It's 1842 Oregon, and here in this lawless frontier, might makes right! And might belongs to Gerald Montgomery (Herber Rudley), who rules over the land. One of his "laws" is that any "free" woman rightfully belongs to the first man who claims her. One of the most beautiful woman in the area, Paca (Mara Corday), suddenly becomes "available" when her husband is unjustly hanged at Montgomery's command. But now Tex Kirby (Rory Calhoun), the brother of the man unjustly sentenced to hang, has ridden into town looking for revenge! Surprisingly, Montgomery's goons decide to side with Kirby, hoping to see their boss dead and his beautiful wife, Hannah (Yvonne De Carlo), open for re-claiming! It's every man for himself as they all scheme and plot to kill each other for the chance to take the lovely De Carlo as their prize, while Calhoun just wants to get his vengeance! The threat of rape, if not explicit then certainly strongly implied, hangs over the proceedings throughout "Raw Edge", giving the film a constant feeling of tension (this is definitely no family fare). Even the "hero", or at least the person who comes closest to that description (Rory Calhoun), is morally questionable at best!

Wow, keep the feminists and National Alliance of Women away from this one! Raw Edge with its emphasis on sex and women as valuable commodities is a surprisingly stark, but very entertaining, western. Surely the aim of the movie was to tell a story about the dark side of human nature, and it fully succeeds at that. Quite fascinating given it was made in 1956 and that the overarching theme being examined in the film - the place and status of women in the Wild West - is one that still resonates strongly in the 21st century. Besides the intriguing story, the film looks great in technicolour and makes very good use of its location photography. Rory Calhoun and Yvonne De Carlo are fine in the lead roles, displaying an innate chemistry occurring between their characters, in spite of their frequent antagonistic clashes. Good to see the Native Americans are treated in a very sympathetic light too, with the status of their female characters contrasting markedly with those of the whites. Besides those I've mentioned look for good performances from Rex Reason as a cynical gambler and a father and son pair of lowlifes, Emile Meyer and Neville Brand.