Gunfight at Black Horse Canyon (1961 TV Movie) User Reviews

Two stories in one in this disjointed Western

[pepe-46 · 4/10 · 19 February 2006]

This feature length offering from the TV series " Tales Of Wells Fargo", suffers from bad editing throughout the movie. It appears that the editors have put together two stories and then squeezed them into one with a rather disjointed result.

If the two tales had been shown as 2 separate 'oaters' in the "Wells Fargo" series, they would have been more acceptable.

Anyhow, having said that, Western fans will enjoy seeing their hero DALE ROBERTSON as Wells Fargo agent JIM HARDIE helping to expand the frontier and trying to make the old west a safer place for pioneers.

Great to see PHILIP CAREY in one of his nasty bad guy roles as Jake Squire, bent on getting' even with Jim for putting him away 10 years earlier.

Old cowboy star, ROD CAMERON is also a welcome addition to the movie as Nathan Chance, but this is probably not one of his better films.

Overall, I would say that R.G Springsteen's direction has suffered from the editing of this movie which could have been a good deal better, but I am sure that the film company themselves are to blame for the finished product.

Adequate film with Jim Hardie of Wells Fargo

[Marlburian · 6/10 · 19 February 2006]

Adequate was how my TV listings fairly described this film, featuring Dale Robertson in his Jim Hardie, Wells Fargo special investigator role of the 1950s TV series. Jim is home in Gloribee, and is intent on capturing a black stallion, but his past catches up with him when a man he put into prison is released and seeks vengeance.

Robertson is supported by some well-known male faces, including George Kennedy in an early role, with Rod Cameron impressing the most as the "good bad guy". Other characters, including several female ones, come from the TV series and are a bit superficial in contrast.

Cross-checking by clicking on George Kennedy in the cast list shows that this film was also known as "Assignment in Gloribee".

I was surprised that this film had a marking of 7.8 out of 10; it's OK but not that good.

Jim Hardie in color

[juliebuckner · 4/10 · 26 April 2019]

I'm used to see the tv show in black and white, the one thing I loved if your a horse lover you get to see Jubilee run, and he is beautiful. Other wise it's a okay movie, I think the shows are better.

A Rather Listless Western

[jackbuckley · 31 March 2019]

As a fan of the TV series "Tales of Wells Fargo", I nevertheless knew nothing about the plot or origins of this film in advance. I sensed, while watching, that it may've aired on the series as more than one episode. This was done with several other series in the 60's--"The Virginian", "Flipper", "Daniel Boone", and, I believe, even "Lassie". I was puzzled, though, in that the movie's in color, whereas the series wasn't--unless, perhaps, its later season(s) were made in color, as was "Laramie", "Bonanza", and a little later "The Virginian", all broadcast on NBC, when most shows, on all 3 networks, still were in black-and-white. I don't know enough about the history behind "Fargo" to know how many episodes were filmed in color. I also was puzzled as to Hardie's relationship to his employer Wells Fargo. He didn't seem to be an active agent, working on a current case, as in the series. I've since learned that, apparently, the nature of the series changed in its last or later seasons. Hardie became ranch-based, supposedly semi-retired, taking on Fargo assignments only occasionally. I've never seen the later episodes, so I was unaware of such a change. Aside from seeing Mr. Robertson in color, the film betrays its TV origins with choppy editing and commercial-break-oriented, block-style-driven fadeouts. Generally a low-key western, that, despite some tough-guy violence, seems kind of geared to kids. Probably played originally at drive-ins, likely on a double bill. Doubt it appeared in mainstream downtown theaters, unless on a double or triple bill of kids' fare, maybe along with some cartoons, which theaters used to do on Saturdays or during the summer. Plot uninvolving for an adult, not much to sink one's teeth into. An inordinate amount of time is spent on watching running horses and a black renegade stallion that a young girl's trying to capture to please and impress Hardie, on whom she has a crush. Some of this horse footage, especially the black stallion, looks like footage that later was used for an episode of "The Virginian", possibly even the train and Gloribee depot(later re-fashioned to read Medicine Bow, Wyoming) Both "Canyon" and "Virginian" were Universal products. There's a fairly good climax where Hardie's placed in real jeopardy, and Patricia Owens is easy on the eyes as the snobbish writer from back east but otherwise not much to recommend it, aside from the color aspect.

There must be an easier way to get Hardy?

[hitchcockthelegend · 3/10 · 13 March 2013]

Gunfight at Black Horse Canyon is directed by R. G. Springsteen and written by Frank Gruber and Anthony Lawrence. It stars Dale Robertson, Jack Ging, William Demarest, George Kennedy, Rod Cameron, Patricia Owens, Phillip Carey, Claude Akins and Mary Jane Saunders. Music is by Richard Shores and cinematography by Bud Thackery.

I didn't know it prior to viewing this, but it's derived from the TV series "Tales of Wells Fargo" and is in fact two episodes – "The Dodger" and "Assignment in Gloribee" - stitched together to make a feature film. Upon finding out this fact it explains just why Gunfight at Black Horse Canyon is so uneven and bad. Everything about it screams out as being low budget fodder, the story line is weak, back screen projection is cheap and nasty and some usually reliable actors are reduced to auto-cue type acting. While characterisation is sparse, with some characters flitting in and out without rhyme or reason to anyone who didn't watch the show. Of course it may well be that fans of the show could find good value in this elongated venture? But for anyone else, as an advertisement appetiser? It hardly makes one yearn to seek out more of the show!

For Kennedy's brief villainy and Akins reliability remaining intact, it just about escapes being bottom of the barrel, but it's mightily close to being just that. 3/10

Jim Hardie! In colour!

[neil-476 · 7/10 · 13 May 2012]

As someone whose childhood includes fond memories of watching Tales of Wells Fargo in dazzling black and white on my grandparents' small screen large furniture TV back in the late 50s, it was a pleasure to see this movie turn up on TV.

As a movie it is serviceable, but no more - it is fairly small scale, feeling like a couple of episodes of the TV series (as, indeed, it was). But it is good to see Dale Robertson as Jim Hardie (with horse Jubilee) in colour, even though the locations are rather familiar (Vasquez Rocks, anyone?). Claude Akins is a familiar villain, Philip Carey less so (he was, as often, a goodie). And it was nice to hear that theme, too.

My wife asked, "How can you watch this?"

[redwhiteandblue1776 · 2/10 · 15 July 2019]

Real amateurish movie. Nothing realistic at all. About every time Dale Robertson rides his horse, he take off at a full gallop. Poor horse. Guns are shot at close range and no one even flinches. Dialog is terrible. Maybe this was the writers and directors first movie. None of Robertson clothes are anywhere period correct. The whole thing is just so poorly done. The poor sheriff spends the whole movie taking orders from the Wells Fargo agent rather taking charge of law enforcement. Not good.

It has everything rolled into one.

[mjcrow · 8/10 · 29 August 2018]

If you like "Wells Fargo" sit back and enjoy the ride. Don't look for faults in everything if you do not like stop watching. I enjoyed it considering the year of release. Good old Western for easy watching.

Enjoyable western

[coltras35 · 10/10 · 18 December 2020]

I have always loved this film, it harks back to the time when you knew who the good guys and bad guy were, there was great cinematography, characters that seem real, and there's a magical quality to the film.