Rawhide - The Complete First Season

As the producer says about the only just "in town' episode, he got a lot of angry mail afterwards because people loved the great outdoor action of the drovers and their cattle as they constantly moved into the unknown territory of the Sedalia Trail. This great long running western adventurer had one of the best ensemble casts of all the westerns. Clint Eastwood, who became the popular star, played youthful beefcake, brave and quick tempered ramrod, balanced by Eric Fleming's hard nosed, mature and responsible trail boss. In addition, Paul Brineger plays the classic tough, short tempered and frequently criticized chuck wagon cook who runs the camp when the cattle stop moving and he is one of the many actors who add so much to this western. The supporting casts features two men that look and act like real drovers and not Hollywood cowboys, Steve Raines as Jim Quince and Rocky Shahan as Joe Scarelet. Rounding out the cast is the man in the middle, Sheb Wooley (High Noon) who plays Pete Nolan the experienced scout and expert on Indians. And there is even a touch of comedy relief played by James Murdock as Mushy, the cook's louse. Robert Cabal as Hey Soos, the Ramuda wrangler, has a limited spot the first year. What was unique about Rawhide is that it had a real grimy touch of realism with a real cow herd, a predominately outdoor set that looks like north Texas and it features great acting and dialogue such as "You knew we were drovers by our look or are smell?" This first year has a touch of naivety in some of the episodes but Eric Fleming's booming voice and his character always add the touch of reality. His motto is business first and avoid unnecessary entanglements but when they intersect trouble they tend to get involved. This first year has a great collection of guest stars that include Lon Chaney, Jr., Martin Milner (Route 66), Brian Keith (Mountain Men), Beverly Garland (My Three Sons), James Drury (The Virginian), Rick Jason (Combat), Leslie Nielson (Airplane), Martin Landau (Mission Impossible), Linda Cristal (High Chaparral) and on. The stories seem to get better and better as the series developed particularly the battle over water in the "Dry Drive" and there is even a psychological drama of a shadowy hired killer stalking the men in the herd called "Executioner". Excellent first year, the cast stayed through the run until Sheb Wooley (also a singer who sang the great 50s hit "Purple People Eater') left for two years and Fleming skipped the last season and ironically drowned in his last film. The only blemish besides the "in town" episode was an excellent episode about wolves stalking the herd with a killer in their midst. Due to the lack of trained wolves, it clearly appears that they had to use several German shepherds running in the dark. But overlook that and you have one of the more fascinating episodes. The quality of the DVD film is excellent although in some episodes the dark scenes are not very discernible. Each episode includes an episode guide that often highlights the guest stars and there is a write up on Clint. Excellent 7 disc set with all 22 hour long episodes (without commercials of course). Hurrah, hurrah for DVD.

Aside from the occasional mediocre acting and the sometimes obvious sets, and the one curiously bad episode appropriately titled "The Incident of the Curious Street" (what a waste of a really good abandoned town set...) where the characters linger around mid way through episode as if the writers had forgotten the show is an hour long not half-an-hour! Even old pro guest actress Mercedes McCambridge (Johnny Guitar) seems to struggle through the meanderings.BUT, that one aside, RAWHIDE THE FIRST SEASON is a fine disc (no extras) with that great Arizona desert, mountain footage filmed in a very effective, gritty black-and-white as the "drovers" drive their massive herd of cattle through all of Texas into Missour-a on the Sedalia Trail.Again, (and even some of the obvious 'camp' sets are well constructed) the realistic dirt and dust of this great cattle drive makes for plenty of authentic viewing that reminded me of just how obviously fake the old color "Bonanza" sets had been. RAWHIDE should be considered the best western tv of the era other than Gunsmoke (even Gunsmoke - kinda - lasted too long).Also, you can be on the lookout for a bevy of stars while watching.Gloria Talbot (Wanted Dead or Alive episode; "I Married a Monster From Outer Space") guest stars in the "Calico Gun" Incident episode playing a sexy, femme fatale (she should have done this more) with Jack Lord (original Hawaii Five-0) as her bad man boyfriend.My RAWHIDE SEASON ONE volume had to be turned up more than most of my videos but the black-and-white picture is all but perfect; and I amused myself before watching 2 or 3 episodes in a row by listening - once for sure - to those great Frankie Laine vocals! He does belt out that "Rawhiiiiiiiiiiiide" quite well, quite effective, surprisingly well done, entertaining tune.This is well worth the 22 episodes plus one from Season 2 "Incident of Roman Candles" with RAWHIDE regular Sheb Wooley ("Hoosiers" basketball movie) as Pete Nolan basically the lead (in this one) with the boy who seems to be lying about his missing parents.But, Eric Fleming is basically the star of the whole cattle drive show as Gil Favor.Paul Brinegar is the multi-faceted cook "Wishbone" sometimes, quite amusing with that western-slang dialogue."Clint" is the trail boss in training sometimes too easily persuaded by a pretty face (see Gloria Talbot; and, oh, almost forgot, a young, Hispanic Linda Cristal appears reminding me of a young Linda Darnell ... "love the way you talk..." Clint as Rowdy grins... and you can't blame him. Cristal is stunning).The RAWHIDE crew sure come across their fair share of "Jaspers" (crazy; bad) on the Sedalia Trail.Dan Duryea plays a stalking, quiet gunfighter in another good episode (did Clint have this stoic gunfighter in mind ...? later in his career...?)Regulars "drovers" Quince, Mushy, and Scarlet were there from Day One Episode One.RAWHIDE SEASON I is a strong 4 star rating.

