The Hawk of Powder River (1948) User Reviews

A Bullet for the Hawk

[398 · 6/10 · 13 May 2008]

Eddie Dean was the oddest duck in the B western pond. He had a prominent nose and a very weak chin, making him resemble a younger version of his goofy sidekick, Roscoe Ates. His looks seemed more appropriate for a clown. This was unfortunate as he had much to offer. He was well built, convincing in the riding and fighting scenes, and a decent actor. And he had the biggest voice of any of the singing cowboys.

THE HAWK OF POWDER RIVER was made late in Dean's career and is a solid B western thanks to good songs, including the lively 'Punchinello' and the haunting 'Wild Country', plenty of well-staged action scenes, and a striking performance by pretty Jennifer Holt as the villain. There had been female villains in B westerns before, but those I have seen generally fall into the good-bad girl class, redeemed by a streak of decency or a budding love for the hero. The Hawk, though, as played by Holt, is bad to the bone, leading her henchmen on murderous raids, personally gunning down a crusading newspaperman, sneering indifferently at the news one of her gang blew away her gentle uncle, all the while coldly plotting the murder of her sweet cousin. The scenes in which she snarls her orders at her cowed henchmen are unique and a lot of fun.

Besides this unusual villain, there is also an unusual hero. Dean seems to owe as much to Mickey Spillane as to the traditional knight of the sagebrush. He slaps a confession, Mike Hammer style, out of one of the bad guys, shoots several of the bad guys in the back when he rides up behind them during the climatic gunfight, and tops it all by personally shooting the evil Hawk dead.

All in all, a real treat for B western fans.

"I'll tell ya, I get my orders from The Hawk".

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 21 August 2008]

What might have ended up as a fairly standard Western programmer wound up somewhat more interesting due to a number of elements, chief of which was the identity of the title character. The 'Hawk' of Powder River was the leader of an outlaw gang, and as it turns out, was a female, ably portrayed by Jennifer Holt. Daughter of Jack Holt, and sister of Tim Holt, both Western stars in their own right, her real name was Elizabeth Marshall Holt. She wound up in a batch of 'B' Westerns in the Forties, co-starring with Johnny Mack Brown, Lash LaRue, Eddie Dean and others. Jennifer was really allowed to cut loose in this one, going for over the top villainy, and it was admittedly her favorite Western role.

Eddie Dean isn't the most recognizable cowboy movie star today, but his importance to the genre consists in his being the first to appear in a series of films in color back in the 1940's. Others had appeared in color films, like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, but Dean was the first to do a series wherein he appeared as the same character, using his own name. So the anomaly here is that 'Hawk' is a black and white picture from Producers Releasing Corporation, made after his color series, also produced by PRC.

As for the story, that's where it gets to be fairly routine. The Hawk's gang runs amok stealing gold, sacking towns, and generally terrorizing the area in which they operate. Jennifer Holt's character is Vivian Chambers, the niece of a local rancher who's spread she has designs on taking over for herself. Her cousin Carole (June Carlson), becomes allied with Eddie Dean and his partner Soapy Jones (Roscoe Ates), with tensions escalating after Carole's father is killed by the gang. Dean's suspicions as to the 'Hawk's' identity are confirmed in the shootout of the finale. In another sit up and take notice moment, Dean guns down 'The Hawk' with a shot to the chest, a rare moment in 'B' Westerns when a female, heroine or villain, actually gets killed. The very next scene allows for some ambiguity however, as reference is made to Dean's rounding up the Hawk and her gang. But she sure looked dead to me!

The opening credits have Dean appearing with his horse White Cloud, a palomino, but trivia buffs might be interested to know that Dean shared equine billing with three other horses as well throughout his career - Flash, War Paint and Copper. White Cloud was third in the lineup before Copper.

