Have a high appreciation for Westerns and 'The Rawhide Years' has some very talented names in front of and behind the camera. 'The Rawhide Years' was yet another film too recommended to me, finding myself on an unexpected but interesting Tony Curtis film completest quest. He may not have been the greatest of actors but there was a great deal of likeability about him.

'The Rawhide Years' turned out to be a fun watch. Not one of the best Western films by any stretch, but does its job well and for a film that didn't try to be one of the greats, try and do more than necessary, knew its target audience and what it wanted to be 'The Rawhide Yeats' is generally successful. It is good fun and there is not an ounce of shame having watched it, would hesitate in calling it a favourite but it is deserving of more attention than the near-obscure one it has as of now.

Admittedly, 'The Rawhide Years' is reasonably formulaic and the script has some campiness and doesn't always flow.

Coleen Miller is pretty bland here, not much to her performance, and her chemistry with Curtis does not convince in the slightest, it doesn't ever have spark or passion.

However, regardless of whether he convinces as the type of character he's playing (not quite),Curtis is very heroic and likeable, his acting was getting more comfortable, with some steel that makes his plight worth rooting for. The supporting cast standouts are a stoic William Demarest, deliciously hissable Peter Van Eyck and particularly humorously roguish Arthur Kennedy, his chemistry with Curtis being the most convincing in terms of character interaction of the film.

Visually, 'The Rawhide Years' is handsomely photographed and designed, and directed with assurance. The story is always exciting and easy to follow, some familiar genre tropes here but handled with enough freshness and charm. The characters and enough of the script are fun and amiable and the music fits nicely. The songs may be anachronistic somewhat and may not add much to the story but are lovely in their own right, "The Gypsy with Fire in His Shoes" especially.

In short, entertaining and an easy watch if not something to be blown away by. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The Rawhide Years is directed by Rudolph Maté and adapted from the Norman A. Fox novel by Earl Felton, Robert Presnell Jr. & D.D. Beauchamp. It stars Tony Curtis, Colleen Miller, William Demarest, Arthur Kennedy, William Gargan & Peter Van Eyck. It's a Technicolor production with photography by Irving Glassberg and the music is scored by Frank Skinner & Hans J. Salter.

Plot finds Curtis as Ben Matthews, a riverboat card player who along with his elder partner, Carrico (Donald Randolph),cheat unsuspecting players. But during one particular sting on The Montana Queen, Ben is found out by an observer, Minor Watson (Matt Comfort),who quietly pulls Ben aside to let him know he has been rumbled and that he has destroyed the life of one of the older players. This gives Ben an attack of consciousness who fixes the next game so that Matt can win enough money to pay the old fella back. After breaking the partnership with Carrico, Ben has a meeting with Matt who offers him a job back on his ranch in Galena. It's food for thought but later that night Matt is murdered and Ben and Carrico are chief suspects. Forced to go on the run as Ben Martin, he finds work but eventually feels he can't sit still in one place and he hooks up with shifty guide Rick Harper (Kennedy),for he knows at some point he must get back to Galena to solve the murder, clear his name and win back his true love, Zoe Fontaine (Miller).

Little known, probably forgotten and rarely seen, is this fun, entertaining but formulaic Western in the cannon of Tony Curtis. Running at just under an hour and half, Maté (D.O.A.) and his team make sure they fill out the picture with as many Western movie staples as they can. Only thing missing here is Indians, tho we do get a cigar store wooden Indian that's the Macguffin of the piece. The story is a safe one to execute, with its murder mystery core, romantic strands and shifty villains waiting to be knocked down a peg or two, it is never less than interesting. It also looks very nice in Technicolor, especially when the film goes off stage and out into Lone Pine, California, where Glassberg (Backlash) uses the backdrop to great effect. There's also a trio of pleasing songs to enjoy, "The Gypsy With Fire In His Shoes", "Happy Go Lucky" and "Give Me Your Love".

The cast, perhaps unsurprisingly for a B Western, is a very mixed bag. Curtis is very unconvincing as a cowboy type, but he's very handsome here and his character is one that's easy to get on side with as he seeks to achieve his goals. Curtis is aided by Kennedy (Where the River Bends),who is playing the material the way it should be played (with tongue in cheek and glint in the eye),they form a nice double act and Kennedy shines as the lovable rogue type. Miller sadly is very poor and her scenes with Curtis lack spark or conviction, while Van Eyck is just wooden as the chief villain. Demarest (The Jolson Story) is his usual reliable and stoic self, while the bonus turn comes from William Gargan (They Knew What They Wanted) who does a nice line in officialdom as Marshal Sommers. All told it's a more than adequate time filler for fans of Curtis and light entertainment Westerns. From gunfights to fisticuffs, to horseback pursuits, there's enough here to offset some of the ham and cheese formula that comes with such a production. 6.5/10

Tony Curtis is a riverboat gambler who has a murder pinned on him, so he heads out west to find out who did the deed before he is lynched.

It had been six years since Curtis had last been in a western. In that time he had risen from someone barely on the first cast card to one of Universal's biggest stars, so he is well supported in this movie, with the familiar players including William Demarest, Arthur Kennedy and William Gargan. Under the usually psychologically twisted direction of Rudolph Maté, he gives a competent, although not particularly interesting performance.... except, of course, to the young girls whose appeal lay in his beautiful face and lower-class accent. I suppose it made him seem approachable. The resulis a good if not outstanding star vehicle.