Frontier Outlaws

Buster Crabbe is looking for cattle rustlers. It turns out that it's that old plot of the local banker using cattle rustling to line his pockets and to drive the ranches he holds mortgages on out of business. Al St. John in a beard is the comic relief. He is carrying on an unwilling affair with Marin Sais. It's a barebones plot done on your typical PRC budget, so there's little to note, except that it starts with some action, continues with action, and ends that way too. Director Sam Newfield knew what his audience wanted at their Saturday matinees.

Jimmy Aubrey is also present, playing a bar fly, but Miss Sais has a substantial role. She had worked for Kalem more than 30 years earlier, playing in their action firl movies, and comedies like Walk -- You Walk!. She had the leading lady roles in some Hoot Gibson westerns, and some with Jack Hoxie, her husband for the first half of the 1920s. She had left the movies in 1929, but returned four years later, often in unbilled roles or cheaper productions. Her last screen appearance as in 1953. She died in 1971, aged 81.

One of the more enjoyable of the PRC Billy the Kid westerns was Frontier Outlaws where Buster Crabbe and Al St. John are fighting to protect the Circle C ranch along with the other ranchers from the depredations of Jack Ingram and Charles King, a pair of veteran B picture western heavies. The accent is definitely on the comedy and not just from Al St. John.

The Circle C is owned by Marin Sais and Frances Gladwin, mother and daughter. Sais is a frontier woman in the tradition of Marjorie Main and she's a pip in her part.

But the best in the film is character actor Emmett Lynn who plays a cracker barrel frontier judge, a kindler gentler version of Judge Roy Bean. He and Mais have a thing for each other, but just can't quite commit.

Definitely one of the better Billy the Kid features.

It's a great battle of Billy The Kid (Buster Crabbe) versus Charlie "Blackie" King who must've fought more cowboy stars than any other sceen heavy. But the other part of the story is "Fuzzy" St. John, Marin Sais and Emmett Lynn providing outstanding comic relief. All this plus a great supporting cast including Jack Ingram, Kermit Maynard and Frances Gladwin. It's hard riding, hard laughing and great suspense to see who gets the Circle C Ranch. Bonus: look for the blopper after Buster robs King. That may be the hardest hit and biggest laugh of the movie.

Bargain basement stuff, but lifted to a very enjoyable level by some lovely character acting. Charlie King is a quintessential 'heavy'; Fuzzy doesn't do much in this one, but Buster Crabbe excels himself when he goes undercover in the shape of a Mexican bandit leader, and plays it with an easy charm that contrasts with his rather bland 'Billy Carson' persona. The highlight though is the stand-out performance of Emmett Lynn as the befuddled judge - it's what classic Hollywood character acting is all about, and his bizarre cameo is touched with genius. Just one pedantic note: this is not a 'Billy the Kid' offering - it is the second film in the follow-on 'Billy Carson' series.

Frontier Outlaws is an enjoyable, lightning fast episode in Producers Releasing Corporation's Billy Carson series.

In this, Carson kills a gunslinger sent to do him in by Mr. Barlow, the crooked town boss and finds himself pursued by vigilantes. He cheats the posse by turning himself in to the proper authorities. Once released, Carson goes to war against the deeply entrenched Barlow.

Buster Crabbe and Al "Fuzzy" St. John are in fine form here, with a better than average script and excellent support from Marin Sais as a feisty old lady rancher and Emmett Lynn as the comical presiding judge at Billy's trial.

Near the end, Crabbe gets a chance to show off his acting skills as Billy impersonates a Mexican cowboy to get close to the villains.

Also memorable is Buster Crabbe's on-set accident where he bangs his head loudly while climbing through an open window. It looks rather painful!