Rawhide (1951)

Directed by Henry Hathaway. Starring Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward, Hugh Marlowe, Jack Elam, Edgar Buchanan, George Tobias, Dean Jagger, Jeff Corey.

Feckless milksop Power and stubborn harridan Hayward must band together after they’re taken hostage at a relay station by a quartet of escaped convicts (led by Marlowe) who intend to rob a gold shipment aboard a stagecoach coming through the area. Modest (and modestly effective) Western would have benefited from more suspense and incident, but provides a little more detail than usual for two of its antagonists, including leery letch Elam (who, at one point, shoots at a toddler’s feet!). A couple of plot holes are hard to overlook, but the film is sufficiently trim and apace, and keeps moving right past them. Served as partial inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. Unrelated to the same-named television series, so don’t go in expecting to hear Frankie Laine’s whip-cracking theme.

59/100