Hot Spur (1968): The Banned Western That Went Too Far

In 1968, a low-budget western broke almost every rule Hollywood had left — and became one of the most notorious exploitation films in American cinema history. This is the story of Hot Spur (1968), directed by Lee Frost and produced by Bob Cresse, a film so transgressive for its era that it reportedly landed on National Review's list of the year's ten best films, despite playing almost exclusively in grindhouse and drive-in theaters far outside the mainstream studio system. Hot Spur emerged during the collapse of Hollywood's Production Code, in the brief window before the modern ratings system replaced it — a period when independent producers on the fringes of the industry rushed to make films no studio would touch. Frost and Cresse, already known for their "shockumentary" work and the earlier exploitation picture The Animal, built Hot Spur around a revenge narrative that blended western iconography with the era's rawest sexploitation sensibilities. The film's journey afterward is its own kind of mystery: its original negative was lost for decades, surviving only through battered prints among collectors, until a recent rediscovery brought it back into circulation in restored form. This documentary explores that history — the industry conditions that made the film possible, the controversy it generated, and the human cost it left behind for the people who made it. This video is part of UNREDACTED Cinema's ongoing exploration of banned film history, controversial movie history, and the broader story of film censorship in American cinema. From cult cinema history to the underground and exploitation film movements of the late 1960s, we examine how lost films and forgotten Hollywood stories shaped, and were shaped by, a rapidly changing industry — offering a documentary about movies that treats even the most disreputable corners of cinematic legacy as serious historical subject matter. Where should the line fall between a film depicting exploitation and a film committ