Hot Spur (1968)

Wonderful character development!

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The movie opens with a group of cowboys drinking whiskey in a saloon as a guitar player strums a lazy tune. The cowboys call over the saloon girl and tell her to dance as the guitar player begins to play again. She does, and entices the cowboys, leading to a rape on the bar room floor. Watching the whole thing is the girl's brother, who also is the stableboy for the ranch where the cowboys work but is unable to aid his sister.Back at the ranch, the ranchowner's wife (Virginia Gordon) rides up and has a confrontation with the owner over her inability to produce a son for him. To vent his frustration, he rips open her blouse (yeah, I don't see the logic either). Later that night, the cowboys return and bunk down as the stableboy stirs in the barn, having a nightmare about a different rape that apparently occurred to his sister when he was much younger. In that rape, the cowboys had dragged her behind a horse and then tied her to a tree.The next morning the owner's wife goes out for a ride, where she is captured by the stableboy and taken to a shack in the woods and hog-tied. After awhile, the stableboy rapes her, gags her, and ties her with her hands above her head, the same as the cowboys had done to his sister. The cowboys come after them and make an assault on the cabin, with one cowboy successfully sneaking into the shack. As he begins to untie Virginia, he gets a knife in the back from the stableboy. The other cowboys stay outside and try to shoot the stable boy from a distance. The stableboy whips Virginia a few times (off camera) so that she'll cry out. The other cowboys hear her and stop their assault. After thinking for a bit, the cowboys assault the cabin again, killing the stableboy in a flurry of gunfire.Overall, the plot concept is decent and Virginia Gordon does a pretty good job with the limited role she's given. She also looks good in her nude scenes, though the camerawork is pathetic - very grainy and poorly lit (near objects are too bright, far objects are too dark). Sound is terrible, as can be expected from a 1968 film shot on a low budget, and the acting is very weak. No music worth mentioning, no sweeping panoramic scenes. There are better 'B' westerns out there.