Six Black Horses

The title is as misleading if you haven't seen this film as it is apt if you have, being concerned with character rather than horses, as you'd expect of a script by Burt Kennedy.

Presumably originally written for Randolph Scott, with Audie Murphy as Scott and Dan Duryea as Dan Duryea. Duryea plays a sympathetic role for once and he and Murphy work well together, the problem as usual being a woman; on this occasion Joan O'Brien as a cool blonde called Kelly with a knowing smile and an ulterior motive.

Audie Murphy said of his film career that he himself remained the same throughout, and the scripts didn't vary much - it was only the horses that changed. This rather ordinary western fits neatly into the Murphy catalogue.

A cowpoke befriends a fellow drifter who rescues him from a lynch mob. In the town of Perdido the two pals are hired by a beautiful woman to escort her across indian territory. It turns out that Kelly (Joan O'Brien) has an ulterior motive.

Dan Duryea and Murphy combine well enough as the chalk-and-cheese buddies. The film contains a good mariachi funeral, and the dialogue-free opening sequence is well done, telling the story in visual language. The picturesque setting of sandstone outcrops and flat scrubland (filmed in Utah, of all places) provides an attractive backdrop for the action.

When all is said and done, however, "Six Black Horses" is a fairly brainless oater from the early 1960's. You know the sort of thing - the latina dancing-girl in the saloon has a red flower in her cleavage, and in the shoot-out at the old mission, the indians' bullets keep pinging off the same spot on the parapet, while the indians themselves obligingly mass in the open, allowing Audie to get a good shot at them.

Verdict - Always check the brand, lest you end up with a Murphy turkey.

Six Black Horses is directed by Harry Keller and written by Burt Kennedy. It stars Audie Murphy, Dan Duryea and Joan O'Brien. Photography is by Maury Gertsman and the music scored by Joseph Gershenson. It's filmed in Eastmancolor and location for the shoot is St. George, Utah, USA. Plot sees Murphy and Duryea hired by O'Brien to take her across dangerous Indian country to her husband. But are ulterior motives at work?.

There's no getting away from it, this film has striking similarities to the far superior "Budd Boetticher/Randy Scott" movie, "Ride Lonesome". Also scripted by Burt Kennedy, the plot follows the same format and Kennedy even scripts some of the same dialogue. While the keen Western fan will note the name of Murphy's character, Ben Lane, was also used for a character in "Boetticher's Comanche Station". So far so regurgitated then, but although it goes without saying that to watch this piece in conjunction with "Ride Lonseome" is a futile exercise, this does have enough about it to warrant a viewing on its own terms one Sunday afternoon.

It's a professional and well put together movie, Murphy and Duryea (the latter owning the film from the second he turns up on his horse, shotgun in hands) aren't asked to extend themselves but still make an engaging duo (see also their pairing in "James Stewart" starrer "Night Passage 1957"). While O'Brien ("The Comancheros") is gorgeous and does a nice line in sultry devious. Editor turned director Keller does a competent job, his action construction solid if somewhat hamstrung by the odd daft moment involving the Coyoteros Indians. Stunt work is very good and Gershenson's ("No Name on the Bullet/Lonely Are the Brave") score is brisk and tonally correct. Bonus here is the location scenery, beautifully realised by Gertsman's ("Cattle Drive 1951") photography, the St. George craggy hills form an imposing backdrop as the protagonist's journey grows more perilous and their emotional states come under scrutiny.

Enjoyable with genuine moments of quality, even if it's ultimately the second cousin to a far better movie. 6.5/10

Great western, I enjoyed Audie Murphy's performance.

At 38 minutes into the movie there is a story told by Frank about a past love in Bisbee who he later discovered was married to another man. He says it taught him a lesson, "Always check the brand to make sure you are not driving another man's stock".

That same story is told 50 minutes into Fort Dobbs (1958) by Clett (Brian Keith) and he says "Always check the brand first and that way you'll know if you are running somebody else's' stock".

Burt Kennedy (story)was a writer in both movies so he got a lot of use of this tale!

For two-thirds of this film I thought it was pretty good, but I ended up feeling that it had disappointed.

It did seem improbable that a very attractive woman would risk a very dangerous journey with two wanderers she didn't know, but that's Hollywood for you. It seemed a very foolhardy way of seeking revenge, and, like another reviewer, I couldn't work out what she was trying to achieve by building up the fire so that it smoked. And from her knowing smirk it was she who had loosened a horse's shoe to delay the journey. And she chose a darned funny time to try to get her revenge, during the fight in the old mission, when the trio was already out-numbered.

A nod of approval to the script-writer for putting into context the $1,000 that Kelly was offering to Ben and to Frank - three or four years' pay. But a big frown for the improbable long-distance effectiveness of Ben's revolver. (I wonder what Audie Murphy, with his WWII experience of fire-arms, thought of that.) I'm not sure what was achieved by including the dog, except to show that Ben was kind to ill-treated animals. During the chases, it looked fixed improbably securely to the pack-horse saddle.

And the ending was an anti-climax.