The Rawhide Years

Riverboat gambler Ben has to flee town and his girl after he's suspected of killing a leading citizen. Now he's got to clear himself with shaky help from horse thief, Rick Harper.

Going in, I figured the movie would amount to a vehicle for one of Universal's new, young stars, Tony Curtis. Well, the first 20-minutes had me figuring otherwise. First, Curtis's Ben gets caught cheating at cards, then he gets spurned by his girlfriend, and finally does something totally unWestern—loses a fist-fight to a bad guy and ends up tossed unceremoniously into the river. By this point, I wondered whether someone in Hollywood had mixed up the reels.

But no, after this unexpected opening the film settles into the more familiar western heroics, with Ben getting his share, plus the girl. However, there are several more offbeat touches in the works, including a lynching where Ben refrains from intervening after calculating the odds. No heroics here. Then too, there's the great actor Arthur Kennedy as Ben's sometimes buddy and full-time horse thief, Harper. Now Kennedy's usual style is to low-key his parts, which he does effectively, e.g. The Man From Laramie (1955). Here, however, he pulls out all the stops with an over-the-top performance that steals many a scene from the more subdued Curtis. I'm surprised the studio didn't intervene, since its Curtis's career that's presumably being advanced.

Anyhow, it's a kind of offbeat western and not just a showcase for pretty boy Curtis. Nothing special, but still more unpredictable than most oaters.

This has to be one of the "best looking" films around. Very scenic, as a Western should be. Maybe the best looking two leads together ever.

It's a "fluff" Western, and that isn't always an insult. That's what this was meant to be. Lots of B Westerns were made with different goals, but roughly 2/5 were made like this, to be just eye candy, with a few side dishes added on.

Here, Arthur Kennedy is the "mystique" character. he comes on with too much of a likable rogue, and we wonder if he'll be the masked murderer who leaves Tony Curtis with the blame for a killing of a respected cattle baron.

This is lifted up a bit over the usual fluff with a few red herrings, as we get a bit of a mystery. And the clues come to us the same way they come to the character played by Curtis, which is refreshing. We actually feel along the way with him, as this is very well directed.

The review that claims Korman may have copied the villain for Blazing Saddles looks to be close to the mark I dare say. That kind of gives it a retro appeal that they hadn't counted on in 1955. It is an appealing film. Not memorable, but appealing.

Tony Curtis is a riverboat gambler who has a murder pinned on him, so he heads out west to find out who did the deed before he is lynched.

It had been six years since Curtis had last been in a western. In that time he had risen from someone barely on the first cast card to one of Universal's biggest stars, so he is well supported in this movie, with the familiar players including William Demarest, Arthur Kennedy and William Gargan. Under the usually psychologically twisted direction of Rudolph Maté, he gives a competent, although not particularly interesting performance.... except, of course, to the young girls whose appeal lay in his beautiful face and lower-class accent. I suppose it made him seem approachable. The resulis a good if not outstanding star vehicle.

Have a high appreciation for Westerns and 'The Rawhide Years' has some very talented names in front of and behind the camera. 'The Rawhide Years' was yet another film too recommended to me, finding myself on an unexpected but interesting Tony Curtis film completest quest. He may not have been the greatest of actors but there was a great deal of likeability about him.

'The Rawhide Years' turned out to be a fun watch. Not one of the best Western films by any stretch, but does its job well and for a film that didn't try to be one of the greats, try and do more than necessary, knew its target audience and what it wanted to be 'The Rawhide Yeats' is generally successful. It is good fun and there is not an ounce of shame having watched it, would hesitate in calling it a favourite but it is deserving of more attention than the near-obscure one it has as of now.

Admittedly, 'The Rawhide Years' is reasonably formulaic and the script has some campiness and doesn't always flow.

Coleen Miller is pretty bland here, not much to her performance, and her chemistry with Curtis does not convince in the slightest, it doesn't ever have spark or passion.

However, regardless of whether he convinces as the type of character he's playing (not quite), Curtis is very heroic and likeable, his acting was getting more comfortable, with some steel that makes his plight worth rooting for. The supporting cast standouts are a stoic William Demarest, deliciously hissable Peter Van Eyck and particularly humorously roguish Arthur Kennedy, his chemistry with Curtis being the most convincing in terms of character interaction of the film.

Visually, 'The Rawhide Years' is handsomely photographed and designed, and directed with assurance. The story is always exciting and easy to follow, some familiar genre tropes here but handled with enough freshness and charm. The characters and enough of the script are fun and amiable and the music fits nicely. The songs may be anachronistic somewhat and may not add much to the story but are lovely in their own right, "The Gypsy with Fire in His Shoes" especially.

In short, entertaining and an easy watch if not something to be blown away by. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The only western that Tony Curtis was to star in his long career was The Rawhide Years. In the tradition of B westerns I'm not sure what Rawhide had to do with the story.

Despite that, it's a decent enough western which starts out on a riverboat where Curtis is the protégé/come-on shill of gambler Donald Randolph. After feeling sorry for a sucker they trimmed one night, Curtis allows a friend of the sucker played by Minor Watson to win the money back. Later on during a pirate raid on the riverboat Watson is killed, Curtis thrown overboard and later suspected of Watson's death.

His fugitive status also puts his marriage plans on hold with Colleen Miller. Curtis comes back after three years and finds she's married to saloon owner Peter Van Eyck. But it all gets straightened out in the end.

Arthur Kennedy is also in The Rawhide Years, a rather rouguish trail companion that Curtis picks up along the way back to Miller. You're never quite sure whether he'll be friend of foe in the end. He gets the acting honors in The Rawhide Years.

In his memoirs Curtis liked doing the film as a change of pace from what Universal usually cast him in. And he liked hanging around with stuntmen who gave him some good tips about behavior in front of the camera. Something they have to know as well as the players they are doubling for.

The Rawhide Years is solid western entertainment a good credit in the Tony Curtis filmography.