Friday, April 18, 2014

Movie review - "Flesh and the Spur" (1957) **

In their fledgling days AIP turned out the odd Western - a genre with a ready market that could be made cheaply and where quality wasn't a must. But the market for these was shrinking, there was too much competition from TV and the big studios (who had stars and colour), and the teen audiences were proving more lucrative, so this was the last.

It's from the team of Charles B. Griffith and Mark Hanna, who combined on several efforts. Griffith is one of my favourite screenwriters, but this is pretty routine. Only once or twice does it perk up - an opening where John Agar's brother is revealed to be his identical twin (I thought more was going to happen with this), a climactic action sequence where Marla English is tied to a stake and attacked by ants (this was supposedly added because AIP liked the poster so much of a lady being tied to a stake they requested a scene reflecting it be added to the film).

The story has a bit of that Antony Mann-James Stewart 50s Western vibe with hero John Agar forming a bond with Touch Connors, unaware the latter is the killer of his brother that he's looking for. Agar is bland but Connors gives good work, and English is beautiful as an Indian girl who comes between them. Perfunctory handling - if you're not choosy about your 50s Westerns you might like it, but really it's for Agar and/or Griffith completists only.

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