"The Hawk of Powder River" offers a lot of shoot 'em up action and a bunch of exciting riding sequences, but the thing you don't get to see is Eddie Dean mixing it up one on one with the title villain or one of his/her henchmen. For my money, the wildest fights in 'B' Westerns involved Dean, and if you need proof, just check out his saloon fight in 1946's "Colorado Serenade", or that wild bunkhouse brawl in 1948's "Tioga Kid". He may not look like much on the surface, but get him riled, and you're in for a treat.

marshal eddie dean realizes that the villainous gang-leader Hawk is a beautiful blonde

[dougbrode · 6/10 · 16 March 2006]

Among the singing cowboys of the thirties and forties, Eddie Dean sure was an oddball. His voice may have been as strong (perhaps stronger) than anyone else, but he simply didn't look like a leading man - not to mention that he couldn't act, even in the simple, easygoing manner of most other B-movie western heroes. But if you're going to give a try to one of his oaters, it has to be The Hawk of Powder River, for it sets up a routine western plot only to deconstruct it in a way no one else ever dared to do. Eddie and his none too funny comic sidekick ride into the town of Powder River to try and capture the Hawk, an outlaw leader who wears an entirely black outfit and shoots down people without compunction. If the Hawk's men are terrified of this leader. What we soon realize - and Eddie begins to guess - is that the Hawk is none other than a beautiful blonde named Vivian (Jennifer Holt) who has designs on a nearby ranch. We've seen this kind of thing before, but normally, when the final shoot out occurs, the western hero - always a gentleman - shoots and kills the beautiful bad girl's male companions, but takes her in alive. Not here! Eddie, clearly aware that the person behind the mask is a babe, lets her have a shot right in the chest. The look in Holt's eyes when she realizes that a man actually dared to kill her is priceless - kind of like one of those gorgeous hussies in the Mickey Spillane novels, including I The Jury: "How could you?" Mike Hammer: "It was easy." Well, we expect that from a surly, sleazy 1950s private eye - but from a stalwart western hero? Those of us who saw this way back when (in my case, on TV, serialized on the old Gabby Hayes show) couldn't believe our eyes and talked about it for weeks. Additionally, Holt is strong enough as a film noir type femme fatale that it's truly a shame she never made it into bigger films - she could've given Jane Greer a run for her money!

One Amoral Woman

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 2 June 2012]

A Belle Starr like outlaw named The Hawk has been committing all kinds of crime in the Powder River. In fact several of the first ten minutes of The Hawk Of Powder River are just a lot of crime sequences with a lot of riding and shooting culminating in the cold blooded murder of the editor of the town newspaper. The Hawk and the gang didn't like the editorial policy of the paper.

Jennifer Holt is the Hawk and she's one of the meanest women you'll find in films, but you'll find them in noir films far more than westerns. It was unusual for a film geared to the Saturday matinée kids to have a character like here. She operates with impunity using her uncle's ranch. He must have been one dim bulb not to see what was going on around him, but when he did discover it, two of her men dispose of him.

However the uncle's daughter June Carlson and Holt's cousin is arriving the next day is coming in on the stage from school back east. If she can just get her out of the way, Holt can really operate without hindrance.

But it's at this point that our hero Eddie Dean and sidekick Roscoe Ates take a hand and of course set things right.

This PRC film is an Eddie Dean western, but Jennifer Holt who had a brother named Tim who did a better series of B westerns at RKO really steals this one. She's one amoral woman who has as few redeeming qualities as Lee Marvin in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Jennifer Holt lifts this B western far above the norm.

Routine

[AAdaSC · 5/10 · 26 May 2013]

I watched this with eager anticipation as I had been led to believe that there could be some quite dramatic moments in this film as Jennifer Holt (Vivian AKA the Hawk) runs a gang of outlaws. While it is true that she is a cut above the rest of the cast, I'm afraid that the film doesn't involve her enough, and her final shoot-out scene could have been so much better.

Eddie Dean is the good guy and he sings some nice songs - in fact, the musical interludes are quite good and that was a surprise to me as I dreaded some cheesy nonsense. It actually works quite well. The storyline is fine and the overall experience is watchable despite June Carlson (Carole) not having much to do and lawyer Eddie Parker (Cochrane) caving in rather too easily and spilling the beans so that we can proceed to the final shoot-out. But I didn't expect any more as the film has to quickly reach it's conclusion. Another mention to Jennifer Holt - she seems wasted considering how she lights up the film on her every appearance, and more emotional involvement with her would have greatly improved this offering.

Meh...

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 4 October 2016]

While I have seen a few hundred B-westerns, this was my first starring Eddie Dean. Overall, I'd have to say that he was quite competent...but nothing more. His singing was nice...some other singing cowboys sang nicer. He was decent on the horse and acting...many others seemed to have more charisma and natural talent.

