The Rawhide Trail
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Robert Gordon
Rex Reason
Nancy Gates
Richard Erdman
Ann Doran
Rusty Lane
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Jess Brady and Rupe Pardee have been wrongfully accused of leading a supply train into a Comanche ambush and are waiting to be hanged in a Gunsight, Texas, jail. Jess and Rupe's claim that the Comanches also want them dead appears to be justified when the Indians attack the jail in an attempt to capture them. After a company of soldiers drives off the Comanches, their injured captain moves Jess, Rupe and Rupe's Indian wife, Keetah, who has been wounded in the attack, to a stagecoach line's way station nearby. When a stagecoach carrying Farley Durand, a government supply officer, his fiancée Nancy Collins, James Willard, a New York newspaper reporter and Mrs. Cartwright, a major's wife, arrives there, Jess and Rupe ask Durand, who assigned them to lead the supply train, if he is surprised to see them alive. As Durand tells Nancy that he and Jess, who is half Kiowa Indian, were in the same class at military academy, Mrs. Cartwright, a former nurse, helps Jess remove an arrowhead from the captain's shoulder. The Comanches have followed, however, and soon the occupants of the way station find themselves under siege. The situation becomes more tense when Jess begins to suspect that the Indians are after them because Durand failed to deliver a shipment of beef. That night, after the Indians run off the horses, one brave enters the station and fights with Durand. Because Jess and Rupe are handcuffed to a bunk, they cannot help Durand, but Nancy throws hot water on the Indian and Mrs. Cartwright then shoots him. Later, Jess publicly accuses Durand of not supplying the correct ammunition for a shipment of hunting rifles ordered by the Indians, thereby incurring their enmity. Although the captain interrogates Durand about this failure, he is unsatisfied with the supply officer's explanation. After Willard proposes an escape plan, the captain asks Jess to try to lead them to safety. Jess divides the party into groups in an attempt to decoy the Comanches. While Rupe and two others head for Gunsight, Jess sends the captain, Willard and Mrs. Cartwright to intercept the next stagecoach. After Jess, Nancy and Durand take a different route, Jess accuses Durand of withholding the Indians' beef shipments to force them to pay higher prices for the rifles. A disillusioned Nancy asks Durand if this is true, but he is killed by a lone Indian before he can reply. After Rupe and his group become trapped, he and Keetah manage to escape and join Jess and Nancy, who have fallen in love. While Jess holds off another Indian attack, Rupe and Keetah make it to the stagecoach, which has been stopped by the captain's group. After Rupe borrows two new Winchester rifles from the drivers, he asks Willard to ensure that he and Jess will be cleared of all charges against them. Rupe and Keetah then return to help Jess and Nancy. Meanwhile, Jess explodes a box of ammunition, setting off an avalance that kills most of the Indians. After Jess and Rupe drive off the remaining braves, the two couples decide to stay together and head for Mexico.
Director
Robert Gordon
Cast
Rex Reason
Nancy Gates
Richard Erdman
Ann Doran
Rusty Lane
Jana Davi
Sam Buffington
Robert Knapp
Frank Chase
William Murphy
John Dierkes
Richard Warren
Richard Geary
Chet Sampson
Red Schryver
Al Wyatt
Vance Howard
Bru Danger
Cecil Elliott
Joseph H. Hamilton
Crew
Russell Ashley
Paul Borofsky
Andre S. Brummer
Andre S. Brummer
Irene Caine
Pat Dorian
Joe Dorris
Elmer Ellsworth
Del Harris
J. William Hayes
K. M. Kessler
Kenny Kessler
Joseph Kish
Jack Lloyd
Earle Lyon
David Milton
Teddy Mossman
Eve Newing
George Olah
Clarence Peterson
Jack Pierce
Carl Sands
Dave Stretch
Karl Struss
James Terry
Dick Walton
Alexander J. Wells
James West
Ding Woodhouse
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This film's working title was The Rawhide Breed. Although some printed lists of cast credits give the name of Nancy Gates's character as "Marsha," in the film she is called "Nancy." The surname of the character played by Robert Knapp May be "Duland." Location shooting was done at the Gene Autry Ranch in Placerita Canyon, Newhall, CA.
