Rawhide

Desperate Siege.

Rawhide is directed by Henry Hathaway and written by Dudley Nichols. It stars Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward, Hugh Marlowe, Jack Elam, George Tobias, Dean Jagger and Edgar Buchanan. Music is by Sol Kaplan and Lionel Newman and cinematography by Milton Krasner.

A stagecoach station employee and a stranded woman traveller and her baby niece find themselves held hostage by four escaped convicts intending to rob the next day's gold shipment.

A Western remake of 1935 crime film Show Them No Mercy, Rawhide is the embodiment of a solid Western production. Beautifully photographed in black and white by Krasner, smoothly performed by a strong cast of actors and seamlessly directed by the astute Hathaway, it builds the hostage plot slowly, tightening the screws of character development a bit at a time, and it unfolds in a blaze of glory come film's end.

Characterisations are always interesting, if a bit conventional to anyone who has watched a lot of Oaters. Power is of course our hero in waiting and Hayward is spunky and feisty, I wonder if they will get together romantically? The four convicts are your typical scuzzy types, with Marlowe dominating the screen as the intelligent leader saddled with cohorts he really doesn't care for, while Elam is wonderfully vile as a lecherous loose cannon.

The thematics of greed, sexual hostility and jeopardy for Hayward and child keep the pot boiling nicely, so suspense is a constant, and some thought has gone into the writing as regards the convict group dynamic. Sadly Kaplan's musical score is quite often cheese laden, even ridiculously jolly and not at one with the noirish thriller conventions of the story. But regardless of irritating musical interludes, this is a very good Oater and comfortably recommended to Western fans who want more than your standard shoot em' up B pictures. 7.5/10

Western noir with Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward and Hugh Marlowe

Four outlaws take captive the residents of a way station in southern Wyoming (Power, Hayward and Edgar Buchanan) while waiting for a stage with a gold shipment. Marlowe plays the head thug while Jack Elam is on hand as his psychotic subordinate.

"Rawhide" (1951) is a B&W Western that influenced future ones, like "Hangman's Knot" (1952), “The Tall T” (1956), “Day of the Outlaw” (1959), "Ride Lonesome" (1959), "Comanche Station" (1960) and "Apache Uprising" (1965). It ranks with the best of these.

If you remove the opening and closing scenes, which are understandably passé, “Rawhide” holds up in the modern day as a psychological adult Western that's film noir-ish and realistic. While some people favor B&W, I don't (although I can roll with it), and would love to see a colorized version.

Susan is a highlight, looking her best along with convincing spunkiness. Meanwhile Power is a quality protagonist, just a regular guy suddenly caught up in a life-or-death situation.

The film runs 1 hour, 29 minutes, and was shot at Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, and nearby Olancha, which are located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in central California, about an hour’s drive from the Nevada border and 200 miles north of Hollywood.

GRADE: B