By its fourth season, CBS’ Rawhide was beginning to show some signs of weariness from viewers. It had peaked during season three finishing that season as one of the top ten rated shows on television, but the decline was beginning; it was only a top twenty show in season four, and its fifth season would be its last in the hallowed regions of the most popular programs being broadcast barely finishing among the top thirty programs. Qualitatively, the series was actually no better or worse than it had ever been, but adult westerns, while still popular, were ebbing in number compared to the giddy years of the 1950s when they were the most popular genre on television. After season four, Rawhide had a season and a half more life left in it before its network run ended.
Rawhide: The Fourth Season, Volume 2
Directed by George B. Templeton et al
Studio: CBS/Paramount
Year: 1962
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Running Time: 709 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 mono English
Subtitles: SDH
MSRP: $42.99
Release Date: November 1, 2011
Review Date: November 6, 2011
The Season
3.5/5
The show centered around the adventures and experiences of the various men involved in cattle drives across the Midwestern plains in the years following the Civil War. The team was headed by trail boss Gil Favor (Eric Fleming) with Rowdy Yates (Clint Eastwood in his first taste of real stardom) as Favor’s ramrod (second-in-command). Vying for Rowdy’s favored spot was new addition to the cast in season four Clay Forrester (Charles Gray), a helpful addition since Sheb Wooley’s Pete Nolan, who had been with the show from the beginning, was written out of the show as a regular midway through the season and returned only in a couple of guest star appearances from then on. Also important to the show’s identity was feisty trail cook Wishbone (Paul Brinegar). His sweet-tempered simple-minded assistant “Mushy” (James Murdock) was another welcome addition to the regular cast.
Several things become perfectly clear when viewing even a few episodes from this second half of season four. Without any regular female characters, a concerted effort is made to inject a female presence in the storylines of many of the episodes, even if the ladies involved are never intended to be more than momentary flirtations for the various men on the team. In addition to standard romantic interests for Rowdy (“Gold Fever”) and Gil (“A Woman’s Place”) in various shows, we also get to meet Gil’s two daughters in the second episode in this set “The Boss’s Daughters,” and Rowdy comes into contact with a delightfully sneaky elderly con woman (Josephine Hutchinson plays her) in “Grandma’s Money.” Another obvious device the producers use is that rarely do both Clint Eastwood and Eric Fleming appear in an entire episode in tandem. In most of the episodes in this set, one or the other is off screen doing some work making his presence unnecessary, and in “The Immigrants,” neither in on screen for very long with Clay and Wishbone taking center stage.
The producers use a fascinating and varied assortment of guest stars for the series. Some like Walter Pidgeon were already huge stars finding available work on television after their studio contract days were over. Others like James Coburn were on their way to becoming big stars but weren’t there yet. Among the other famous faces glimpsed during these fourteen episodes are Alan Hale, Jr., Marion Ross (two appearances as different characters in this set), Russell Arms, Hal Needham, Harry Carey, Jr., Mercedes McCambridge, Jim Davis, J. Pat O’Malley, Kathleen Freeman, Ross Elliott, Buddy Ebsen, Hugh Marlowe, Jack Elam, Debra Paget, Naomi Stevens, Cesar Romero, Darryl Hickman, Rosemary DeCamp, Lane Bradford, and Victor Jory.
Here are the fourteen episodes contained on four discs in this half season box set:
1 – The Woman Trap
2 – The Boss’s Daughters
3 – The Deserters’ Patrol
4 – The Greedy Town
5 – Grandma’s Money
6 – The Pitchwagon
7 – Hostage Child
8 – The Immigrants
9 – The Child-Woman
10 – A Woman’s Place
11 – The Reunion
12 – House of the Hunter (this tale of revenge is the strongest dramatic episode in the set)
13 – Gold Fever
14 – The Devil and the Deep Blue
Video Quality
3.5/5
The episodes are presented in their original 1.33:1 broadcast aspect ratios. The transfers are very erratic in quality in almost every conceivable way. Sharpness can be very good, but the closer the focus of the shot, the better the quality is, and the vault footage of the cattle drives is very soft. Brightness and contrast likewise vary not only from episode to episode but also from shot to shot within episodes (it’s not uncommon for a flash of brightness to occur and then dissipate). The transfers are not much troubled by dust specks though certainly there is some evidence of dirt, and there is an occasional scratch, but they are also only sporadically present. There is a fair amount of moiré to be seen in the patterned shirts and jackets of the characters. Each episode has been divided into 8 chapters.
Audio Quality
3/5
The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound is decoded by Dolby Prologic into the center channel. Dialogue is well recorded and is almost always easy to discern. There is, however, problematic hiss with several episodes and a muffled crackling or hum that can sometimes be quite distracting in many of the episodes. Louder music refrains can also result in some distortion, too.
Special Features
2/5
Two episode previews are shown for the programs “The Pitchwagon” and “The Devil and the Deep Blue” Each runs 1 minute.
“Abilene” is offered as a bonus episode from season five as some of the members of the team are quarantined with a smallpox scare in this 50-minute episode.
Original sponsor spots are offered in a montage that runs for 2 ¾ minutes.
In Conclusion
3.5/5 (not an average)
Not a great dramatic series (some of the acting is as wooden as anything you’ll ever see on a network series) but there’s quite a bit of great nostalgia to be had with Rawhide: The Fourth Season, Volume 2. Though video and audio quality suggest the episodes weren’t remastered before release, the quality is certainly sufficient for fans of the show to get their hopes realized that the series might one day be completely released on DVD.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
