This film was released six months after the film in the previous article – The Outlaw Stallion – Black Horse Canyon has a Release Date of January 13 January 1955

Excellent Western in Technicolor! It’s about a wild black stallion that Mari Blanchard wants for stock rearing. Joel McCrea and Race Gentry as her neighbours set about to help her capture the horse. However there is another neighbour, Murvyn Vye who also wants the horse. To complicate things, Joel McCrea and Race Gentry fall in love with Mari Blanchard. There are no gun fights just some fist fighting.

Up until reading about this film I had not heard of Race Gentry – he had a fairly short career in films. In the fifties he mainly appeared in Westerns it seems, but latre on he was in a few well known Television series, such as Circus Boy, Whirlybirds and Rin Tin Tin – in just one episode of each

Back to the film and it has to be said that the scenery is incredible and beautifully photographed.

Another interesting aspect of this film was the close relationship between McCrea and Gentry. McCrea had raised Gentry after the death of his parents and they have a very close relationship.

Although not one of his better known films I’m sure that Black Horse Canyon must have been a favourite of Joel McCrea’s.

He had lived on a working ranch where he lived a normal life as a working cowboy much as he was here

This is an ideal film for those who love westerns and horses.

A straight forward and lovely film. The real ranch setting adds much to it.

The horse called Outlaw is also one of the stars of this film.

One of the supporting actors was a Murvyn Vye – again an actor who I had never heard of. Looking further he seemed to be in quite a few films and stage productions.

I came across this newspaper snippet – he was married once and briefly in 1935 to Patricia Savage but that ended in divorce as the picture below tells us with it’s own story. This does not give him a good look.