thatolddotfeeling In times past, if Alfred Hitchcock were ever to have made a western, "Rawhide" would of fit the bill. Following the first ten minuets (the hook) of the film the conflict and anxiety never lets up. If you are a lover of the American Western, "Rawhide" is a must see.

JohnHowardReid Hugh Marlowe and Jack Elam make a marvelous pair of villains and they have some splendid confrontations here. The scene in which Marlowe knocks a glass out of Elam's mouth is a classic. Hathaway's driving direction makes the most of the suspenseful script. Location filming is a terrific asset. Violence rivets the attention. The cast rates as first-class, though Miss Hayward's odd hair style is a distraction and we hate the soggy, typical Hollywood revelation about the child. Fortunately, it's not particularly important. I also loved the music score and the off-screen narration.Many years ago, the director of a stage play fell ill just before rehearsals were due to commence. The producer asked me to fill in as director. Fortunately, the actors had already been selected, so the first thing to do was to hand every one of them a copy of the play. They all rushed away and I settled down with the stage designer to discuss moving the Third Act from the dinner table to a large drawing room which would incur no expensive or distracting extras like food and drinks. We'd hardly got started on this discussion before the actors started to trickle back, one by one or two by two. Within an hour, the whole lot of them surrounded me. When I asked them how they had enjoyed the play, it soon became obvious that not a single one of them had actually read the play from start to finish. All they'd looked at were their own roles! Amazing, but true! So that, I figure, is how Ty Power – who was then Fox's top-ranking star – became involved in Rawhide. Ty has a sizable part, yes, but it's a rather colorless role. Just about everything he does or says is overshadowed by other members of the cast. In fact it often appears that the sole function of Ty's character is to feed lines to – and provide "business" for – the other players, particularly Jack Elam, Hugh Marlowe and Susan Hayward. In fact, even actors with much smaller roles such as Edgar Buchanan benefit from Ty's feed. And it's little Judy Ann Dunn who figures as the "star" of the climax rather than Ty or any other player. As one reviewer commented, Ty played a bumbling greenhorn from first to last. No wonder the movie was not popular with the masses! I feel sad that it failed at the box office. For me, it rates as one of Henry Hathaway's best films. And it certainly provided Jack Elam with the number one showcase of his entire Hollywood career! If it wasn't for the fact that Ty is a natural to supply all the other characters with a superb listening board, and that his actions and dialogue provide them with such engrossing opportunities, he could actually be written out of the movie without doing it any damage whatsoever. Available on an excellent Fox DVD.

disdressed12 i thought this was a pretty good western.it contains most of the elements western contain,stagecoaches,robbers,and gunfights.and,there is the beautiful woman(Susan Hayward)and the man(Tyrone power)she is unwittingly thrown together with in a fight to survive.there is not a lot of action,in this particular western,but that's OK.the dramatic parts are well done,and the acting is very good.Power and Hayward acquit themselves quite well do quite well here,but Hugh Marlowe is really good as the chief Villain.Dean Jagger,Jack Elam and George Tobias also play villains with Jack Elam very strong here.there is some great chemistry/tension between Power and Hayward.as most western go this one follows the formula,so it's fairly easy to predict how thing will go.i will say,though,that the ending went a bit different than i had expected.overall,an enjoyable 86 minutes or so

mgtbltp 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.