It’s not a spaghetti western, it’s not a Eurowestern, but it was shot in Spain and it is in the database, so here’s …
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/The_Spikes_Gang_Review
a well written and fair review of this film scherp 
it’s a long time since i saw this but i pretty much agree with you.the change in mood is quite surprising but i remember i quite liked the film. not a classic but easily watchable.
Thought I would have found the young men irritating in this some reason, but did not. And of course one of them became a director of some well known films. Liked how the film ended. Enjoyable enough ride, and what a moustache Marvin has.
Yep, all in all a good western with a very good Lee Marvin.
I did find them irritating. They had I’m gonna get killed at the end written all over them. Better casting and a slight tweaking of the script would’ve helped. Bad Company didn’t have that syndrome.
Yeah, thought this was a good one, thanks to Lee Marvins powerful presence… didn’t expect it to go the way it went.
Got myself one of them Mgm archive discs of this, never seen it before and looking forward to giving it a viewing.
Watched it today (Koch Media). Really enjoyed it. Scherpschutter says in his review it plays like a comedy, but to me it never felt that way at all. The film is almost an anti-western in its approach. Nice downbeat ending. Very memorable cameo by Ricardo Palacios! (who is responsible for the only comedy bit in the film)
It’s been a while, so i checked. These are my exact words:
“For most part, The Spikes Gang plays like a comedy, but it’s still a revisionist western, the light-heartedness of Spikes playing the substitute father for the boys, is only temporary. The ending is both grim and cynical.”
I agree with kit saginaw’s assessment, though (unlike him) I find it one of the strong points of the film. There is this sense of impending doom for these naive kids. In the light of their inevitable ‘lambs to the slaughter’ demise it was never really funny, nor lighthearted. They’re just dumb kids, not knowing anything, and eventually paying the price for their adventure. Spikes turns out to be even worse than the respective dads they traded him for. All in all very downbeat, from start to finish actually, in my opinion.
Yes also find this one downbeat.
Watched the Kino Blu-ray. Very good sound and picture quality. The film is very good, as well. I couldn’t figure out where I had seen Gary Grimes before and then remembered him from Cahill and The Culpepper Cattle Company. Quite a good actor! Surprising he only appeared in six films
Eric posted this video a while back of Ron Howard
This film’s entry in our database has been updated to the new layout. Contributions are welcome, especially some specific location info if anyone knows more…