Black Spurs

Black Spurs (1965)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A ranch hand named Santee (Rory Calhoun) grows tired of being poor so he decides to turn into a bounty hunter so that he can collect some big rewards. After being successful at this he decides to move in on a local town to take it over because he knows a railroad is about to come through. BLACK SPURS has a very interesting cast but sadly that's about the only thing the movie has going for it. This is a pretty strange Western to watch and especially when you consider it was 1965. By this time most Westerns like this weren't being made anymore as the story, structure and overall feel of this makes you seem like it would have been better fit in the 1940s. I think the main reason people are going to come to this film are for the stars. Calhoun isn't very well known today but he has a strong devoted group of fans who will probably be the only ones wanting to watch this. He's pretty good in the film as he has no problem playing rough and later on more soft-hearted. The supporting cast includes some very familiar faces including Linda Darnell and Scott Brady as well as the likes of Lon Chaney, Jr. and Bruce Cabot. Those coming to this film to see Chaney and Cabot might be disappointed to see their roles so small but both actors are still good. BLACK SPURS features some rather routine gunfights that never get too exciting and we're also treated to a sidestory between Calhoun and Darnell that really doesn't add up to much and the big twist is something you'll see coming from a mile away.

A.C. Lyles produced quite a few westerns during the 1960s and they all had low budgets and featured stars who were past their primes. My assumption is that Lyles used these actors because they would work for less and yet added a bit of class to the cheap productions. Here in "Black Spurs", you have Rory Calhoun (in his mid-40s--hence YOUNG for a Lyles western), Lon Chaney Jr., Richard Arlen (who was in EVERY Lyles film--or so it seems), Linda Darnell, Bruce Cabot and Terry Moore--all who had seen better days in their careers.

The film begins with Santee (Calhoun) about to get married. However, when it's announced that a wanted criminal with a bounty on his head is nearby, Santee runs off to catch the guy. After all, the extra money would sure come in handy now that he's marrying. But, when he returns to town, he learns that his fiancée has left--apparently she did not want to be married to some bounty hunter. In reaction, he becomes a super-bounty hunter--making a fortune bringing in the roughest and toughest criminals--and becoming a very hardened man in the process.

A bit later, Santee and a corrupt boss-man (Chaney) come up with a nasty plan--to destroy a nearby town so that the railroad won't go there but instead go to the boss-man's town--thus making him a fortune. Santee's plan is to make the innocent town as unlivable as possible--bringing in gambling, prostitutes and lawlessness. The problem is that the sheriff of this town is the husband of Santee's old fiancée! Is there any decency left within him? Or is this some elaborate plot for personal revenge? This film is very unusual because the leading man is no hero. Being a mercenary man, he's morally ambiguous and not the guy you'd normally expect to see in a leading man! I liked this, as it's NOT a typical sort of western--and about 90% of all westerns are variations on only 3 or 4 plots. This one uses the greedy boss-man plot but with enough changes to make it unique. Well acted and interesting, I'd give this one a 7.

This film begins in Texas with a cowboy named "Santee" (Rory Calhoun) watching as a notorious bandido by the name of "El Pescadore" (Robert Carricart) robs a bank and, after killing the bank manager, quickly riding off with the sheriff and his deputies in hot pursuit. Realizing that there is nothing he can really do about the situation, he then proceeds to take his girlfriend "Anna" (Terry Moore) on a romantic picnic where he subsequently proposes to her. Although she willingly accepts his proposal, to her dismay, Santee then announces that he has decided to pursue El Pescadore in order to collect the $3000 bounty on his head to help start their new lives together. Ten months later, he finally finds the outlaw in a small town in Mexico and proceeds to gun him down in the street. Not only that, but he also dons the bandido's famous black spurs as a trophy of sorts. However, once he rides back to town to see his fiancé, he then learns that she has since married another man by the name of "Ralph Elkins" (James Best). Quite upset with this new development, Santee decides to become a permanent bounty hunter and, in the process, acquires a rather notorious reputation of his own. The scene then shifts to several years later with Santee making a deal with a wealthy businessman named "Gus Kile" (Lon Chaney Jr.) to help divert a proposed railroad line from its original destination of Lark, Kansas to the town of Kile, Kansas where the two of them can make a fortune in real estate. The problem is that Lark, Kansas has a sterling reputation and in order to divert the railroad line Santee has to stir up enough trouble there to change the minds of the railroad executives. What complicates matters, however, is the fact that Lark, Kansas has recently acquired a good sheriff who is determined to keep the town as peaceful as possible-and his name is Ralph Elkins. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, this was a decent "old-style" Western which benefited by solid performances from both Rory Calhoun and Terry Moore. Along with that, although I would have preferred a slightly different ending, I found the overall story to be fairly enjoyable as well and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

