Naw, I ain't gonna treat you to a put on collection of innerlektuel hooey here like I did with that review of those Sunset Carson films last autumn. But really, what else can be told to you comparatively ignorant peons about a western like this which milks the same formula that's been used in mooms ever since the early days of Tom Mix complete with not only the good guy who might be bad but a bad good guy at that, as well as the bad good guy sidekick, the bad guys who are bad and of course the good looking gal who doesn't look as if the ravages of frontier living have made her old before her time.
What can I say? That's it's great stuff that's what! Fine entertainment on all levels with a hotcha plot having to so with the real ('n not some goody-two-shoe second cousin twice removed on his mother's side who's being mistaken for the real thing!) Billy being made sheriff of a small western town that's being terrorized by this band of outlaws who made off with a payroll. Billy's job---get it back!
Steele always played it great and subdued whether he was doing this obv. glorified version of the real thing or getting his hand crushed by Lenny in OF MICE AND MEN a year earlier. Former silent comedian St. John is a better'n usual sidekick, of course perfect for the comedy relief but still ballzy enough to come off intense when the moment arises. And of course Terry Walker as good gal Mary Barton plays it b-movie wholesome like, though I kinda get the feeling that the whole time she was acting in this 'un she was burning inside that she wasn't at one of the major studios doing her emotive best 'stead of stuck in this PRC western that was custom-made for the 11:00 PM Sunday night slot on channel 56.
But it's what I want on my boob tube, and I kinda feeling it would fit in well on yours too. Goes right through you like entertainment prunes and you get no irritable aftertaste in your subconsciousness either. Good enough that I wonder how the rest of the PRC "Billy the Kid" series went if the slam-bam in those are as good as they were in this!
Have to check this one out. I like Bob Steele I have the "Classic Westerns: Bob Steele Four Feature"
ReplyDeleteI only knew him from the F-Troop episodes but my father turned me on to Bob Steele saying he did plenty of western movies.