John Agar is Luke Random and he’s searching for a member of the Checker gang who killed his defenseless twin brother, then stole his six-gun, a match to Luke’s own.
Mike Connors is Stacy Dark. He’s after the Checker Gang too – not one, but the entire gang – though he’s reluctant to say why.
They rescue a pretty Indian girl (Marla English as Wild Willow) who’s been banished from her tribe for embracing some of the white man’s beliefs, then set out together in search of their prey.
They’re soon joined by Windy Wagonwheels (Raymond Hatton), who runs a traveling medicine show and quickly finds his own reason to look for vengeance against the Checkers.
And they soon find they’re going to be outnumbered and outgunned in their quest for vengeance.
Review:
The film is much tamer than the title and the movie poster would imply, though there is a scene in which Connors and a foe draw spurs during a barroom brawl. And another where Wild Willow is stripped by her former tribe members and tied to a tree growing from an ant hill. Try not to laugh at the size of that tree.
Otherwise, the film is marked by snappy dialogue, an outlaw gang as inept as they come and poorly conceived and choreographed action scenes. As for our cast, Connors steals the show as the devil-may-care vengeance seeker. Which isn’t difficult considering Agar’s wooden performance.
Judging from an American International Pictures pressbook, this film was shown as part of a double bill with “Naked Paradise,” a drama starring Beverly Garland and Richard Denning.
This also marked one of the final films and the only credited Western role for Marla English, who starred in a couple of cult classics — “Voodoo Woman” (1957) and “The She-Creature” (1956).
John Agar as Luke Random and Marla English as Wild Willow in Flesh and the Spur (1957)
Edward L. Cahn
Cast:
John Agar … “Luke” Random
and Matt Random, his twin
Marla English … Wild Willow
Mike Connors … Stacy Dark / Tanner
as Touch Connors
Raymond Hatton … Windy Wagonwheels
Maria Monay … Lola, showgirl
Joyce Meadows … Rina, Windy’s daughter
Kenne Duncan … Kale Tanner
Frank Lackteen … Havasupi, Indian chief
Mel Gaines … Blackie
Michael Harris … The Deputy
Eddie Kafafian … Bud
Runtime: 78 min.
Title song: “My Brother and I”
by Ross Bagdasarian
John Agar as Luke Random and Raymond Hatton as Windy Wagonwheels in Flesh and the Spur (1957)
Luke Random, after slugging Stacy: “They told me it was bad manners to point a gun at anyone Even wore to pull the trigger.”
Stacy: “”I finally got somebody to teach me manners.”
Luke Random: “I told you what I want with the Checker Gang. Now what about you?
Stacy: “You spilled your guts out because you wanted to. I don’t.”
Wild Willow, of her late husband, a member of the Checker Gang: “He was going to teach me all that was good of the white man’s ways. He taught me only shame and ugliness.”
Stacy Dark of Wild Willow: “Cross my heart and hope to die, I won’t even look at her, touch her … I won’t even sniff at her.”
“Luke” Random: “About the twin (gun), where did you see it?”
Wild Willow: “I cannot remember. I was hoping that if I would sit here, that maybe I could remember where I saw it. But now you are here, and my mind is empty.”
“Luke” Random: “You are beautiful, Willow.”
Willow: “I am not trained in the ways of your white sisters, but I have wanted you to say that.”
Followed by a kiss.
Stacy Dark: “You like you’re love making rough and rugged, don’t you?”
Wild Willow: “When it is love.”
Stacy Dark, talking about the time he was ambushed: “I’ve been dead for more than a year.”
Windy Wagonwheels: “I knew there was something wrong with you. I didn’t know it was that bad.”
Wild Willow: “Stace. He has a small spot of goodness in him that grows smaller each day. Soon it will be gone and he will be like an animal.”
Luke Random: “Ah, Stace is all right.”
Wild Willow: “If you want to be like him, you will think that. My people say, ‘The man who barks like a dog will one day grow a tail.'”
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