I was only a one year old kid when Rawhide premiered, and I only had fragmentary memories of the show, but judging from what i now know, it was very interesting indeed. Ihave recently caught two very good episodes of Rawhide on Encore Westerns. The first, Incident at Alabastar Plain, featured, among others, Martin Balsam and Troy Donahue. This episode was even better. Gil Favor, Rowdy Yates, and the boys encounter a stagecoach that has just had an accident. They learn that the coach is fleeing a mysterious figure. They soon learn that the mysterious stalker is in fact an enigmatic hired assassin, and that almost all the people on the stage have guilty secrets. In an apparent indirect Homage to John Ford's Stage coach , they include a cowardly 'drummer", ( The indestructible William Schallert), a cocky young gunslinger ( James Drury),and a pompous crooked banker , ( (Stafford Repp)as well as several ladies with 'colorful' pasts. The only person on the stagecoach who seems to have nothing to hide is a young blacksmith, ( Martin Milner) who has just inherited a farm. Who is the executioners intended victim? Then it transpires that the executioner (very well played by Dan Duryea) may have certain secrets of his own. Just what is in that doctor's satchel he always carries? In short, a very fine episode of this classic series.
5 Reviews
Quietly instill fear
bkoganbing2 December 2017
This third episode of the Rawhide series is a real winner with Dan Duryea as a contract gunfighter. Duryea has a lot less dialog than normal right up to the last quarter of the story. Still that look of sheer meanness gets his point across.
The cattle drive slows down when it sees a broken down stagecoach in the middle of nowhere. Of course Eric Fleming offers the whole bunch the protection of the drive until they reach a town. At that point riding parallel to the herd is Duryea. He's got a contract out on somebody, but it's modus operandi to quietly instill fear in one and all, but especially his target who goes for a gun and always loses.
James Drury in his pre-Virginian days is also in the cast as a young tough also a fast gun. Everyone is sure he's the target but when he challenges Duryea and loses and Duryea keeps following the trail drive is when everyone really gets scared including a lot of Eric Fleming's drovers.
A couple of years later Audie Murphy did what I consider his best western with No Name On The Bullet. The whole feature film is based on the same plot premise as this episode.
Dan Duryea never disappoints, especially when he's on the screen in one of his villain parts.
The cattle drive slows down when it sees a broken down stagecoach in the middle of nowhere. Of course Eric Fleming offers the whole bunch the protection of the drive until they reach a town. At that point riding parallel to the herd is Duryea. He's got a contract out on somebody, but it's modus operandi to quietly instill fear in one and all, but especially his target who goes for a gun and always loses.
James Drury in his pre-Virginian days is also in the cast as a young tough also a fast gun. Everyone is sure he's the target but when he challenges Duryea and loses and Duryea keeps following the trail drive is when everyone really gets scared including a lot of Eric Fleming's drovers.
A couple of years later Audie Murphy did what I consider his best western with No Name On The Bullet. The whole feature film is based on the same plot premise as this episode.
Dan Duryea never disappoints, especially when he's on the screen in one of his villain parts.
Surprising depth
bubu816 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I once read a metaphysical story : 'Not To Narrow , Not To Deep ' by Richard Sale, It was made into a film called 'Strange Cargo'( a stranger title).
As the episode unfolded, I pondered that the writer had also read that book; an otherworldly figure( in this case Duryea) , who seems to know the characters innermost secrets , causing much introspection , fear & some repentance in the group.
All very engrossing & un-Western like episode - I had surprisingly heard that Rawhide contained such themes - which I why I started watching the series.
The similarities to the aforementioned book end when Durea himself is forced into confronting his own past by Gill at the end.
It's a bit rough around the edges in places , but all things considered Well worth a watch
The similarities to the aforementioned book end when Durea himself is forced into confronting his own past by Gill at the end.
