Billy the Kid (1941)

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The best thing about this movie version of Billy The Kid is the color photography. Taylor looks good (he was in his prime at that time), but he's horribly miscast....too old to play the part. There's no Tunstall, no Pat Garrett....and both actors playing the changed parts are far too old. It reminds me of Howard Hughes' The Outlaw, except that the actor who played Billy in that film was much better cast (closer in age, but not much of an actor). There's lots of music, romance, and talk, talk, talk. In short, it becomes extremely boring after awhile. May be worth watching once, but hardly worth a second look. Despite the views of Arizona and Utah, most scenes are obviously shot on a sound stage.

Robert Taylor in 1941 was a tall, handsome, mature 40-year old man and typically played a hero or authority figure -- such as the leader of the wagon train in "Westward the Women." Here he's cast as a short, fun-loving immature teenage gunslinger. The casting is as hopeless as having Clint Eastwood playing Mary Poppins.Besides that, none of the story comes even close to the real (and easy to access) story of Billy the Kid -- which is far more interesting than any movie ever made about him.In 1941, Technicolor westerns were few and much appreciated, as color was new and the 3-strip Technicolor of that era was/is stunningly beautiful and far better than color photography in 2009. Seeing a picture like this would have been special. Actually, if you ignore the mis-casting and the true history, this picture is enjoyable.For a better look at Billy, seek out Universal's "The Kid from Texas" starring Audie Murphy. Billy's body-count is still inflated, but the story is 80% accurate and Murphy is perfect as Billy.

This early film follows the exciting life of Billy Bonney . This is an interesting but flawed Western . With Robert Taylor in title role , in one of his first movies , and Donlevy as his friend and later marshal , but the movie fails to gel overall . Robert Taylor as the title character gives a decent performance . Right-handed Robert Taylor spent weeks perfecting his ability to draw a gun with his left hand in preparation for this film . Brian Donlevy as an alike-Pat Garrett is good , and Ian Hunter who plays a look-alike to Tunstall ; although some acting seem badly dated today . Sweeping and glimmer cinematography by William L. Skall . Great musical score by David Snell , including Mexican songs almost make you forget the screenplay ain't so hot . The director David Miller creates some fine action scenes , he posteriorly directed a classic Western, 'Lonely are the brave' .Other known films about this legendary outlaw were the followings : 'Billy the Kid(1930)' by King Vidor with John Mack Brown and Wallace Beery; 'The left-handed gun (1958)' by Arthur Penn with Paul Newman; 'Pat Garret and Billy the Kid (1973)' by Sam Peckinpah; 'Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid' with Val Kilmer ; 'Young Guns(1988)' by Christopher Cain with Emilio Estevez ; and 'Young Guns 2(1990)' by Geoff Murphy.The picture was partially based on real events . The actual deeds are the followings : The most famous outlaw-gunslinger of the South-west , Billy the Kid was known by several names, but mostly as William Bonney . Believed have been born in New York City , Billy moved west with his family and eventually became a cowboy in Lincoln county, New Mexico, for cattleman J.H. Tunstall (in the movie similar role played by Ian Hunter) . In February 1878 Tunstall was killed by a cattle rival (played by Gene Lockhart) and this started the Lincoln County war, in which Billy played a leading part and was one of the group that shot dead Sheriff Brady . After his preceptor has been murdered he seeks vengeance for his death . He became an outlaw with a price on his head. Pat Garret(named in the film as Sherwood and played by Brian Donlevy), a former friend of the Kid, was elected sheriff of Lincoln County and set out to capture the young outlaw . He caught him and sentenced to be hanged. But Bill, although shackled hand and foot, managed to escape from jail by shooting dead the two deputies guarding him . Garrett went after him again and on 15 July 1881 tracked him at Fort Sumner, and there shot him dead by surprise in a darkened room.

Pat Garrett is called Sherwood, Tunstall is Keating and Murphy is Hickey, the names were changed perhaps because in 1941 they were still afraid of being sued by remaining members of the families. Apart from that, the facts are probably different from the way it happened, but the relationships between the characters, seem to be very truthful. Murphy and Tunstall brought the Irish-English war to Lincoln County. Robert Taylor is miscast as Billy, who would call Robert Taylor a kid? Audie Murphy would be the ideal actor. There are great scenes, like the cowboys getting all together to confront Hickey, that probably inspired a similar scene in "Duel in the Sun".