At a desolate relay station in the west, a stagecoach attendant and a stranded woman traveller are held captive by a band of escaped convicts.
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Wuchak
7
By Wuchak
**_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
