Hot Spur is a grimy western roughie, but National Review apparently liked it

 

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Review by Doug Gibson

I'm not much for the 1960s "roughie" genre (today essentially violent R-rated films with nudity), but one film has always intrigued me. It's called "Hot Spur," a 1968 revenge western directed by Lee Frost and co-written by exploitation genre legend Bob Cresse. The reason? Legend has it that the  conservative opinion magazine National Review named it one of its Top 10 films of the year.

Is this true? Perhaps I'll need to search back archives of the magazine to confirm. But just the thought that the late William F. Buckley might have traversed 42nd Street to see this sleazy film, with its frequent nudity and violence, intrigued me. I had to view it and did, for free, on Plex.

It is indeed grimy. A Mexican teenager stablehand, Carlo, is sick and tired of seeing his sister raped. The films opens with a sexual assault on a barmaid, who might be his sister; it's kind of unclear. The teenager follows the rapists back to the ranch. He eventually kidnaps the rich rancher's wife, and rapes and tortures her. There is a very bloody, nihilistic finale. There is gratitious nudity. A typical long-scene example is a visit by the misogynistic assaultants to a bordello, where prostitutes disrobe and for several minutes are groped, squeezed and have beer poured on them by the clothed men, who behave like pigs.

So is this film a step above its low-tier genre?  Maybe a little. It's a pithy tale, direct and to the point; brevity works here. Perhaps National Review was impressed by the crude frontier justice and chaos that results. Also, Carlo, played by James Arena, is kind of interesting. At first the viewer has sympathy for him, due to the abuse he takes from the cowboys and rancher. But as the film goes on Carlo's actions turn evil and his character loses sympathy. That reminds me of George A. Romero's "Martin," where the title wannabe vampire, played by John Amplas, could evoke sympathy but simply goes too far until the audience wants him dead.

Apparently Joseph Mascolo, who plays the rancher Jason O'Hara, became a soap opera star later. Virginia Gordon plays his kidnapped wife, Susan O'Hara. My assumption is she was a star of the adult genre of that era.

Besides Plex and other streamers, this film is for sale by Severin Films as a Blu-Ray, with accompanying feature, shorts and interviews. I believe this weekend it's half price for Black Friday. The Blu-Ray is also at Amazon. If you like this revenge western genre, Plan9Crunch has also reviewed "Cain's Cutthroats." John Carradine is great in that grimy film.