Six Black Horses

Andy Summers 🤠4.0

One of the very first films I saw that starred Audie Murphy, also starred Dan Duryea, and if truth be told, Duryea stole the spotlight from the war hero with a truly charismatic performance where his talent shone brightly. Jesse Hibbs' Ride Clear of Diablo was a great little Western, and the chemistry between Duryea and Murphy was plain to see, and 8 years later the two men were reunited in director Harry Keller's Six Black Horses, and yet again, with the added bonus of the lovely Joan O'Brien as the third headliner here, both Duryea and Murphy deliver another very entertaining Oater. This film opens with a horseless Ben Lane (Murphy) carrying his saddle across the open prairie, until he comes across some wild horses. Trying to break one, he's soon surrounded by a group of ranchers who mark him as a horse thief. Unable to convince them of his innocence, he's soon got a noose around his neck, and that's exactly when Duryea's Frank Jesse turns up to save Ben's neck. It'll be the start of a friendship that'll see the two survive a few scrapes, and with both of them more than useful with a gun, they've soon got themselves a high paying job escorting a woman through Indian country to the town where her husband is. She's offered them $1000 each to get her there, but she has an ulterior motive which will be revealed along the way, something that'll test their friendship, and both their patience with their employer. This film works so well because of that script from Burt Kennedy, a man well versed in delivering quality scripts for the likes of Boetticher before embarking on his own directorial career. Murphy and Duryea make this all seem so effortless, and although I still think that Duryea is the more natural actor, Murphy had done a lot of films by 1962 and holds his own here. Joan O'Brien's face was familiar, but I couldn't figure out where from, and then it hit me, major Dickinson's wife Sue in John Wayne's The Alamo, and boy was she a looker. Kennedy's script offers some moral dilemmas for each of them here, and I must admit I thought this was a touch of class from all involved, and the location shooting in Utah really added some authenticity to a Western that has taken me more than two years to find on Dvd. This is my 33rd Audie Murphy film, 32 of them Westerns, and I officially just have The Quick Gun from 1964 to complete his Western filmography, but again, finding a copy is proving difficult?

sakana13.0

Wild West Summer 2021, week 13: Watch a Western starring Dan Duryeaprogress: 5/25I really enjoy the dynamic between Audie Murphy and Dan Duryea. They only made two films together (the other, Ride Clear of Diablo, is a small masterpiece from underrated director Jesse Hibbs), but they make a fascinating, mismatched pair: little and large; sincere and wary; ever-truthful and congenitally dishonest. And yet, somehow, their characters always ends up falling into a mutual fascination — Duryea is astonished by the clarity and goodness of Murphy, and Murphy cannot help but be drawn in by Duryea's simple charisma.Six Black Horses opens with Duryea's Frank Jesse — a gunfighter for hire — saving Ben Lane (Murphy) from being unjustly hung as a horse thief. Within fewer than 48 hours, they've agreed to escort a woman through dangerous Indian country to her husband, for the small fee of $1000 each. What transpires from there is nothing if not predictable, but watching Duryea and Murphy together keeps it interesting, particularly the instinctive way they fit together — until they don't, of course — despite being virtual strangers.Apart from the dynamic between its two stars, the only other interesting thing the film has to offer is the comparison between gunfighting and sex work that's presented by Jesse. It's neither flippant nor misogynistic, just a frank statement of the faceless, transactional nature of the two professions.

RanchoTuVu4.0

Tough action, beautiful cinematography, and poignant. It's kind of desolate but beautiful, great story, excellent establishment of a mood, Dan Duryea was a national treasure, and Audie Murphy exuded sincerity. The contrast between them, Duryea kind of transactional and Murphy more dedicated to a moral code, is really well done as they accompany ex-saloon girl Joan O'Brien on a trek across Apache territory.