Billy the Kid *** (1941, Robert Taylor, Brian Donlevy, Ian Hunter, Gene Lockhart, Lon Chaney Jr) – Classic Movie Review 11,882

Director David Miller’s 1941 Western film Billy the Kid stars Robert Taylor, Brian Donlevy and Ian Hunter, and is a colour remake of the 1930 film Billy the Kid. The cast also includes Ian Hunter, Mary Howard, Gene Lockhart and Lon Chaney Jr.

MGM studios rework their 1930 film, based on the same book, The Saga of Billy the Kid by Walter Noble Burns, this time with William Bonney (Taylor) being hunted by marshal Jim Sherwood (Donlevy), a fictionalised version of Pat Garrett.

The handsome-looking Technicolor photography (Leonard Smith, William V Skall) is the big plus this time, though old smoothie Taylor doesn’t look at home in his second Western.

Billy the Kid was popular in its day, and it is still entertaining, even if it is annoying to Western fans because it takes so many liberties with the real-life story (Billy is a hero, Pat Garrett isn’t a character in the story, Billy wasn’t left-handed).

It is based on the book by Walter Noble Burns.

It is partly shot in Monument Valley.

Taylor and Donlevy were 10 years older than the real Billy and Pat were in 1880 when the film begins.

The film earned $2,432,000, making a profit of $41,000.

The cast are Robert Taylor as Billy the Kid, Brian Donlevy as Jim Sherwood, Ian Hunter as Eric Keating, Mary Howard as Edith Keating, Gene Lockhart as Dan Hickey, Lon Chaney Jr as ‘Spike’ Hudson, Henry O’Neill as Tim Ward, Guinn Williams as Ed Bronson, Cy Kendall as sheriff Cass McAndrews, Ted Adams as ‘Buz’ Cobb, Frank Conlan as Judge Blake, Frank Puglia as Pedro Gonzales, Mitchell Lewis, Dick Curtis, Grant Withers, Joe Yule, Eddie Dunn, Ethel Griffies, Chill Wills, and Olive Blakeney.

See also Billy the Kid Returns, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and The Left Handed Gun.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,882

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