Deadwood '76

Deadwood '76 is a 1965 low budget western equivalent of the typical 1970s martial arts film. Redolent with cliché from start to finish, this well-written, well-directed (by James Landis), and mostly badly acted film follows the adventures of a young many (Arch Hall Jr) who has been mistaken for Billy the Kid because of his youth, name (Billy May) and gunfighting talent.

May is an interesting character who is, unfortunately, uninterestingly portrayed by the son of the screenwriter. In a typical early '70s western flourish, May befriends a band of local Native Americans who have been displaced and otherwise abused by the townfolk and who are plotting vengeance against the union army. He also becomes a would-be prospector, and has a number of bad run-ins with a local gang lead by Sam Bass. May, the ultimate outsider, eventually gets swept up in the degrading local society and its circus-of-death atmosphere, and his developing young life is gravely threatened.

Recommended for die-hard Western fans. Not recommended for others.

... -that being Arch Hall Jr. & Sr. - goes awry, mainly due to the unbelievably ridiculous script and lousy acting of the cast.

After five minutes of riding his horse around Custer National Park (where the movie was partially filmed), Billy May (Hall Jr.) discovers an old man named Tennessee (Jack Lester) and his covered wagon. Tennessee has been attacked by five bloodthirsty(???) Sioux. He tries to shoot his rifle, but finds he forgot to load it. He makes a remark that he did the same thing at Shiloh. The Sioux leader looks into the covered wagon and find--a litter of house cats! Tennessee says he's taking them to Deadwood and will sell them and get rich. The Indian chief picks up one and calls it a skunk. Billy then tells the Sioux to leave, and the Sioux leave. This is the first ten minutes of the film.

Other absurdities include a character named Fancy wearing his glued-on mustache upside down; one song with twenty some verses goes through the whole film (mercifully, the singer is not Hall Jr.); the seven cats are indeed sold in Deadwood, and fetch around two hundred dollars; Billy's father, who supposedly died in the Civil War, is alive and well and ready to lead the Sioux nation to kill all of Deadwood and make the Confederacy rise again.

This seriously crazy film seems determined to fit in as many Western cliches as possible and is worth a watch for bad movie lovers.

The first half of the 60s were the years that Arch Hall, Sr. tried very hard to make a teenage movie heartthrob of his son Arch Hall, Jr. The Halls gave us such films as The Sadist, The Choppers, and Eegah and they gave up.

But the Halls had one more film in them. I can hardly call Deadwood 76 a comeback film since they hardly made it with what they had already put out. Personally I think Arch Hall, Sr. instead of Ed Wood belongs with that dubious distinction of putting out the worst films in cinema history. Hall was also the inspiration of the Robert Mitchum-Jack Webb film The Last Time I Saw Archie. If he was half the conman Mitchum portrayed his whole life story would be worth a film.

Junior Hall plays young fast gun drifter named Billy whom he's not adverse to using William Bonney's nickname and reputation. He kills a few of Sam Bass's boys and Deadwood starts anticipating what it would be like if 'Billy the Kid' meets up with their most famous citizen Wild Bill Hickok. Hall Sr. plays the part of a preacher in Deadwood 76.

The Halls movie careers came to a merciful end after Deadwood 76. It's pretty bad in keeping with the Hall tradition. It's pretty bad all around in every film category possible.

For years, this Arch Hall Jr. movie was all but impossible to see, but thanks to its copyright not being renewed at the right time, it is now available on budget DVDs. For those wondering if this is as hilariously bad as past Hall movies like "Eegah!" and "Wild Guitar", well, I hate to break the news, but there aren't that many unintended laughs to be found. In fact, much of the movie is more competent than you might think - there is some nice background scenery, a decent musical score, and the events of the movie are treated (mostly) with seriousness. But all the same, the screenplay is kind of a mess. The movie is not content to sit with one or two plot threads, but has several running through, and not all of the plot threads are resolved in a satisfying manner by the end. Also, the low budget is pretty evident at times. The movie is kind of a mess, but at the same time the mess gets you interested and wonder how things will be wrapped up. And the ending will be an unexpected one for many viewers. While I'm kind of hesitant to give this a general recommendation, I do think there are some people who are fans of offbeat cinema that may find it interesting.

Deadwood was a mean town, and no one was meaner than the brothel mama. She didn't care even for the world's most expensive cat, because she had enough problems with her whores. One day Billy Boy came to town, a sweet kinda Swedish looking fellow who really was Billy the Kid, riding along with a mouth harp swingin' old timer who had this genius idea of selling extremely overprized cats. People in Deadwood were preetty stupid, and one even gave 40 dollars for one of them cats. Today that would be some 1.150 dollars, but in this town the rats were bigger than even the biggest gold nugget, so it was worth it I guess. Sam Bass was also there, and naturally Wild Bill Hickok. The latter thought it all was just too stupid, so he left, maybe to find Calamity Jane. However, Billy the Kid had found his dad and a ridiculously looking native girl, daughter of Chief Spotted Snake. Did I mention that the brothel mama had been longin' for some hangin'? Oh my, she was mean, just like the wild west.