Billy the Kid **** (1930, Johnny Mack Brown, Wallace Beery) – Classic Movie Review 11,883

Director King Vidor’s 1930 widescreen Western film Billy the Kid [The Highwayman] stars Johnny Mack Brown and Wallace Beery.

Upright stars Johnny Mack Brown as Billy the Kid and a typically hammy Wallace Beery as Sheriff Pat Garrett give engaging performances in this authentic-looking and astonishingly handsome, though now faded version of the real-life tale of the lawman tracking down the famous outlaw.

There is painstaking direction by Vidor, who filmed simultaneously in a standard-width version and an early 70mm format widescreen process called Realife.

Garrett tracks down Billy and brings him to court, but lets the Kid escape.

The European version largely keeps to the facts but, bizarrely, the original American ending has the Kid riding off with the girl into the sunset.

It is also made in a widescreen version, like The Big Trail, filmed the same year in Fox Film Corporation’s Grandeur 70mm process. No widescreen prints are known to exist of Billy the Kid, which can be seen now only in the standard-width version filmed simultaneously with the widescreen version. Widescreen struggled as few cinemas could afford to upgrade just after converting to sound.

William S Hart lent Billy’s revolver to Brown and advised on the production, filmed around the Grand Canyon and where the events happened in Lincoln County, New Mexico. It was shot in Zion National Park, as well as in Gallup, New Mexico, the Grand Canyon, and in Porter Ranch and the San Fernando Valley.

Also in the cast are Kay Johnson, Karl Dane, Roscoe Ates, Wyndham Standing, Russell Simpson, Blanche Friderici [Blanche Frederici], Warner P Richmond and James A Marcus.

MGM remade it in colour as Billy the Kid in 1941, based on the same book, The Saga of Billy the Kid by Walter Noble Burns. There are also Billy the Kid Returns, The Outlaw, The Left Handed Gun, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) and Gore Vidal’s Billy the Kid (1989).

Johnny Mack Brown appeared in more than 160 movies between 1927 and 1966.

Within two years Beery had become MGM’s highest-paid actor while Johnny Mack Brown was demoted into B-Westerns.

The main cast are Johnny Mack Brown [John Mack Brown] as Billy the Kid, Wallace Beery as Deputy Sheriff Pat Garrett, Kay Johnson as Claire Randall, Karl Dane as Swenson, Wyndham Standing as Jack Tunston, Russell Simpson as Angus McSween, Blanche Friderici [Blanche Frederici] as Mrs McSween, Roscoe Ates as Old Stuff, Warner Richmond as Bob Ballinger, James A Marcus as Colonel William P Donovan, Nelson McDowell as Track Hatfield, Jack Carlyle as Dick Brewer, John Beck as Butterworth, Chris-Pin Martin as Don Esteban Santiago, Aggie Herring as Emily Hatfield.

Billy the Kid is directed by King Vidor, runs 98 minutes, is made and released by MGM, is written by Wanda Tuchock (continuity), Laurence Stallings (dialogue) and Charles MacArthur (additional dialogue), based on the book The Saga of Billy the Kid by Walter Noble Burns, is shot by Gordon Avil, is produced by King Vidor and Irving Thalberg (uncredited), is scored by Fritz Stahlberg (uncredited), and is designed by Cedric Gibbons.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,883

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