Rawhide *** (1951, Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward, Hugh Marlowe, Jack Elam, Dean Jagger, George Tobias, Edgar Buchanan, Jeff Corey) – Classic Movie Review 4869

Director Henry Hathaway’s unusually tense and claustrophobic 1951 Western adventure features an intelligent screenplay by Dudley Nichols, inventive direction and ingenious camerawork by cinematographer Milton R Krasner that makes good use of the mainly interior locations.

In the story, a gang of renegade cowboys takes over a coach stop and awaits the imminent arrival of a gold-laden stagecoach.

Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward star as a station assistant Tom Owens and young mother Vinnie Holt unwittingly caught in the midst of the action, and Hugh Marlowe is unrelentingly evil as the villain, Rafe Zimmerman.

And there is a great old-time Western cast to relish: Jack Elam who is memorable as Tevis, Dean Jagger as Yancy, George Tobias as Gratz, Edgar Buchanan, Jeff Corey as Luke Davis, James Millican as Tex Squires, Louis Jean Heydt as Fickert, William Haade, Milton S Corey Sr, Kenneth Tobey, Dan White, Max Terhune, Robert Adler, Judy Ann Dunn as Callie, Howard Negley, Vincent Neptune, Edith Evanson, Walter Sande, Dick Curtis and Si Jenks.

It is shot in black and white by Milton R Krasner, produced by Samuel G Engel, scored by Sol Kaplan, designed by George W Davis and Lyle R Wheeler, and released by 20th Century Fox. The song ‘A Rollin’ Stone’ is by Lionel Newman.

The material was first used as a gangster picture in 1935, Show Them No Mercy. It is unrelated to the long-running TV series of the same name, Rawhide (1959-1965), with Clint Eastwood.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 4869

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