Hot Spur — Hot Spur( Blu Ray)
Hot Spur is an extremely mean-spirited and nastily misogynistic late 1960’s US Western. It’s full to the brim with sleaze and abused female flesh, with more than a few touches of bloody ‘n’ whipping brutality. Here from the fine folks at Severin is the first ever fully uncut release of this true blue & nasty western roughie. With a new 4k scan of the film, and a few bloodily juicy extras.
Hot Spur (aka Fiery Spur, The Longest Spur, The Naked Spur, Love Desperados) from 1968. It was directed by Globe, Arizona-born Lee Frost- who was a key figure in US exploitation in the 60’s and 70’s. He had thirty-four full-lengths to his name- touching down in most types of exploitation- going from sexploitation horror mash-up House On Bare Mountain Hill (1962), onto sex slave roughie The Defilers (1965). Onto a few Mondo’s Mondo Freudo (1966), Mondo Bizarre (1966), and Witchcraft '70 (1969). He made a Nazisploitation Love Camp 7(1969), a WIP film Chain Gang Women (1971), and a nasty blacksploitation The Black Gestapo (1975). Frost also co-wrote the film with Sarasota, Florida Bob Cresse- who also wrote/ produced a fair few exploitation films- like The Harem Bunch (1969), The Erotic Adventures of Zorro (1972), & Love Slaves( 1976). So, a double barrel of exploitation is most certainly locked 'n' loaded, and Hot Spur doesn’t disappoint- if you're after sleazy nastiness.
From the off, there is an unpleasant and degrading air to proceedings- this deepens and widens over the film's runtime. We open with a pair of sweaty middle-aged cowboys turning up at a small nighttime bar/inn- they first belittle the younger Mexican stable hand Carlos (James Arena), and then turn their attentions to the bars dancing barmaid- first roughly pawing at her, later ripping her top exposing her breast & forcing her down. Carlos comes back in from tending the horses seeing what’s going on, and we get the first of a series of flashbacks- where we see a young Mexican woman being stripped, strung up, and abused. He starts attacking one of the men- but is stopped fairly quickly by their neatly sideburned boss Jason O’Hara (Joseph Mascolo).
As things unfold Carlos gets a new job at the O’Hara ranch- again being belittled/ treated like an animal. We get a grimily sleazy bunkroom scene where the men are pushing & pulling at a pair of rapidly de-clothed women- before pouring liquor all over their bodies and going at them like animals. And we get to meet Jason’s blond-haired wife Susan (Virgina Gordon)- who is flirting with all the cowboys but can’t give Jason the son he wants.
From here things start to unfold & turn nasty for young Carlos- so he decides to kidnap Susan- he at first seems not as sleazy as the other men, but clearly unbalanced. Fairly soon clothes are pulled off, and he’s just the same as the other men in the film. The rest of the film takes in rolling around abuse, bare skin whippings, and a few blood deaths.
To be totally blunt and honest Hot Spur is roughie in a Western setting- nothing more and nothing else. The prime focus is on degrading women and roughing them up, with at points it getting rather unpleasant- things stay on the softcore side of things, though at points you do feel it could suddenly drop into nasty hardcore- such is the air & the tone of the film!. As roughies go it’s suitable impactful & shocking, and at points it feels like it’s pushing the envelope for the time- so it’s easy to see why this landed-up been so cut/ altered over the years.
Moving onto this recently released region-free Blu-ray, the new 4k scan looks good, with really bold/ bright colours. On the new extras side, we get an audio commentary with Vinegar Syndrome's Joe Rubin, Severin Films' Andrew Furtado, and Bob Cresse Friend/Former Something Weird General Manager Tim Lewis- most of the track is just Rubin & Furtado, with Lewis coming in at the hour & ten-minute mark. They start by talking about how the film is the most infamous Forst & Creese film the pair made. They point out actor Wes Bishop as he appears- as well as acting he also wrote scripts with Forst. They discuss how the roughie form came about and put it in context with the film hand. They chat about how Forst & Creese first got together, and we find out the film had a budget of $35’000. Later on, they talk about how sexploitation films were distributed, and how they got the print we have today. The track is very chatty, and loose- really only touching on the film it’s self from time to time. It improves when Lewis comes in, as we get some insight regarding Cresse. It’s an ok track, I guess, which is worth a play- though I can’t see myself revisiting it.
Otherwise, we get a recently discovered audio discussion On Frost/Cresse By David F. Friedman And Something Weird Founder Mike Vrane (1 hour and 10 mins)
We get two early shorts- first off; there’s Hollywood’s World Of Flesh- this is from 1963- it was directed by Lee Frost and produced by Bob Cresse- both whom appear in one of the film's scenes. It lasts one hour and four minutes- it’s a very cheap, rough, and black & White Mondo picture. We move from adult bookshops, onto strip joints with hookers hanging about. We go to Asian bathhouses to peer at women bathing and have an interview with a hooker in a hotel. There’s a sexploitation audition, filming of a scene from the film- which tells of a Peeping Tom. With the whole thing ends in a poolside party held by the producer of the film- with striping & longing about from rather skinny/rough-looking women. The film features a well-spoken, if at points sleazily creepy male voiceover. We get some topless & butt shots, but really, it’s rather grim/ at points sleazily amusing affair- certainly not the best the Mondo genre has to offer!. Next, we have The Casting Director (6.17) which is in colour and directed by David F. Freidman. It features a cigar-chewing Creese, as he auditions a model- rolling his eyes & making comic faces as she strips. Lastly, we have a trailer for the film.
It's wonderful to see Severin reissuing this gritty & mean-spirited slice of cinematic roughness ‘n’ sleaze- with a vibrate/ bold print, and a nice selection of extras to(cowboy) boot.