Sun 15 Oct 2017
Archived Western Movie Review: BLACK SPURS (1965).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[8] Comments
BLACK SPURS. Paramount Pictures, 1965. Rory Calhoun, Linda Darnell, Terry Moore, Scott Brady, Lon Chaney [Jr.], Richard Arlen, Bruce Cabot, Patricia Owens, James Best, Jerome Courtland, DeForest Kelley. Screenplay: Steve Fisher. Director: R. G. Springsteen.
Let me explain the title first. Anxious to earn some money so he can get married, a ranch foreman (Rory Calhoun) goes after a bank robber named El Pescadore, and along with the $3000 reward money, he also earns the right to wear the outlaw’s trademark spurs. He also loses the girl he was going to marry in the process, and soon, as he captures bad guy after bad guy, he crosses the line and (ta-boom), he’s a Bounty Hunter.
Which apparently is one rank lower than a scumlord, though it’s not clear from the move exactly why. We soon see that he’s crossed another line, however, as we find him promising to turn the small settlement of Lark, Kansas, into a helltown, forcing the railroad to move its forthcoming spur somewhere more profitable for the man he’s working for.
Guess who’s married to the sheriff of Lark, Kansas? (If you don’t know, go back and read the first paragraph again.) Guess who gets religion fifteen minutes before the end of the movie? (Aw, you’ve seen it before.)
Steve Fisher, who wrote the screenplay, was one of the better pulp writers of the 1930s before going to Hollywood, so the story is actually pretty good. It is certainly a step above the average Gene Autry picture, say, but it’s no classic either. The cast of veteran actors seem to know what they are doing at all times, but it’s a downright shame that Linda Darnell had to end her career as the madame of a traveling group of bordello girls — this was the last film she made before she died.
October 15th, 2017 at 10:28 pm
According to my notes in Garfield’s WESTERN FILMS I saw this in April 2016 and thought it was ok but nothing special.
The IMDB gives it a 5.8 rating which means the voters thought it mediocre. I gave it a 5 out of 10 on the IMDB. I register my vote on the website every time I see a film and now have close to 3,000 films and TV episodes that I’ve voted on during the past several years.
I’ve never read about anyone else on MYSTERY FILE voting on IMDB. I know I can’t be the only one. Anyone else voting?
October 15th, 2017 at 10:31 pm
I have voted once or twice but only when I know, or new, the participants, and I resent some of the comments. So in the name of ‘justice’ I cast my ballot.
October 15th, 2017 at 11:27 pm
A stratagem that works well for me as well, Barry. I don’t vote often, but when I do, it is always wisely.
October 16th, 2017 at 12:21 am
Another of the Westerns from that era with everyone too old and too tired, and often too fat. Sigh.
October 16th, 2017 at 6:11 am
I don’t vote on imdb.
But do link up every review to the imdb’s “External Reviews”.
Have around 800 by now,
October 16th, 2017 at 9:19 am
Those A.C. Lyles Westerns are consistently disappointing,even for old B-Western fans. You’d think just once he coulda got it right, but no…..
October 16th, 2017 at 9:35 pm
Dan, you can say that again, but not watch one of his pictures twice.
October 16th, 2017 at 9:44 pm
Well you guys are piling on this movie pretty good, but if I read my review correctly, I kind of liked it.
I’d say more, but I don’t remember a single thing about it, other than what’s in the review.