Spikeopath 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

Neil Welch 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.

pepe-46 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.

Marlburian 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.