1941's "Billy the Kid" followed the fictionalized Fox Western "Jesse James" by two years, another real life outlaw receiving the glossy Technicolor treatment, this time courtesy of MGM, remaking their 1930 talkie version that served as Robert Taylor's debut oater. The old story of an unscrupulous landowner butting heads with a law abiding rancher who never carries a gun benefits from gorgeous cinematography (nominated for an Oscar) and several eye popping shots of Monument Valley in all its wide open spaces, but the human drama is decidedly lacking and overlong at 94 plodding minutes. Taylor might have been more effective had he been saddled (sorry!) with a different character, on the run since the age of 12 for avenging his father's murder by gunning down the acquitted culprit, Frank Puglia a scene stealer as the Mexican sidekick singing and strumming his guitar. Gene Lockhart makes little impression as the villain, and henchman Lon Chaney is literally thrown away in just three scenes, twice knocked on his rear end by a Taylor kick, and completely absent during the admittedly exciting, yet fatally predictable finale. Chaney was coming off his first horror assignment at Universal, "Man Made Monster," and would return there to work exclusively under contract until 1946, kicking off with cinema's first and only 'million dollar serial,' the Western "Riders of Death Valley" (he next worked at MGM in 1951's "Inside Straight").
Review of Billy the Kid
