The Kid from Broken Gun

Charles Starrett as the Durango Kid made his farewell appearance in this film The Kid From Broken Gun as Columbia Pictures put an end to the series. Television killed Durango and the rest of the B western cowboys as stuff like this one was getting for free at home.

Harry Cohn sure didn't splurge for this one as half the film was cannibalized from a previous Durango Kid feature. The same group of villains looking to steal a fortune in Spanish gold continue their pursuit, but the Durango Kid foils them at every opportunity.

This film has Jock Mahoney on trial for his life for the murder of one of the gang. What he doesn't know is how beautifully he's bit set up. Durango has to hold unofficial court to get the truth. In the real trial movie heavy Myron Healey is in the unexpected role as prosecutor.

Smiley Burnette who was sidekick to a number of Republic's cowboy heroes is also here. But I have to say he was more oafish than funny in this feature.

Aging Saturday matinée kids of all ages should like this.

Charles Starrett ends his acting career, having spent seven years as 'the Durango Kid', one of the regulars on the Top Ten Western Stars list, with this fairly interestingly set up courtroom drama. Here he is on trial for murder and the events are shown in flashback. It's an interesting story-telling technique, weakened, however, by the fact that we know Starrett is a good guy and didn't do it. Costs on this one were kept down by using a single courtroom set for half the one-hour film and using footage from an earlier picture for the rest, which is why Jock Mahoney appears in two roles.

Columbia, the studio that produced Starrett's movies, was getting out of bread-and-butter westerns. The studio had dropped most of its movie series like BLONDIE and THE LONE WOLF and relegated its B production to the cheap Sam Katzman unit. Within a couple of years B movies would be the province of independents like AIP and the movie western would disappear under the onslaught of TV series. Writer Ed Earl Repp would move to TV, cinematographer Fayte M. Browne would be DP on one more movie and director Fred Sears would move to cheap sci-fi flicks... and the long history of genre westerns would end. Too bad.

Not being a fan of, or knowledgeable about, cheap B Westerns, I was about to give this film a devastatingly bad review. Fortunately, I had the sense to do some research, and discovered it was the last of a series of Columbia programmers about "The Durango Kid". That doesn't make it any less bad, but at least the film gains some... provenance.

Smiley Burnette is featured in a highly unnecessary role, which includes singing a song he (probably) wrote, "It's the Law". Burnette was at one time a popular sidekick, but unlike (say) Gabby Hayes, is hardly remembered. * It's films like this that might explain why.

Hayes was a good actor who could convincingly play serious roles; Burnette is there strictly for the laughs. Not only does he appear in court dressed as a woman to deliver fake testimony, but when he's accused of wasting the court's time, he sings "It's the Law" wearing a dozen costumes, both male and female. (One suspects this sequence took longer to film than all the rest of the picture.)

Even given that this is a kiddie Western, it's unintentionally risible throughout. Burnette calls armed men "gunsels", the writer apparently not knowing what the word //really// means. And Dixie's riding outfit has to be seen to believed. One can only hope the costume designer was deliberately being campy (rather than believing there was anything historically accurate about it).

"The Kid from Broken Gun" is a laff-riot that, at a very brisk 55 minutes, doesn't wear out its welcome. An ideal "party film".

* Stan Freberg mentions Burnette in the introduction to the "Bang Gunleigh, US Marshal Field" sketch on his 1957 radio show.

There are Tom Mix touches to Durango Kid jumping roofs and on to his horse like a parcourt gymnast. Good acting from Jack Mahoney and Smiley Burnette playing themselves, and Angela Stevens as the lovely heavy.

Unusual screenplay for any Western, with flashbacks reminiscent of film noir.

Good photography for a B pic, zippy dialogue, and some great comic relief and singing from Burnette. Recommended

This late entry in the long-running Durango Kid series is flawed by being told in flashbacks.

It gets rather muddled because people are shown knowing stuff they really couldn't have known.

Still, the cast is great, and it's star Charles Starrett's last movie, so it is a must see.

Myron Healey gets a chance at something unusual, too: Instead of a gun-carrying bad guy, he's the prosecuting attorney. (The other comment, at this writing the only other one, gets something wrong: It's not the Starrett character on trial; it's the title character, the Kid from Broken Gun.)

John Cason is one of the gun-carriers, and he is accompanied by some familiar faces who aren't listed in the credits, even here at IMDb.com, and that's a shame.

Tris Coffin does get credit, and he is such a smooth actor, I often wonder why he didn't get more fame and a closer approach to real stardom. He had good looks, a pleasing manner, even as a bad guy, and a beautiful voice.

Smiley Burnette has a strange musical interlude that seems to have been included just to pad out the movie ... yet it has its own charm, even if it seemingly drags down the movie.

The action is great fun to watch. My guess is Ted Mapes did the stunts (because he was Starrett's stunt double in the series' beginning, as well as Gary Cooper's and Jimmy Stewart's), but Jock Mahoney has a major part, and watching his athletic grace adds a lot to the general enjoyment.

He reminded me of David Sharpe in some of his movements, the way he vaulted over a hitching post, for example, instead of walking around.

Maybe it is a shame that Charles Starrett should end his career with such a poor script. He really deserved better. But there is ultimately more good than bad and "The Kid from Broken Gun" is, really, a must see.

(((This is added after seeing information about Ted Mapes at http://www.b-westerns.com/stunt12.htm: Likely he was not the stuntman; more likely it was Jock Mahoney.)))