Rawhide (1951)

Rewatched the film yesterday. Jack Elam in probably his greatest role: this time he sits through almost the entire film!

And something you didn't notice before: Susan Hayword in a 1950s outfit.

Both Elam and Hayward are typecast here: as a thugh and a bitchy woman, respectively.

Susan's adopted daughter (here 2 years old) passed away in 2007 at the age of 58. Striking, Ty Power also died at a fairly young age. I believe no one from this Western is alive anymore, but that's beside the point.

A minor downside is the unlimited ammo during the shootout. I believe the Colt was also lying in the water under the trough, yet it was immediately ready to fire. There was a cartridge belt included, that's true, but I didn't see Ty use it. And Elam didn't use his either, for that matter. In later Westerns, in particular, there is much more attention to these kinds of details. With every shot, you involuntarily count to 6 or 15 (Winchester).

Another nice moment is when Susan takes Ty's Colt earlier in the film and naturally checks the rooms for patterns.

Furthermore, I already gave a review in 2011.

The DVD (R-1) transfer is fantastic: very sharp and high-contrast black and white, which adds a lot of color to this relatively unknown hostage Western.

The opening is also beautiful with stunning landscape shots (Lone Pine).

Score 1 point added: IMDb *7/10.

Translated from Dutch · View original

A fairly unconventional western that takes a bit to get going, but is then clearly better than the straightforward westerns that were common at the time. Furthermore, it is beautifully shot, and features good acting. In my opinion, Marlowe did a particularly good job.

The atmosphere was even oppressive at times, and I hadn't heard that from Westerns of the fifties. Pleasantly surprised!

Translated from Dutch · View original

A strong suspense western with a solid cast and a full-fledged role for the woman. I find Hugh Marlowe more convincing as a villain than as a hero, I wouldn't even have recognized Dean Jagger with that little beard, Tyrone Power has lost a bit of his youthful freshness but that doesn't look bad on him, and it is understandable that Jack Elam is mentioned by everyone here, because I would rather walk the other way for his character. (At the same time, he is *so* good here that I think he was immediately typecast because of it, but with his looks, perhaps it could never have been otherwise.) There is also a nice surprise in the plot (because I actually expected Marlowe to shoot Elam to get rid of him as an unguided missile, instead of the other way around), and even the very last shot contained a small surprise, because when Power was asked: "But what on earth happened today?" I would have sworn that he would cast a loving glance sideways at Hayward and then say: "Well boys, today I met the woman I'm going to marry…" But we are spared that cliché. A nice, tight film without unnecessary nonsense.

Translated from Dutch · View original