared a passing resemblance to the star, maybe more of a cross between Wayne and another veteran cowboy actor, Tim McCoy. Which is to say that he looked right at home in Western gear and ten gallon hat. Gehrig's portrayal is somewhat self deprecating, as he gets thrown from a horse in the early going, but when things get really wild, he reverts to his baseball wits. In a rousing bar room brawl, Gehrig winds up with a few billiard balls to knock out a bunch of bad guys. Later on, he manages to smash an upper story window of Saunders' office using a bat and ball. I thought only Babe Ruth called his shots like that.It wouldn't have been an era Western without your traditional horse chase scenes, and on that score, it was unusual to see some of the local businessmen in suits high tail it out of town on horseback. Of course, the team of Gehrig and Ballew, with a little help from sister Peggy (Evalyn Knapp), defeat the bad guys and save the day. Gehrig's earlier 'retirement' from baseball comes to an end when he gets a telegram from the Yankees saying that they met his terms. So Gehrig's movie career began and ended with this picture, but while it lasted, it must have been a blast.