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.

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.

By the time King Vidor directed this "Billy the Kid," he already had 36 movies under his belt (most of them silent), so it's weird that the movie seems so arbitrarily thrown together. Brutality and tenderness each try to crowd the other out. Somebody dies, and minutes later everyone's smiling again. I think the Western/Cowboy genre was still developing in Hollywood at the time (even after all those silent Westerns), and the addition of sound just threw another monkey wrench into the works. Nevertheless, you can tick off all the Western conventions and clichés as the film unfolds; they're all there. But it's like they're on steroids or something -- you never know when they're going to take on a life of their own. They just don't add up. I'm tempted to give this movie an "8" rating just for its consummate strangeness, but I think a "6" is probably a fairer assessment.

Another very early talkie western, King Vidor's version of the story of Billy the Kid.

It was a big production, filmed on location. The landscapes look great. Apparently, it was also filmed in widescreen version, but that has unfortunately been lost.

The storytelling is mostly gritty, although interspaced with comic relief scenes with the supporting cast and some singing. I found the combination strange, but it did not prevent me from enjoying the movie.

The two male leads do a good job, although Johnny Mack Brown, who plays Billy the Kid, is not really a kid here, but a grown man. I particularly enjoyed Wallace Beery's performance as an understated, surprisingly good-natured Pat Garrett. Kay Johnson is not given much to do, since the romance is rather routinary

The Kid had a nice badass moment when he lights a cigarette from the collapsed burning rafters of the roof.

Quite entertaining, and without the stilted interpretations that some of the early talkies have.

After a ruthless land baron named "William P. Donovan" (James A. Marcus) orders the murder of several people who refuse to sell him their land, several local ranchers decide to band together to defend themselves. One particular rancher is a man named "John W. Tunston" (Wyndham Standing) who has as one of his employees a loyal gunman known as "Billy the Kid" (John Mack Brown) who isn't afraid of anyone. Even so, that doesn't stop William Donovan from continuing to intimidate the local residents. However, after ordering the murder of John Tunston, he soon comes face-to-face with a kind of violence he never thought would happen--and Billy the Kid soon becomes his worst nightmare. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this turned out to be a pretty decent Western which benefited from good performances by Wallace Beery (as "Sheriff Pat Garrett"), Kay Johnson (John Tunston's wife "Claire") and the aforementioned John Mack Brown. And although the sound technique was quite good for its time, the editing technique could have used some fine-tuning as the scenes didn't flow well together at all. Likewise, it should also be noted that there are several historical inaccuracies contained in this movie with the primary one being the manner in which the film ended. But that's Hollywood for you. Even so, I enjoyed this movie for the most part, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.