It's a bit rough around the edges in places , but all things considered Well worth a watch
Moving North with Rawhide
schappe112 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
I've decided to watch the entire runs of two somewhat similar shows from the classic era of TV westerns: Wagon train, (1957-65) and Rawhide 1959-66). Unfortunately, the Wagon Train DVDs I've sent for don't include seasons.5 & 6. I'm going to alternate watching a DVD of episodes from one series and a DVD of episodes from the other. I'll be traveling north from Texas to Missouri on the cattle drive and west from Missouri to California. To make sure my text is of the required length, I will review the entire DVD each time.
Wagon Train and Rawhide were both about journeys across the west and the people and incidents that the heroes encountered. The big difference was that Seth Adams' Wagon Train carried people across the plains and they brought their stories with them. Each episode was "The (somebody) Story". Gil Favor's drovers were herding cattle. That provides some challenges and stories but much of the drama concerned the people they would encounter as they moved north. Each episode was "Incident (at or of) Something". The difficulty was to credibly get the drovers involved with the problems of the people they encountered when they would hardly have time to do so while trying to get their herd to market on time.
I think that, like Wagon Train, the premiere episode wasn't the first made. In fact, I think may have bene the third made. Incident at Alabaster Plain opens with Gil Favor introducing himself and describing his job and then we see individual shots of Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates, Paul Brinnegar as Wishbone, the cook with James Murdock as Mushy, his assistant, the Sheb Wooley and Steve Raines as drovers. It's an obvious introduction to main regulars. Incident with an Executioner starts with some of the same shots but less verbiage. Incident of the Tumbleweed doesn't open with those shots at all, suggesting that it was the third filmed episode of the series.
All three episodes are strong ones. In the first one, a "Tumbleweed Wagon" - a prison on wheels - cuts across the path of the drive. They are invited to dine with the drovers but a rebellion of the prisoners results in one deputy being killed and the sheriff being badly wounded. The drovers recapture the convicts and now Favor and Yates decide they have to take over for the lawmen - with an outlaw gang on their trail. Would they have really done that? As they cross a stream Tom Conway, playing one of the prisoners, suggests they could drown and says "Drowning isn't the most pleasant death." Favor replies: "Sure wouldn't want to see anybody die and unpleasant death." Seven years later, Eric Fleming would drown in the Amazon River while making a film in South America.
In the second one, a friend of Rowdy's played by Troy Donahue, is getting married. The drovers attend the wedding, which is interrupted by Pete Mark Richmond as a bitterly angry gunman who had designs on the bride and how hates his wealthy stepfather, whom he beats to death and robs. Rowdy and Troy want to go after him. Mr. Favor tells Rowdy his priority is the herd but he will understand if Rowdy catches up with them later. Favor doesn't want to admit it but he cares enough for Rowdy to go after him and make sure he isn't killed. It winds up with a dramatic shoot out in a church. Richmond uses a gun with a snake design on it, similar to what Eastwood would use in his Spaghetti westerns in the next decade. Eastwood isn't playing the taciturn "Man With No Name" in this show: Rowdy Yates is a bit wet behind the ears and Favor rides him hard. Even Wishbone calls him a "Young Whelp". That's the character but it's my theory that Eastwood learned his tight-lipped acting style from watching Fleming play Gil Favor on Rawhide.
It's the third one that is the most memorable. A stagecoach comes barreling down a grade and crashes. The passengers are an odd lot, united in their fear of a lone figure that appears on the horizon. It's a gunman played by Dan Duryea who is after one of them - but they don't know which. James Drury plays a cocky young gunman who takes him on and comes out second best. The ending is a bit melodramatic, with Duryea being exposed as a man who really wants to die so he keeps taking on jobs as an assassin knowing the will be second best someday, but the dark atmosphere of this one is hard to forget.
Wagon Train and Rawhide were both about journeys across the west and the people and incidents that the heroes encountered. The big difference was that Seth Adams' Wagon Train carried people across the plains and they brought their stories with them. Each episode was "The (somebody) Story". Gil Favor's drovers were herding cattle. That provides some challenges and stories but much of the drama concerned the people they would encounter as they moved north. Each episode was "Incident (at or of) Something". The difficulty was to credibly get the drovers involved with the problems of the people they encountered when they would hardly have time to do so while trying to get their herd to market on time.
