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| Available at Amazon.com |
Rawhide goes against the normal mythology of the West. Frontier tales are about cowboys civilizing the land and creating wealth. People crossed the Mississippi River with dreams of digging for gold, claiming free land or striking it rich as an outlaw. The drovers on Rawhide were beyond such earthly desires. They’re almost spiritual monks on horseback driving a herd of 3,000 cattle nearly 1,500 miles to Missouri. Gil Favor (Eric Fleming) and his crew aren’t in the business for the quick fortune. They cross the rugged plains with a sense of responsibility to deliver the herd and an obligation to assist those who cross their path. But they aren’t non-violent monks. If you mess with one of the drovers, Rowdy Yates (Clint Eastwood) is going to kick your ass.
The first fifteen episodes of Season three bring plenty of A-list talent onto the trail. “Incident at Rojo Canyon” has the drovers under attack from Confederate troops who aren’t ready to surrender. Mixed up in the gunfire of this military action is a couple of musical stars. Julie London and Bobby Troup bring a song to the cows. London is looking for her lost father. Troup is her keyboardist. Troup wrote one of the great traveling West songs in “Route 66.” The couple would later star in Emergency!
“Incident of the Slavemaster” stars Peter Lorre (M) as a former Confederate officer. He once ran a prisoner of war camp, but now he farms cotton. A woman is looking for her lost husband, a union solider. He disappeared along with this men when they were being released from Lorre’s camp at the end of the war. She pulls a gun on Lorre and swears he knows the fate of her husband. Lorre pleads ignorance and believes her husband along with his son were killed by bandits. She knows he’s alive. Unfortunately the next day she shows up dead. The drovers suspect there’s more to this mystery of the missing union troops. John Agar has a guest spot as a member of Lorre’s team. A few years earlier, Agar and Eastwood appeared together in Revenge of the Creature.
“The Incident at Poco Tiempo” has Eastwood falsely charged for robbing a bank. His main hope involves a nun played by Agnes Moorehead (Endora on Bewitched). Luckily he has better luck with her than either Dick York or Dick Sergeant. For fans of the married witch sitcom, Dick York pops in for “Incident of the Broken Word.” This is a twisted tale of E.G. Marshall having to resort to extreme measures to hide the fact that he sold diseased cattle. York is a man who messed up Marshall’s marriage. “Incident of the Buffalo Soldier” has Woody Strode (Spartacus) steal Eastwood’s horse. Robert Culp (I Spy) joins the drovers as a Civil War vet kicking his horse habit in The Incident at the Top of the World.
Rawhide: The Third Season, Volume 1 keeps up the quality tales from the trail. This is one of the few Westerns that gave us a view of the vast frontier instead of faking it on a backlot and studio set. You feel the herd of cattle making that huge journey across the unsettled land. The journey feels real. The show doesn’t bog down into the various drovers dreams of easy riches or taming the land. They merely wanted to move the cattle across prairies and take us with them. They were mystics on the range.
The Episodes
“Incident at Rojo Canyon,” “Incident of the Challenge,” “Incident at Dragoon Crossing,” “Incident of the Night Visitor,” “Incident of the Slavemaster,” “Incident on the Road to Yesterday,” “Incident at Superstition Prairie,” “Incident at Poco Tiempo,” “Incident of the Captive,” “Incident of the Buffalo Soldier,” “Incident of the Broken Word,” “Incident at the Top of the World,” “Incident Near the Promised Land,” “Incident of the Big Blowout” and “Incident of the Fish Out of Water.”
The video is 1.33:1 full frame. The black and white image is rich and detailed. As in previous reviews, the exterior location action featuring Clint Eastwood makes this show look like The Man With No Name: The Early Years. The audio is Dolby Digital mono. You can hear the mooing of the cattle.
None.
For those who’ve enjoyed the first two seasons of Rawhide, the first fifteen episodes of the third season will keep you entertained. Eastwood is developing the Western persona that would make him a cowboy legend.
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CBS DVD presents Rawhide: The Third Season, Volume 1. Starring: Eric Fleming, Sheb Wooley, Paul Brinegar and Clint Eastwood. DVD contents: 15 episodes on 4 discs. Originally Broadcasted: Sept. 30, 1960 – Feb. 17. 1961. Released on DVD: May 27, 2008. Available at Amazon.com
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