Six Black Horses (1962)

Audie Murphy is Ben Lane, a cowpoke about to be hanged for stealing a horse he didn’t know belonged to someone else. Frank Jesse (Dan Duryea) intervenes, saving his life.

So the two travel together to a nearby town. Jesse is ambushed, for no apparent reason, but it’s the ambushers who die.

The next day, a lovely young woman (Joan O’Brien as Kelly) asks the two men to guide her to a nearby town. She’s willing to pay them $1,000 apiece. She wants to be reunited with her husband.

The trip means traveling through territory controlled by hostile Indians, but Ben and Frank accept the mission.

It isn’t long before Ben begins to suspect that Kelly doesn’t care if they make it through safely.

And when he catches her about to shoot Frank in the back, the truth comes out.

She wants Jesse dead; seems he’s a paid gunman who shot down her husband years earlier.

As a result, she wound up making her living as a saloon girl, now convinced no other man will want her because of all the things she’s done.

Audie Murphy as Ben Lane, smiling at Frank Jesse’s confession about only working when absolutely necessary in Six Black Horses (1962)

Dan Duryea as Frank Jesse, a man who knows what he wants when his time finally comes in Six Black Horses (1962)

Review:

Better than average Murphy Western. Murphy is steady as always, and you can seldom go wrong with Dan Duryea in Western clothing. Joan O’Brien’s only other Westerns were a pair of John Wayne films — “The Alamo” and “The Comancheros.”

But the original twist to the plot would seem more original if some of the dialogue and at least one of the scenes wasn’t lifted entirely from the 1959 Randolph Scott Western, “Ride Lonesome.”

Burt Kennedy was the writer of both films and … well, he doesn’t mind repeating dialogue that’s too unique to be repeated without someone noticing.

The title refers to Frank Jesse’s wish that six black horses pull his funeral wagon when his time finally comes.

Joan O’Brien, offering Frank Jesse and Ben Lane $1,000 apiece to guide her through hostile country to a nearby town in Six Black Horses (1962)

George Wallace as Boone, trying to talk Frank Jesse into swapping fresh horses for tired mounts in Six Black Horses (1962)

Directed by:
Harry Keller

Cast:
Audie Murphy .. Ben Lane
Dan Duryea … Frank Jesse
Joan O’Brien … Kelly
Richard Pasco … Charlie
George Wallace … Boone
Henry Wills … Indian
Phil Chambers … Undertaker

Runtime: 80 min.

Dan Duryea as Frank Jesse, determined to deliver Kelly and get his money even after determining her ulterior motive in Six Black Horses (1962)

Joan O’Brien as Kelly, undergoing an inspection by an Apache warrior who wants her in exchange for a horse in Six Black Horses (1962)

Memorable lines:

Frank Jesse: “Being wrong don’t hold danger for a man who ain’t never been right in his whole life.”

Frank Jesse: “Aren’t you afraid, being out here, in the middle of nowhere, with two men?”
Kelly: “I’ve been with men before.”

Frank Jesse: “And (what about) the money?”
Ben Lane: “You have to be alive to spend it.”
Frank: “Yeah, you got a point, but somehow you never figure it’s the time your number will come up.”
Ben: “But it always does.”

Frank Jesse: “A man should go out in style and slam the door behind him.”

Kelly: “They say it was a fair fight. Isn’t that funny? Is it ever a fair fight when a gun goes up against a plain man? A man who never fired a shot in anger in his whole life?”

Joan O’Brien as Kelly watching Frank Jesse and Ben Lane ride into town in Six Black Horses (1962)

Dan Duryea as Frank Jesse and Audie Murphy as Ben Lane, intrigued by Kelly’s proposition in Six Black Horses (1962)

Dan Duryea as Frank Jesse and Joan O’Brien as Kelly watching Apache on the horizon in Six Black Horses (1962)

Audie Murphy as Ben Lane, about to be hanged for roping and taming another man’s horse in Six Black Horses (1962)

Audie Murphy as Ben Lane, taking cover behind a mission wall and trying his best to fight off the Apache in Six Black Horses (1962)

Audie Murpy as Ben Lane and Joan O’Brien as Kelly, concerned as they watch the Apache return in Six Black Horses (1962)