Billy the Kid

King Vidor's 1930 adaptation of Walter Noble Burns' SAGA OF BILLY THE KID plays fairly fast and loose with the facts. Johnny Mack Brown, even in 1930, was a bit old for the lead, and Wallace Beery considerably too old for Pat Garrett. The romance between Kay Johnson's character and Billy is unknown to history, and the ending is a jaw-dropper as well.

Against this, though, the film looks *terrific*, almost as if previously unknown contemporary documentary footage of the Lincoln County War had suddenly been found in some New Mexican attic. The sets are realistic, and realistically grubby, and the supporting cast are absolutely the scruffiest, most realistic-looking set of pre-Peckinpah westerners you'll ever see anywhere. (I think there may be more bald heads than average for the old west, but who knows? Those guys always kept their hats on.)

Turner Classic Movies dusts this one off every few years (it's scheduled for 6/15/2000), and despite every justified quibble about the casting and the script, it is worth watching just to correct the visual impression you may have received from all the slicker and glossier versions of this story made since 1930.

There are over fifty movies and television shows on the notorious Old West cattle-rustler and killer Billy The Kid. Two minor silent films were produced before director King Vidor tackled the subject of this young outlaw in cinema's first talking picture of William, released on October 1930, aptly called "Billy The Kid."

Based on the 1925 book by Walter Noble Burns, 'The Saga of Billy the Kid,' Vidor's plot loosely follows his involvement in the New Mexico Territory's 1880's Lincoln County War, pitting two rich ranchers feuding over land and cattle. MGM was pushing former college football star-turned-actor Johnny Mack Brown for major roles in an effort to make him one of Hollywood's top tier movie stars. Signing a five-year contract with the studio, Brown appeared as Mary Pickford's love interest in her first talkie, 1929's "Coquette." When producer Irving Thalberg assigned the actor as the lead in "Billy The Kid," Vidor was less than enthusiastic on the studio's choice. Within a year, with the ascendency of newcomer Clark Gable at MGM, Brown's career dropped as quickly as a plunging fiery zeppelin. "Billy the Kid" proved to be the peak of Brown's popularity. The actor turned to playing parts in Grade B westerns from the mid-1930s.

To make up for Vidor's disappointment, MGM slotted its rising star Wallace Beery as Pat Garrett. This was Beery's next movie after his Academy Award nominated Best Actor performance in 1930's "The Big House." The movie's plot pits Billy the Kid, an employee for English rancher Jack Tunston (Wyndham Standing), against Garret, the Deputy Sheriff who sided with town enforcer Colonel William Donovan (James Marcus).

MGM intended to make "Billy the Kid" into a major epic, rolling out its widescreen 70 mm format the studio labeled 'Realife.' The large screen was a variation of Fox Film's 'Grandeur' projection system. Vidor's film crew shot in the 70mm format and coverted most of the movie's prints into the 35mm standard image so the vast majority of theaters could show the motion picture. Those whom had the fortune to view the movie on the widescreen praised the film. The New York Times was bowled over by the large image, saying "The picture is chiefly noteworthy for this enlarged screen idea, for the story is merely a moderately entertaining." Besides some raised eyebrows on Brown's performance, the actor's laconic lasting words on the movie was the film was "a fine motion picture." MGM used the same identical plot in a 1941 color version with Robert Taylor as Billy The Kid.

In the tradition of Hollywood this version of the saga of Billy The Kid is as false as many others were including some more modern versions purported to be the real story. In fact this has one truly radical change I won't reveal.

Johnny Mack Brown who would shortly find his career niche in B westerns is William Bonney. Pat Garrett is played by Wallace Beery who plays it a bit more straight forward without the usual mugging for the camera.

Some of the other characters from the Lincoln County War are here as well. Kay Johnson supplies the love interest who tries to keep Bill Bonney on the straight and narrow.

This Billy The Kid is a decent western and does credit to both of its leads.

Although generally forgotten, this version of "Billy the Kid" (1930) has held up remarkably well and should surprise contemporary viewers who think of the early talkies as something out of the Dark Ages.

I'm normally disgusted when these so-called historical epics take great liberties with the truth (particularly when the true story is more interesting that the embellished version) but almost 80 years since its release I doubt if the film will be taken as serious history by any new viewers. They probably should have changed the names along with the facts but there was marketing potential in promoting it as the story of William Bonny.

The title character is played by a young Johnny Mack Brown, just a couple years after his 1926 MVP performance for the victorious University of Alabama in the Rose Bowl. Mack was called "The Dothan Antelope" from his high school football days in Dothan Alabama. Watch for signs of his athletic prowess throughout the film, especially at the end where he mounts a horse and rides sidesaddle into the sunset while wearing handcuffs and leg irons.

King Vidor's "Billy the Kid" was quite a production for its day, probably the first major production filmed in a widescreen format. Although most likely you will have to view it in the 4 x 3 Hollywood format in which it was simultaneously filmed.

Brown's co-star was Wallace Beery (playing Pat Garrett) and their scenes together are excellent, the two manage a nice chemistry with different yet very complementary acting styles. The role made Beery a major star in "talking" pictures and Brown soon became a Top 10 movie cowboy.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

This film was full of surprises for me, given its less-than-stellar reputation. One has to view it in terms of Hollywood myth-making and not as if it's an episode of `Biography.' King Vidor's camerawork is startlingly fluid - he uses camera movement and cutting very effectively. One of the biggest surprises was the brutality (not to be confused with gore) of certain scenes. The film also does an excellent job of creating a mood of futility. As for Johnny Mack Brown, at first I thought he was inappropriately cast. But as the movie continued, his characterization seemed more valid. And of course, the location shots are stunning. This film is underrated and overdue for critical re-evaluation. Perhaps that will happen if an archivist finds a widescreen print!