Review of "Rawhide Collector’s Edition: The Captain’s Wife and The Pitchwagon," VHS tape

Review of

Rawhide Collector’s Edition: The Captain’s Wife and The Pitchwagon, VHS tape

Five out of five stars

 This western of the early sixties used plots that were routine for the genre that was extremely popular at the time. Yet, like the other successful television westerns, it was the powerful characters and their relationships that made the series popular. “Gunsmoke” was a western with fist and gunfights, yet it was the relationships between the main characters that made the show. “Rawhide” was similar in that the men on the drive were close friends that looked out for each other.

 In the episode “The Captain’s Wife,” Barbara Stanwyck guest stars as the wife of Captain Holloway, the commander of a frontier fort. While the Captain is content to command the fort, his wife has great ambitions for him, trying to convince him that he belongs in Washington, wearing the trappings of a much higher rank.

 When Gil Favor and his group loose some of their horses to Comanchero bandits and their supplies to a river, Favor takes a small group to the fort in an attempt to resupply. While there, they become involved with the machinations of the captain’s wife, she is ruthless, not hesitating to lie and manipulate in order to advance her husband’s position. Her actions force Favor to take charge in order to keep the situation from becoming a slaughter.

 Stanwyck is very easy to dislike in this role, which is a demonstration of how well she plays the role. When she carries out her schemes, the viewer hopes that she will meet her demise, for she shows no remorse for the problems she causes. In this case, it is Stanwyck that drives the plot from the point where she first appears.

 In “The Pitchwagon,” Buddy Ebsen plays a man drifted across the country in a wagon selling his health elixir. When he is attacked, the men of the cattle drive come to his rescue, only to have one of their group shot and killed. Usually one to look after himself, the Ebsen character feels he owes his life to the dead man and hatches a scheme to get a good deal of money to send to the dead man’s widow and children.

 The scheme involves his estranged wife, a singer. When she arrives, the Ebsen character convinces her to go on stage one last time to perform a benefit concert. She agrees, and the action rekindles their marriage from the point where she is there to ask for a divorce to where she reconsiders. The story is a bit weak, although there is one unusual high point, where the Clint Eastwood character sings. Given the general tough guy characters that Eastwood is known for, this was an unusual sight and Eastwood wasn’t all that bad. The scene where the members of the cattle drive have to entertain the crowd are not strong as the men show weakness and uncertainty in their actions. In general, they are depicted as tough, decisive men.