This is a tremendous series, but these UK PAL DVD copies are very, very poor. I have some avi rips taken from the American NTSC DVDs which are much sharper resolution despite being 480p compared to the PAL 576p. Clearly some resolution has been lost in the transcoding, and the picture on these UK DVDs is quite blurred. Furthermore, with PAL being a higher frame rate, the playback is slightly fast, and Frankie Laine sounds like a chipmunk.I would strongly recommend to get the American discs—any computer will be capable of ripping them to mp4 files with the right software, e.g. DVDFab, which will play on any modern TV with a USB port.UPDATEI have now bought the American discs and they are—for the most part—excellent picture quality. Season 1 is a bit variable, ranging from poor to excellent, and Season 4 is consistently poor, but the rest are pretty much broadcast quality. Get those, not the UK ones. If your DVD player isn't universally compatible you'll need to rip them in a computer first, as I did, then play them on your TV off a drive.

Some old TV series can be a disappointment when you view them many years later - they somehow don't look so good as your memory suggested! But "Rawhide" is an exception. Channel 4, to their credit, re-ran many of the episodes a few years back. "Rawhide" stands apart from so many 1960s Westerns, in which the heroes look so impeccably turned out, with never a speck of dust and dirt on then. Instead "Rawhide" portrays grubby, smelly, tatty drovers, who bleed when they get thumped or shot, and bicker amongst themselves; the series features historically-credible and authentic detail with consistently credible storylines. For instance, our heroes aren't referred to as "cowboys", but "drovers" - a minor point but hey, that's authenticity for you. The black-and-white photography seems to enhance the atmosphere and the acting's pretty top-notch from the ensemble cast too. This is classic quality TV. I wonder if the entire 220 or so episodes will be released..?

Rawhide holds so many memories for me, like other reviewers I am transported back over 45 years with the whole family settling down to watch it. The series has many memorable features, not least the opening theme tune sung by Frankie Laine, without doubt the best ever western theme. Every episode ended with the refrain, 'Head'em up, move'em out!' usually (but not always) uttered by the trail boss Gil Favor (Eric Fleming). It was the quintessential western series and in my opinion the best. Seeing a few episodes on TCM enticed me into buying this set and I am so glad I did. There is always a danger when revisiting childhood favourites like this; seen through modern day eyes the production shortcomings become glaringly obvious and cause sadness and disappointment, but in this case I needn't have worried. I loved it from the start and was delighted at how well the series had stood the test of time. The storylines are intelligent tackling the problems familiar to cattles drives on the Sedalia Trail; the constant need for water, fighting amongst the drovers, hostility from towns and farmers, cattle rustlers and dodgy lone characters that crossed their path. I was surprised to find it tackled head on the issue of racial predudice (against Native Americans and Mexicans) at a time when racial segregation was still the norm in many southern US States. There is a substantial amount of violence but unlike so much modern TV it isn't gratuitous or graphic. It is filmed in black and white and for me this only added to my enjoyment as it gave an edge to it all. I found the scenes where the drovers are herding the cattle across vast dusty plains or through deep meandering rivers strangely satisfying; perhaps watching Rawhide as a boy planted a seed in my mind and I wanted to grow up to be a drover all the time but never realised it until now, too late I think. Given his phenomenal career, launched by this series, it was inevitable that today's marketing ploys promote Clint Eastwood as the star of the show. He plays the ramrod (a kind of foreman), Rowdy Yates, but for me the star always was and remains Eric Fleming. He is superb as Gil Favor, the hard as nails but fair-minded trail boss, who's job it is to get the cattle to the railhead at Sedalia, overcoming all kinds of obstacles and dicey situations in the process. Sadly his career was tragically cut short when he died in a drowning accident not long after leaving the series aged 41. Other memorable characters are the cook Wishbone (Paul Brinegar), his sidekick Mushy (James Murdoch) and scout Pete Nolan (Sheb Wooley). I'll definitely be buying more DVD sets of this series.

My husband was reminiscing about Rawhide and how much he'd enjoyed it as a boy, so when I saw this on offer I snapped it up. We found that the stories (predictable morality tales, where the baddie gets his comeupance) have stood the test of time pretty well. Criminals are humanised - except English ones who are irrevocably evil - and there are even a few strong roles for the girls. OK, not many, but a few. Given how old these are, the camera work is astounding and there are some great stampede shots! The Rawhide theme tune has to be one of the best ever. Now I'm hooked too and looking forward to series two.

The film is great picture quality not that good but its very old but overall a good buy if you like western films like i do