FightingWesterner
Singing cowboy/crusading attorney Smith Ballew is looking for a brave cattleman to go up against the crooked Rancher's Protective Association, which has been shaking down local ranch owners. He finds what he's looking for in baseball star Lou Gehrig (!), who's quit baseball and along with his sister, bought a local spread.In all, this celebrity-driven production isn't half bad. It's a pleasant enough hour of entertainment, with some good action and an irresistible chance to see Gehrig at the height of his career, in his only acting gig. Evalyn Knapp, who play's his sister, is pretty cute too!As a Saturday matinée hero, the rough and tumble Gehrig is surprisingly good. One amusing scene has him taking out a pool hall full of bad guys by pitching billiard balls against their heads and another has Lou belting out a (lip-synched?) cowboy song with Ballew, while riding the trail!
John W Chance
Lou Gehrig was one of American major league baseball's greatest players. Check out his statistics on the Internet. His farewell speech at Yankee Stadium, given two years before his death to what we now call "Lou Gehrig's Disease" (ALS), was ranked the Number One Moment in Sports by fans during the 2008 All-Star Game. He wasn't just one of the baseball immortals, but unlike Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth, he had an extremely winning personality. For any fan of baseball, we are lucky to see that personality preserved for posterity in this film.The movie is really a Smith Ballew (who?) Western. Although Ballew starred in eleven Westerns, he was originally a band leader and jazz singer of the twenties and thirties (discovered by Tommy Dorsey no less!) He became one of the first singing cowboys; therefore, this one has a lot of singing. We get two 'comic' cowboy songs sung by him, one of which has the famous pop singer of the forties, Buddy Clark, singing for Lou Gehrig. Ballew's spotlighted ballad, "Driftin'," was written by Albert von Tilzer, composer of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," and "I'll Be With You in Appple Blossom Time." Beside this fine number, we get a country swing band doing a short version of "That Old Washboard Band," written and performed by Willie and Norman Phelps, who also do "Texas Washboard Rag" (which they also wrote) in Tex Ritter's 'Hittin' the Trail' (1937). For those who may not know, the washboard, augmented with copper pots and a bicycle horn, was a staple of Western movie bands. It was Spike Jones in the forties who elevated the augmented washboard to orchestral instrument status.Other credits for this film are equally impressive. Ray Taylor, who directed so many famous serials was the director. Among his many outstanding serials are 'The Return of Chandu' (1934), 'Flash Gordon,' (1936), 'Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe' (1940) and 'The Perils of Pauline' (1933), which starred Evalyn Knapp, who is featured in this movie as the heroine, though she gets little to do here. 'The Perils of Pauline' is especially noteworthy because it appears to take place at locations all over the world. In this movie we also get Dick Curtis, veteran of over 230 movies and TV shows (mostly as a villain), the ever present Lafe McKee, and the plump Cy Kendall as the dishonest sheriff.Then there's Lou Gehrig himself. Unlike other athletes who appeared in films, he is neither wooden, unemotional or out of place. One reviewer here described him as 'almost giddy' in his performance. I think, however, we have him in all his naturalness as a person, playing the role of a cowboy, with his smiling, dimpled, good natured sincerity. We see him throw billiard balls in a bar fight, and smash a window with a rock hit by a bat. He was left handed! He certainly does get a little giddy when he is called back for spring training at the end.The film's story is promising. In Rawhide, Montana, Saunders, an evil businessman, (in these thirties depression era movies what other kind is there?) is running a protection racket, forcing all the ranchers to join the "Ranchers' Protective Association," or face the consequences. Good natured Lou, going to live on his sister's ranch to find "peace and quiet," gets thrown into the middle of this conflict. With only the good town lawyer (Smith Ballew) to help him, Lou finds the odds heavily stacked against him in his defiance of the evil Saunders, and early attempts to circumvent Saunders' power and control are met with failure.Is the film fun to watch? Yes. We get some snappy dialog like, "You boys are carrying things with a pretty high hat," and "If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas." When Lou first sees his new home in Montana, he jubilates, "Boy! What a Ritz!" When Smith tells Lou that if he's going to stand up against Saunders, he'll have to stick it through, Lou replies enthusiastically, " Why I'm Old Man Stick It Through myself!" Prophetic, but true to Lou Gehrig's nature.Unfortunately, the defeat of the racketeers and the resolution of the conflict are too quickly and easily handled. After Smith rouses all the ranchers against him (in a fast forty seconds), Saunders declares "We've got to get out of town!" and the final horseback chase sequence takes place. Just like that. Smith's knockout punch to Saunders, and we're off to the happy ending. The rapid resolution detracts from the impact of the story's development, and weakens the film considerably.Still, I have to give it a five and a half for its other wonderful elements, especially preserving Lou Gehrig's enthusiastic presence.
funkyfry
Basically this is a pretty standard oater from the late 30s with the addition of baseball legend Lou Gehrig (second billed behind Smith Ballew, who plays a crooning cowboy lawyer). Sol Lesser isn't exactly know for top quality productions, and this one isn't all that great to look at (the cheap transfer to DVD that I saw didn't help), but it's fun to see Gehrig handle dialog and even a few lines of singing where he mentions his "versatility" on the diamond, which made me laugh because as far as I know the guy always played first base which is the easiest position to play in baseball. In fact Lou Gehrig sort of set the template for how the Yankees and other teams built their offense for the next several decades. He gets to show off his baseball skills in the Western context in at least two other scenes, once when he knocks a baseball through a window to stop his sister (Evalyn Knapp) from signing a contract with the evil racketeers, and even better in the bar fight when he knocks out a dozen assailants with pool balls. I guess they screenwriters didn't know that a first baseman usually can't pitch to save his life.It's sad to think of Gehrig wasted by illness just a few years after this film, because he looks and sounds great here. I mean he's not really an actor, but he could have become decent if he had made more films. I was surprised by how good looking he was; I've seen pictures of him but it's more striking on film. It makes you think that Gary Cooper wasn't that crazy a choice to play him on film after all.The rest of the cast is decent, but the plot is so predictable that anyone over the age of 6 might be bored unless they're a fan of these kind of movies like I am. Poor Knapp doesn't have anything to do but smile at Smith Ballew and of course break down and show her weakness by agreeing to sign the contract to spare Ballew's character from danger. Ballew himself I haven't really seen in anything else, he seems like a pretty generic example of the singing cowboy and doesn't even have a particularly good voice.On the whole though I enjoyed the movie. It's very short, it has all the things you need in a good standard-issue oater like good stunt riding, a couple fistfights, some gun-play, and a big cavalry ride at the end. Pretty enjoyable for an undemanding Sunday morning or whatever.
Gehrig4
...then you must watch this movie. I've been a big fan all my life and have always thought that there just wasn't enough extended film footage on him. There are lots and lots of interviews with Babe Ruth yet it's difficult to find anything like that with Gehrig so I had searched for a long time to get a good copy of Rawhide - Lou's one and only full length movie. Of course this movie was made in 1938 so the quality is not the best, but all and all, the movie was entertaining. Lou plays himself. After finishing the baseball season, he heads out to Montana for some rest and relaxation on his sister's ranch. Well, as it turns out, she is being pressured to join the "association" which provides protection for local ranchers. Yet it's really just a bully organization that bleeds all of the local ranchers of their profits. Gehrig's performance is enjoyable. He's almost giddy in his acting which makes the movie all that more watchable. There's a real good fight scene in the local saloon where Lou takes out his opponents one-by-one by throwing billiard balls at him. And of course, the movie ends on a happy note. Hope you're able to get a copy of this movie. Watch it and enjoy.
