A highlight from the final days of RAWHIDE, "Duel at Daybreak" offers us the chance to see Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson face off against each other, two actors who abandoned television for European stardom on the big screen. Rowdy's latest drover is Roman Bedford (Brendon Boone), a young Southerner from Savannah, whose knowledge of the post-Civil War activities of rancher Mason Woodruff (Larry Gates) put him in the crosshairs of Del Lingman (Charles Bronson), Woodruff's ramrod, a short tempered sharpshooter with designs on his boss' pretty daughter Vicki (Jill Haworth). The opening scene establishes that Roman and Vicki already know each other, silently observed by the disapproving Lingman, who proceeds to emotionally browbeat Bedford for not carrying a gun, leading to the Southern tradition of an honorable 'duel at daybreak.' Rowdy (Eastwood) and Jed Colby (John Ireland) offer their expertise to the novice, who proves to be a decent shot when there's nobody shooting back. Bronson is wonderfully evil, a truly intimidating villain that no one dares oppose, just two years prior to his leaving Hollywood for movie stardom overseas.
Review of Duel at Daybreak
