Amazon.com video review:
When you hear the whip crack, you know you can settle down for some real
cowboy fun. The Premiere Episode of Rawhide features a youthful
Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates, a hand on the cattle drives run by trail
boss Gil Favor and his crew of drovers. "Incident of the Tumbleweed
Wagon" presents a classic story of miscarried justice and high tension as a
load of prisoners wound their captors in an escape attempt, and make trouble
for Favor and Yates as our heroes try to herd the criminals to
justice--with a band of bad-guy rescuers on their trail. Including a range
of characters and interactions that we don't see on television any more,
the story unfolds, and we see most get what they deserve. Eastwood's star
appeal is obvious even at this young age; it's clear from the beginning that
he's destined for greatness. --Rob Lightner
Amazon.com video review:
No Clint Eastwood in this classic episode
of Rawhide, but special guest star Miss Barbara Stanwyck as
Nora will make your day. In "The Captain's Wife," Lady Macbeth has
nothing on Nora, who is dissatisfied with her life on a remote
frontier outpost. When comancheros terrorize the region, she sees
their capture as "the way back to Washington," whispering in her
husband's ear, "It's boldness that makes heroes." Interfering with her
plans is herd boss Gil Favor (series star Eric Fleming), who arrives
at the fort for supplies. Nora has already defied regulations and
risked lives and aided her husband's court martial by dispatching "every
able-bodied man" to join her husband on patrol. That leaves "two
women, four civilians, one of them a boy, and two troopers from sick
bay" to fend off an anticipated raiding party. Tay Garnett (The
Postman Always Rings Twice) directed. --Donald Liebenson
Amazon.com video review:
Worth the price of purchase alone is guest
star Frankie Avalon, as "punk kid" Billy Farragut, taking on series
costar Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates. "Come on, big boy," Billy
challenges. "Let's see what you can do. You're like a bug hunk of wood
that needs chopping." Billy's grandmother, Elizabeth Farragut, holds
court in Farragut City at the Farragut Motel, just down the street
from Farragut Food and Grain ("Kinda tiresome, sheriff?" Rowdy asks,
"Never sayin' anything but Farragut?"). She compels trail boss Gil
Favor (Eric Fleming) to hire her "wild, selfish, irresponsible"
grandson to instill in him some discipline. Billy does not ingratiate
himself with the crew ("I don't shake hands with a stinking drover,
now or anytime"). He does form an unexpected friendship with the
simple-hearted Mushie, but don't go thinking this is going to be like
that Andy Griffith episode in which bratty Bill Bixby renounces
his spoiled ways. The frontier ain't Mayberry. If you purposely start
a cattle stampede, you're going to get what you deserve. Outside of
some priceless double takes and whooping Frankie, Eastwood doesn't
have much to do in this episode, but Rawhide collectors will still
want to add this vintage episode to the herd. --Donald
Liebenson
Amazon.com video review:
Clint sings! This memorable Rawhide episode steers off the cattle-drive trail for an often-comical story about a snake-oil hustler's redemption. Buddy Ebsen guest stars as Dr. Stimson, a "Golden Remedy" purveyor, whose pitch wagon is attacked by Indians. Rowdy Yates (Clint Eastwood) rides to the rescue, but in the ensuing skirmish one of his men, Frank Miller, is killed. The drivers pitch in to send money to Frank's widow and two children, but Stimson has a plan to raise the stakes. Feeling that he "owes this boy's family a debt," he suggests a way to turn the tables on a local crooked poker game (run by venerable character actor Jack Elam) using Mushie (James Murdock), the frontier Gump, as the "pigeon." This being Mushie, the con is soon discovered, but Stimson has another ace up his sleeve. When his estranged
wife (Joan O'Brien) arrives to announce she is remarrying the more respectable Sam (Hugh Marlowe of All About Eve and The Day the Earth Stood Still), Stimson convinces her to impersonate the popular singer Jenny Lind and perform a recital. Yet another setback finds Stimson, Rowdy, and the boys alone to face an audience of increasingly agitated high-paying customers. "Rowdy," suggests grizzled cook Wishbone, "why don't you go out there and sing?" This is an atypical Rawhide episode, but one that pays off in unexpected, off-center moments. And Ebsen, for one, is in his element as the folksy, fast-talking Stimson. --Donald Liebenson
Amazon.com video review:
Christian Nyby (The Thing) directed this thoughtful, eloquent, and
superbly acted Rawhide episode. Michael Ansara guest stars as Joseph, a Comanche who a short-handed Rowdy Yates (Clint Eastwood) hires for the cattle drive. Racial tensions within the camp ("Once a Comanche, always a Comanche") are heightened with the arrival of Colonel Macklin (James Whitmore), who led a massacre of the Comanche and is in defiance of a recently signed treaty. The paranoid and increasingly unstable Macklin is gunning for Chief Iron Bull, who he has never seen but is convinced that he "is out to get me." Trail boss Gil Favor (Eric Fleming) warns Macklin that "our business is driving cattle, not fighting Indians." But Macklin's taunts ("Maybe Chief Iron Bull is hiding with the women," he challenges tribal elders) and the tragic shooting of an Indian boy sets the stage for a showdown, unless Gil turns over to the Comanche "a gift": Macklin. Whitmore gives an Emmy-worthy performance. His climactic recounting of the massacre he led is chilling. Another standout is veteran character Richard X. Slattery as the camp's most venal racist. --Donald Liebenson
Amazon.com video review:
Round up this vintage Rawhide episode originally broadcast in 1963.
Clint Eastwood stars as Rowdy Yates, who becomes "Sir Lancelot" to Judy Hall (guest star Susan Oliver), a freshly tarred and feathered saloon singer to whom he offers safe haven with the cattle drive. Trail boss Gil Favor (Eric Fleming) disapproves of her disruptive presence. Out of spite, she vows, "By the time I finish with his crew, he'll be lucky if he has one cow left." James Best, perhaps best known as Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard, guest stars as Willie Cain, whose interest in Judy ("She bounces class like a fistful of diamonds") dramatically increases when it is revealed that she is in fact an heiress. The legendary Lon Chaney Jr. (The Wolf Man) gives a heartbreaking performance as gentle giant Rock, who tragically defends her honor. As usual, grizzled cook Wishbone (Paul Brinegar) gets the episode's best line. Suspecting that Lola's Saloon is watering its drinks, he remarks of the carousing drovers, "Usually they'd be so drunk they couldn't hit the floor with their hat in three throws." --Donald Liebenson