I think that, like Wagon Train, the premiere episode wasn't the first made. In fact, I think may have bene the third made. Incident at Alabaster Plain opens with Gil Favor introducing himself and describing his job and then we see individual shots of Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates, Paul Brinnegar as Wishbone, the cook with James Murdock as Mushy, his assistant, the Sheb Wooley and Steve Raines as drovers. It's an obvious introduction to main regulars. Incident with an Executioner starts with some of the same shots but less verbiage. Incident of the Tumbleweed doesn't open with those shots at all, suggesting that it was the third filmed episode of the series.
All three episodes are strong ones. In the first one, a "Tumbleweed Wagon" - a prison on wheels - cuts across the path of the drive. They are invited to dine with the drovers but a rebellion of the prisoners results in one deputy being killed and the sheriff being badly wounded. The drovers recapture the convicts and now Favor and Yates decide they have to take over for the lawmen - with an outlaw gang on their trail. Would they have really done that? As they cross a stream Tom Conway, playing one of the prisoners, suggests they could drown and says "Drowning isn't the most pleasant death." Favor replies: "Sure wouldn't want to see anybody die and unpleasant death." Seven years later, Eric Fleming would drown in the Amazon River while making a film in South America.
In the second one, a friend of Rowdy's played by Troy Donahue, is getting married. The drovers attend the wedding, which is interrupted by Pete Mark Richmond as a bitterly angry gunman who had designs on the bride and how hates his wealthy stepfather, whom he beats to death and robs. Rowdy and Troy want to go after him. Mr. Favor tells Rowdy his priority is the herd but he will understand if Rowdy catches up with them later. Favor doesn't want to admit it but he cares enough for Rowdy to go after him and make sure he isn't killed. It winds up with a dramatic shoot out in a church. Richmond uses a gun with a snake design on it, similar to what Eastwood would use in his Spaghetti westerns in the next decade. Eastwood isn't playing the taciturn "Man With No Name" in this show: Rowdy Yates is a bit wet behind the ears and Favor rides him hard. Even Wishbone calls him a "Young Whelp". That's the character but it's my theory that Eastwood learned his tight-lipped acting style from watching Fleming play Gil Favor on Rawhide.
It's the third one that is the most memorable. A stagecoach comes barreling down a grade and crashes. The passengers are an odd lot, united in their fear of a lone figure that appears on the horizon. It's a gunman played by Dan Duryea who is after one of them - but they don't know which. James Drury plays a cocky young gunman who takes him on and comes out second best. The ending is a bit melodramatic, with Duryea being exposed as a man who really wants to die so he keeps taking on jobs as an assassin knowing the will be second best someday, but the dark atmosphere of this one is hard to forget.
We watched the whole thing and...
michelleishappy6 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
The end doesn't make sense. WHOM was Jardin after, and WHY? What did the contents of the satchel really mean?
Yes, it was an intense episode, and Duryea played his sinister, mostly silent part very well. He creeps us out in everything he does. But to us, the end was seriously lacking. What did the doll, note, and deaths mean in relation to the passengers and Rawhide workers? Why did the boss order Rowdy to throw them into the fire? Can someone please explain? We've watched a LOT of westerns, but this one left us shaking our heads. If anything, this could have had a sequel. At least it was good to see James Drury in his early days--if only for a short time.
Yes, it was an intense episode, and Duryea played his sinister, mostly silent part very well. He creeps us out in everything he does. But to us, the end was seriously lacking. What did the doll, note, and deaths mean in relation to the passengers and Rawhide workers? Why did the boss order Rowdy to throw them into the fire? Can someone please explain? We've watched a LOT of westerns, but this one left us shaking our heads. If anything, this could have had a sequel. At least it was good to see James Drury in his early days--if only for a short time.
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