Best movie of this year hands down!

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Copyright 8 April 1938 by Principal Productions, Inc. New York opening at the Globe: 24 April 1938. Released through 20th Century-Fox: 8 April 1938. Australian release: 16 June 1938. 6 reels. 59 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Baseball star buys a ranch.COMMENT: In his first and only Hollywood feature, baseball legend Lou Gehrig (later to be immortalized by Gary Cooper in Pride of the Yankees) understudies the now-forgotten Smith Ballew, a popular singer of the time, who made five "B" westerns for Fox (this is the fourth) in the late 1930s. Although Ballew displays a pleasant voice and personality in the main role, all eyes are on Gehrig in support. He handles himself with a professional finesse (all sports people are actors after all), exhibiting enough individual charisma to lend credence to the assumption that he would have successfully made the transition from sports star to popular character actor had he lived. Although he's allowed only two opportunities to show off his baseball prowess, it's hard to take a great deal of interest in the other players. True, Miss Knapp is an attractive enough heroine, whilst villain Loft does a lot of gabbing and henchman Curtis makes with the scowls. And it's good to see Cy Kendall as the crooked sheriff and Lafe McKee the upright McDonnell. But neither the other actors nor the play (routine in its plot but allowing for a fair amount of location action - some obviously stock) are the thing in this single-focused Rawhide.

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!

...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.

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.