The Eagle and the Hawk (1950)
Directed by Lewis R. Foster
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson
Paramount producing team William H. Pine and William Thomas weren't known as the "Two Dollar Bills" for nothing. Like their medium-budget adventure yarns of the 1940s, their "A" western The Eagle and the Hawk proved a moneyspinner for Paramount's distribution channels. In his first western, John Payne stars as Texas Ranger Todd Crayden who is assigned a suicide mission South of the Border. Crayden is to smuggle government agent Whitney Randolph (Dennis O'Keefe) into Mexico, so that Crayden can defeat the European-backed foes of Mexican patriot Juarez. The tension level is raised by the fact that Crayden and Randolph are on opposite sides of the still-raging Civil War. Cast as a woman of questionable loyalties, Rhonda Fleming is shown to excellent advantage in Technicolor, courtesy of veteran cinematographer James Wong Howe.
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Keywords
alliance, America, army, bad-guy, coup, cowboy, emperor, expose [revelation], follower [adherent], fraud, good-guy, government, history, invasion, lawman, love, Mexico, military, plans, ruler
