Only time for one Western today. Rawhide is a 1951 movie with Tyrone Powers and Susan Hayward in the lead roles. It's got a screenplay by Dudley Nichols and it was directed by Henry Hathaway. Dudley wrote some pretty well known pictures, the 1939 Stagecoach, Bringing Up Baby, Gunga Din, Mr Lucky, The Big Sky and For Whom The Bell Tolls. I've seen all those but not too many of his other 70 pictures. Henry directed 66 other pictures and I have to admit most of them aren't familiar. I have seen How The West Was Won, True Grit and Circus World for sure.
Tyrone is working at a remote Stagecoach Station with Edgar Buchanan. They take care of the horses for stagecoaches, provide a meal for the passengers, that sort of thing. There's word of some bad men in the area and Susan gets taken off the stage with her baby. She's forced to stay the night because the Stagecoach Company policy is not to let children ride in a dangerous situation. The Calvary will be along with the coach tomorrow and they want her to go then. Susan's pissed, she takes Tyrone's room to sleep in, then she takes his gun when she goes off to the hot spring for a bath. That's when the real trouble starts, Hugh Marlow shows up, sayin' he's a deputy. He has a badge but soon as he's in the door he pulls a gun. His pals, Jack Elam, George Tobias and Dean Jagger come hustling in after he fires a couple of rounds in the air.
Jack plays the best psycho, he's a murderin' rapist held in check by Hugh. George and Dean are weaker men. There's a lot of tension as everyone settles down a bit. Jack gets trigger happy and poor Edgar is the first to die. It's a nice tight story, more a thriller than a western at times. Tyrone and Susan gang up and fight back. You can see how it all ends yourself, there's a watchable copy on YouTube. I'd recommend it.