Rawhide

DVD review from The Movie Snob

Rawhide (C-). This 1951 Western starring Tyrone Power and the lovely Susan Hayward just wasn't very good. The setting: a stagecoach station somewhere in the remote wilderness, manned by a grizzled old hand and tenderfoot Tom Owens (Power). A stagecoach stops for lunch; its passengers include Vinnie Holt (Hayward) and her infant niece, whom she is taking back East. But word arrives that four outlaws are on the loose in the vicinity, and company policy forbids the transport of children under such circumstances, so Holt and her niece are stranded at the station. After the stagecoach leaves, the outlaws show up, led by George Zimmerman (Hugh Marlowe, The Day the Earth Stood Still), with a plan to rob the next gold-laden stagecoach passing through from California. The grizzled old hand is quickly dispatched, and for the rest of the movie we wonder whether Tom and Vinnie will survive the inevitable showdown with the outlaws. Personally, I couldn't be bothered to wonder very hard about it.