From a time when the western was trying to appeal to a younger
audience by making movies that featured boy protagonists rather than
men, ("The Culpepper Cattle Company", "The Cowboys" and here, "The
Spikes Gang"). This time the boys are Gary Grimes, who wisely gave up
acting, Charlie Martin Smith and someone called Ron Howard who appeared
in a popular tv series and I believe went into directing.
They're runaways from home who prove to be pretty useless at everything they turn
their hand to until outlaw Lee Marvin takes them under his wing, at
which point they become pretty good at killing. It's a typically amoral
tale where even killing is played largely for laughs, at least at the
beginning before it turns tragic along the lines of "Bonnie and Clyde",
though this is never in that class and while it may not be the best
thing Richard Fleischer, or for that matter Irving Ravetch and Harriet
Frank Jr, ever did it is still an unusually grim tale which might account
for why it's now almost totally forgotten when others of its ilk are more fondly remembered.
From a time when the western was trying to appeal to a younger
audience by making movies that featured boy protagonists rather than
men, ("The Culpepper Cattle Company", "The Cowboys" and here, "The
Spikes Gang"). This time the boys are Gary Grimes, who wisely gave up
acting, Charlie Martin Smith and someone called Ron Howard who appeared
in a popular tv series and I believe went into directing.
They're runaways from home who prove to be pretty useless at everything they turn
their hand to until outlaw Lee Marvin takes them under his wing, at
which point they become pretty good at killing. It's a typically amoral
tale where even killing is played largely for laughs, at least at the
beginning before it turns tragic along the lines of "Bonnie and Clyde",
though this is never in that class and while it may not be the best
thing Richard Fleischer, or for that matter Irving Ravetch and Harriet
Frank Jr, ever did it is still an unusually grim tale which might account
for why it's now almost totally forgotten when others of its ilk are more fondly remembered.
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