dougbrode Review of The Hawk of Powder River

The Hawk of Powder River (1948)

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

[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!