Billy the Kid

source: Billy the Kid

Billy the Kid

Western Movie Fans are not Likely to be Disappointed in this Rowdy Shoot em' Up from 1930. It is a Big Production all around and there is Plenty of Gunplay and Wide Open Spaces, a Large and Scruffy Cast, and a Substantial Running Time. Holding it Back from Greatness are some Stiff Dialog Scenes and a Meandering Script Peppered with Down Home Humor and an Awkward Love Story. But there are Dozens of Deaths by Gunpowder and there are a Few Striking Set Pieces. Billy and the Gang Hold Up and Surrounded in a Cabin, Billy's Capture and Escape from the Lincoln County Jail, and a Cave Dwelling, Starving Billy the Kid forced into the Open by a Pan of Frying Bacon, Among Others. Overall it is a Rip Roaring Western that Helped Johnny Mack Brown stay a Star and it also didn't Hurt Wallace Berry's Career as He Plays a Rather Subdued Pat Garrett.

Another very early talkie western, King Vidor's version of the story of Billy the Kid. It was a big production, filmed on location. The landscapes look great. Apparently, it was also filmed in widescreen version, but that has unfortunately been lost. The storytelling is mostly gritty, although interspaced with comic relief scenes with the supporting cast and some singing. I found the combination strange, but it did not prevent me from enjoying the movie. The two male leads do a good job, although Johnny Mack Brown, who plays Billy the Kid, is not really a kid here, but a grown man. I particularly enjoyed Wallace Beery's performance as an understated, surprisingly good-natured Pat Garrett. Kay Johnson is not given much to do, since the romance is rather routinary The Kid had a nice badass moment when he lights a cigarette from the collapsed burning rafters of the roof. Quite entertaining, and without the stilted interpretations that some of the early talkies have.