Raw Edge

Released: 1956 

Director: John Sherwood 

Production Company: Universal Pictures 

Written by: Harry Essex and Robert Hill (screenplay) 

William Kozelenko and James Benson Nablo (story)

Cast:

Rory Calhoun as Tex Kirby

Yvonne De Carlo as Hannah Montgomery

Neville Brand as Tarp Penny

Mara Corday as Paca

Herbert Rudley as Gerald Montgomery

John Gavin (credited as John Gilmore) as Dan Kirby

Raw Edge (1956), directed by John Sherwood, is set in 1842 Oregon, the film imagines a frontier society where widowed women are “claimed” by the first man who stakes a physical or verbal claim—a law enforced by land baron Gerald Montgomery. Rory Calhoun stars as Tex Kirby, a drifter seeking revenge for his brother’s unjust hanging, while Yvonne De Carlo plays Hannah Montgomery, the land baron’s wife caught in the crosshairs of male ambition and frontier lawlessness.

The film is visually striking in Technicolor and features a strong cast. Even the story is good. But for what it is, there are a lot of mistakes such as wrong weapons. It also left a few threads hanging like what happened to the men who were with Montgomery at the end? It is up to the viewer to make the assumption that they died at the hands of the Indians as Paca, the wife of Kirby's brother, takes her revenge.  However I'm willing to overlook the mistakes for the sake of the story. 

Not one or Rory Calhoun's best. 6/10