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Fine actor Robert Taylor seems to be a bit long in the tooth (although he was only 30 at the time) to portray "The Kid." Still, if you suspend all knowledge of the Billy legend, he does a stalwart job as an older and wiser Billy. Brian Donlevy is great, as usual, though he plays the good guy Sherwood (Pat Garrett in reality and in subsequent Billy the Kid inspired films)instead of his many tough guy badies (Beau Geste - Academy Award nominee, and Destry Rides Again - to mention two). The writers seem to change all the names to protect...well who?Instead of Tunstall, the english gentleman rancher who tries to change Billy's wayward ways, it's Keating. Instead of Murphy, the instigator of the Lincoln County War, its Hickey. And instead of Pat Garrett, it's Sherwood. But, some good shoot 'em ups and some good dialogue make this a pleasant Saturday afternoon at the westerns. Saddle up.

Check out Ivanhoe, Waterloo Bridge, and Knights of the Round Table to see Robert Taylor at his best. For other Billy movies, see Young Guns, Young Guns II, Chisum, and the Left Handed Gun.

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.

You can count on one hand the things this film has in common with the real story of Billy the Kid, but if you aren't thrown off by inaccuracy, then this is a wonderfully entertaining and finely portrayed depiction of the Kid. Robert Taylor is really superb in a role he's nearly a decade too old for. He's hard-bitten and tough as nails, but the hurt inside is clear without being overplayed. I've never thought of Robert Taylor as ever being underrated, but if ever he was, it's in this. Taylor and the dialog, which is hard-boiled and doesn't always go where you'd expect it to go, are the real points of interest in this movie, along with some geographically wide-ranging Technicolor photography that is luscious to look at. The other aspects of the movie are pretty standard fare, some less bearable than others. But Taylor is a revelation here. This picture is well worth watching. Just don't think you're seeing the true story of Billy the Kid.

There is a lot more to this predominantly lyrical account of an episode in Billy the Kid's life than action and brainless swagger. Hardboiled, embittered Billy gets a job as a cowhand for a pacifist farmer who rhapsodizes about how being unarmed protects a man by the usual Wild West code of not shooting a man in the back. When the farmer, Billy's new guardian, is killed, though, Billy's new-found love of peace and order must give way to a desire for revenge on the bad guys.

Somewhere along the line this film gets to sanctimonious and preachy to be entirely enjoyable, and Brian Donleavy as Billy's childhood pal turned born-again marshall deputy is the most unbelievable thing about it. Robert Taylor is a handsome devil in tight-fitting black leather, and it is honestly a relief when he finds back to his old bad ways, and things start happening again.

The Technicolor location cinematography is gorgeous.

Of all the versions of the Billy the Kid saga this is one of the loosest ones with the facts. Even the names are completely changed in this film with only Robert Taylor retaining Billy's most known alias of William Bonney. Even Brian Donlevy does not get to play Pat Garrett, he's Jim Sherwood in this.

But this is the standard Billy the Kid story, a young outlaw who goes to work for a straight arrow rancher during a range war. Then later when the rancher, in this case Ian Hunter, is gunned down at that point the tragic end that Billy will come to is irreversibly set for him.

This was Robert Taylor's first western and it would be another eight years before he did another. After that westerns became pretty standard film fare for him. Taylor, like his good friend, Ronald Reagan, loved horses and probably if MGM hadn't made him a romantic heart throb, he would have loved to have been a cowboy actor. Like Reagan he certainly looked at home hosting Death Valley Days later on.

Jim Sherwood(Pat Garrett)is a different part for Brian Donlevy to play. Donlevy was at the high point of his career as a screen villain and being a good guy for him is almost a case of an alternate universe. But being the professional he was, Donlevy carries off the portrayal in fine style.

Ian Hunter is just fine as the English gentleman rancher who tries to set Taylor on the straight and narrow. And you will not find a sneakier more loathsome villain than Gene Lockhart as the local boss of the area who is provoking a range war with Hunter.

Billy the Kid is not the best western that Taylor ever did, but it certainly opened a whole new career vista for him.