Linbeymusol
Wonderful character development!
Bardlerx
Strictly average movie
Jerrie
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
sddavis63
In a bizarre kind of way, this is a fairly typical sort of western. It features a lot of cowboys, a lot of horses and a few gunfights. It's also, however, set in the late 1930's and it stars - wait for it - Lou Gehrig (yes - THE Lou Gehrig of New York Yankees fame) as - again, wait for it - Lou Gehrig, who's decided to retire from baseball, and get some peace and quiet out on the range as a rancher. But far from peace and quiet, Lou finds himself in the middle of a battle with a local robber- baron type who controls the town and all of the ranchers.Now, Gehrig was I'm sure a better baseball player than he was an actor, and yet he wasn't too bad in this either, and he manages to introduce even a bit of humour into it, particularly in the scene where he first learns to ride a horse. His very presence also brings forth a sense of pathos right from the start. Remember that the movie was made in 1938. It opens with Gehrig speaking to reporters at a train as he's preparing to leave New York City and explaining that he's quitting baseball. We, of course, know now that in fact within little more than a year he would be out of baseball, and not long afterward he would be dead. You can't help but think of that as the movie opens. So there's some fun, there's typical western stuff, there's unintentional sadness because of the way Gehrig's life turned out and there's even a singing cowboy/lawyer played by Smith Ballew, whose songs are absolute pure corn - so much so that they make you laugh a bit too. Some of the story is a bit strange. Lou buys the ranch in partnership with his sister (played by Evelyn Knapp) - but as far as I know Lou didn't have any sisters at this point in his life (he was the only one of his parents' four children to survive into adulthood.) Why not have him buy the ranch with his wife Eleanor? Wouldn't that have made more sense? And where was Eleanor anyway? Did he leave her behind? I mean, if you're going to cast Lou Gehrig as himself why not use his real biography? Strange stuff.Anyway, all that confusion about Gehrig's life aside, you have to say that no, this isn't a great movie. But any movie that actually stars Lou Gehrig as Lou Gehrig (and it's the only movie he was ever in, and one wonders if he might have thought of acting as a post-baseball career that unfortunately never happened) is worth watching! (6/10)
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!
Michael_Elliott
RAWHIDE (1938) ** (out of four) After finishing the baseball season, the real Lou Gehrig travels to Montana to visit his sister where he learns an evil banker is stealing all of their land. This really isn't a good movie but it's quite fun seeing the baseball legend act. I wouldn't say he gave a good performance but it's worth watching either way. I'm not sure if Gehrig was acting or just playing himself but he's always got a smile on his face, which is quite charming considering the pain he must have been feeling at the time. There really isn't too much footage out there of Gehrig so this film, warts and all, is pretty important.
ski
While not Oscar deserving, Gehrig did a commendable job, considering it was his first (and last) movie. The movie was made a year before he retired from baseball due to the disease that claimed his life two years later.