In "The Hawk of Powder River" you've got a very anachronistic plot. A lady leads a gang of criminals and she's a hooded figure known as 'The Hawk'...but the film reveals she is Vivian and she lives with her nice Uncle. But, when the Uncle stumbles upon her hidden identity, he is murdered. The Hawk doesn't mind...as she'd like to inherit her Uncle's ranch. However, the Uncle had a daughter...and so it's up to her gang to kill the lady. But, as is typical in these sort of films, the hero and his dippy sidekick arrive and soon put things to right...very soon considering the film was only 55 minutes long. In fact, even for a B-movie that's kind of short and there really wasn't much suspense as it seemed obvious who the criminals were as well as their wicked intentions.

The film is fine for lovers of the genre but certainly didn't turn me into a Dean fan. Perhaps I'll try a couple more...and perhaps he'll grow on me.

what film were you watching

[frontrowkid2002 · 1 July 2007]

The reviewer who commented on Hawk of Powder River, saying that Eddie Dean knew he was shooting a female must not have been paying close attention. Dean is shooting his six guns randomly aiming at no one or nothing in particular. Jennifer Holt is wearing a bandana over her face, with the imprint of a hawk just barely visible. When she is shot, she throws her arms and falls. When Eddie goes to investigate, he takes her mask and says "Vivian (whatever her last name was in the script" and the scene fades out. The irony of this film is that Jennifer played a villianess, where she usually was the hero, and June Vincent, usually a "bad girl" as she was in Rex Allen's Colorado Sundown, played the heroine. I do agree with the reviewer's comment that given the right parts in major or non-western dramas, Jennifer could have given Jane Greer "a run for her money."

The End Of The Singing Cowboy Is Nigh

[boblipton · 4/10 · 10 August 2019]

I greatly enjoyed the Coen Brothers' 2018 Western anthology movie THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS. At the time, I thought that the singing cowboy star played by Tim Blake Nelson was the sort of nightmare that you get after watching a bunch of B Western movies while eating lobster and Welsh Rabbit. * Then I watched this movie and realized that Buster Scruggs is based on about a score of Producers Releasing Corporation singing westerns starring Eddie Dean from about 1945 through 1948. He's not a poor actor, and his singing is good, if you can get used to the seemingly random way his mouth moves while he rides singing on his horse. And Roscoe Ates as comic relief. The camerawork may be ok; the print/transfer I saw was dark, flat and low-contrast for the exterior scenes and fairly film noir for the interiors.

The story, as far as I could tell over the poor and random-sounding score, involved Jennifer Holt, a local girl who puts on a mask to become the Hawk, a mysterious road agent with several followers. She is trying to scare off June Carlson from her family ranch. Judging by the characters' last names, the two women are probably cousins. Eddie tries to help Miss Carlson.

The B western in general and the singing western in particular was in decline. PRC was also in terminal decline, having been replaced by Eagle-Lion and soon to vanish into United Artists. In fact, this appears to be the next-to-last PRC release, with the last the final in the Eddie Dean series. I can't imagine anyone put extra effort into it. At least, I hope not.

*Or perhaps eating a bunch of B westerns while watching a lobster and Welsh Rabbit. Since I have never tried either course of action, this is all supposition.

The Hawk - Review

[FightingWesterner · 8/10 · 17 October 2009]

A band of outlaws led by a mysterious villain known only as The Hawk robs and kills at will, terrorizing the countryside. What nobody knows is that the Hawk is actually a young woman named Vivian, the beautiful niece of a wealthy local rancher.

The Hawk is the most vicious cold-blooded woman ever to come out of a Saturday matinée western as she tries to murder her own cousin for control of her now late uncle's spread. Unlike other female villains there's absolutely nothing good about this woman!

The Hawk Of Powder River is probably Eddie Dean's best film. Too bad for him that this is one of the few Saturday matinée B-western I've ever seen where the villain is infinitely more interesting than the hero!

Eddie and his pals are always good for a few songs.

Good music, great singer, unusual story, not-funny humor

[morrisonhimself · 8/10 · 13 April 2018]

Eddie Dean made any movie worth listening to and his roles usually made them worth watching.

Jennifer Holt ALWAYS made a movie worth watching, and in "Hawk," she had an unusual role that proved she could and should have been a star. Superlative performance.

Roscoe Ates was an intrusion, but most of the rest of the cast varied from good to great.

In addition to Eddie Dean's songs, the score highlighting the action fit well; the photography was excellent; the stunts, in particular the fight scenes, were simply first-rate; and the entire film was well directed.

There is an good print at BnWMovies.com, a site I highly recommend.