Les éperons noirs

I just watched Black Spurs (1965) on Grit TV. It's one of several westerns made by A. C. Lyles during the 1960s. He always employed older, veteran actors, many of whom were over the hill.

Santee is a cowhand engaged to dressmaker Anna. When the bank is robbed by El Pescadore, Santee sees a chance to get the $3,000 reward and buy that ranch he's always wanted. It takes him ten months but he finally kills El Peacadore, and takes the outlaw's unique black spurs to wear himself. But, he then learns that in his long absence Anna has married Ralph Elkins, the sheriff of Lark, Kansas. Embittered, Santee conspires with Kyle, owner of the town of Kyle, Kansas to turn Lark into a hell town so that the railroad will change its proposed route from Lark to Kyle. He imports a crooked gambler, dancehall girls, and gunslingers to accomplish the job. Sheriff Elkins is no match for the bad guys. But will Santee go through with his plan? Or will he decide to do the right thing and stand up to the bad guys?

The male actors are mostly overweight. Rory Calhoun, Bruce Cabot, Richard Arlen, Lon Chaney Jr., Scott Brady, and Jim L. Brown are past their prime. Only Joseph Hoover and Jerome Courtland appear trim and fit.

Of the actresses, Linda Darnell looks bloated. She doesn't have much to do, anyway. Ageless Terry Moore looks very good. And Patricia Owens is still youthfully trim and beautiful at 40. It's too bad her part wasn't larger.

Black Spurs (1965) has a fairly good script and character development. The fast pace keeps the viewer interested in waiting to see what Santee will finally do at the end.

Black Spurs is directed by R.G. Springsteen and written by Steve Fisher. It stars Rory Calhoun, Linda Darnell, Lon Chaney Junior, Terry Moore, Bruce Cabot, James Best, DeForest Kelly and Scott Brady. Music is by Jimmie Haskel and Technicolor/Techniscope photography is by Ralph Woolsey.

A brisk and ebullient Oater out of Paramount, Black Spurs finds Calhoun as Santee, a sharp shooting gunman turning to bounty hunting and then paid to corrupt the town of Lark. Lark has been pencilled in to receive the on coming railway, so wealthy town owner of nearby Kile, Gus Kile (Chaney), hires Santee to discredit Lark in order to have the railroad routed through Kile instead. Once in Lark, Santee finds lots of resistance, particularly from an ex-lover and her husband, the sheriff!

Plot holds few surprises as per outcome and characterisations, but the pic is no less entertaining for it. There are a number of live wire action sequences, with Santee often proving he is the number one gun in the West, and there's even some evil nastiness portrayed when things start to come to a head. The seedy saloon set up by Santee is awash with beautiful girls in beautiful costumes, and these girls drink beer out of pint pot tankards! The villains are a gruff, rough and tough bunch, and naturally there's a big good versus evil heart thundering away in the story.

Calhoun has swagger and dangerous sexuality in abundance and he's surrounded by a good cast of pros. Darnell and Chaney, however, were winding down their careers, and in truth there two characterisations could have been played by any studio actors of the time, but they don't disgrace themselves as Springsteen wisely keeps their screen time to a minimum. The Techniscope photography doesn't really add much as more could have been made of the exterior locations, while Haskel's score is a bit too jaunty for its own good.

It feels like a 50s Oater at times, which is no bad thing at all. Not prime Calhoun or a prime 60s Western, but much to enjoy here for the discerning Duster fan. 7/10

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.

Rory Calhoun is Santee, cowboy who wears black spurs and earns money by bounty hunting. when the local sheriff ( Deforest Kelley was Bones, in Star Trek) tries to work a corrupt land deal, bad stuff happens. Santee runs into some old acquaintances when he ends up in Lark, even the blacksmith who wanted him dead. although they hadn't met before this! Terry Moore is the girl Santee proposed to, but didn't wait around for him. Lon Chaney junior is Gus. You'll also recognize James Best as the sheriff in Lark.. he was Rosco in the Dukes of Hazzard tv series! Directed by Robert Springsteen... directed films from the 1940s - 1950s, then moved into television. Story by Steve Fisher, who had also written Tokyo Joe and Destination Tokyo; oscar nominated for Destination Tokyo. Last film for co-star Linda Darnell, she died right after making this at age 41, in a house fire. The film is pretty good... a very typical but in color, blue-jeans western. some scenes filmed at Corriganville, north LA... it's a county park now. fun history. check it out!

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.