1964's "Black Spurs" marked the fourth of 13 A.C. Lyles B-Western productions for Paramount in the mid 60s, and another offbeat choice for the veteran filmmaker in that leading man Rory Calhoun is no shining hero, but a bounty hunter known only as Santee looking for bigger and better paydays. His hard riding presence in every town is enough to make the citizens quake in fear, and his arrival in the Kansas town of Kyle is no coincidence, as Gus Kyle (Lon Chaney) is amenable to any scheme to enrich himself by diverting the railroad from the neighboring town of Lark to his own, with Santee's ultimate reward a tract of land (along with a hefty fee). Complications such as Lark's sheriff (James Best) being married to Santee's old sweetheart (Terry Moore), or its 2 fisted man of the cloth (Scott Brady), are no deterrent to Santee's goal to bring women and gambling to the forefront of the formerly peaceful town. The madam is played by a second billed Linda Darnell, who plays her final role here, while Kyle Sheriff Nemo (STAR TREK's DeForest Kelley) provides an interesting subplot that fizzles out before it catches fire. Veterans Bruce Cabot and Richard Arlen are also among the bad guys, on their way to victory until Santee finds out what they've been doing behind his back. 4 for 4 for producer Lyles, Lon Chaney is as solid as ever (though only around for three scenes), while Scott Brady's Tanner demonstrates how the rope burns around his neck prove that he wasn't always a preacher, something repeated verbatim by John Carradine in a Scott Brady Western just two years later, Al Adamson's "Five Bloody Graves."

Santee (Rory Calhoun), a frustrated with his lot in life ranch hand, becomes a bounty hunter when he decides to go after a bank robber with a $3000.00 price on his head. Realizing he has an affinity and skill set for this type work, he sets off chasing down one bad guy after another. Soon he sets his sights even higher when he strikes up a deal with wealthy town big shot Gus Kile (Lon Chaney Jr.) to bring siege upon the neighboring town of Lark so the railroad will divert their planned path to run through Kile's land. In order to decimate the town, Santee buys the local saloon and imports his own band of thugs and saloon girls (Linda Darnell, Bruce Cabot, Richard Arlen) in the hopes of making Lark a crime ridden cesspool. However things go off-kilter when Santee runs into his former fiancee (Terry Moore) who is now married to the local sheriff (James Best).

Pretty typical A. C. Lyles 'second feature' Western. As such Black Spurs had a modest budget with television-like production quality. Much has been made of A. C. Lyles use of superannuated casting in the pursuit of name recognition and that's the case here. Rory Calhoun, even though not an 'old guy', was on the backside of his days as a leading man. Former screen siren Linda Darnell whose career for the previous decade consisted of guest appearances on episodic television, shares lead co-billing with Calhoun but her limited participation in this film amounts to little more than a cameo role in her last screen appearance. Even though past their prime and despite the fading star power, the cast was one of the film's strong points. The story line has an interesting premise but goes off track with characters that are introduced needlessly and subplots that go nowhere but partially saved by director R.G. Springsteen who had done so many of these low budget productions that they could have almost handed him a phone book for a script with passable results.

Black Spurs is a decent flick but suffers in varying degrees from the budget, script and being late in the cycle of the traditional western. By 1965 the Spaghetti Western carried the day at theaters while this type of western had been primarily assigned to network television. Even so, Lyles was able to get a last handful of these old-school westerns made. Some would say with mixed results. Nevertheless western fans may find enough to enjoy here.