User Reviews

You'll probably wonder as I did some time into the picture as to where exactly the 'range war' of the title might be. Not really a problem, as almost any Western title from the 1930's and '40's had nothing at all to do with the story. Billy the Kid himself is presented as the film's hero rather than the famous outlaw he became. Portrayed by Bob Steele, 'The Kid' is noticeably older than he ever got to be in real life, having died around twenty one years old; at the time of the picture, Steele was thirty four.

Bob Steele appeared as Billy The Kid in a half dozen films for Producers Releasing Corporation in the 1940/41 time frame, just prior to getting a call from Republic Pictures asking him to be part of the Three Mesquiteers. Al 'Fuzzy' St. John appeared as his sidekick in these stories, and continued in the series when Steele was replaced by Buster Crabbe. The Billy character was generally presented as a good guy caught up in situations where he was wrongfully accused of some misdeed. In 'Range War', an outlaw impersonates Billy in a scheme where local town boss Williams (Karl Hackett) attempts to rid a stage line competitor from winning a mail contract from his steamship company. Conversely, Billy the Kid impersonates a henchman hired by Williams to sabotage the construction of a stage trail. I guess it sounds a lot more complicated than it plays out on screen, as Billy gets the goods on all the bad guys in short order to save the day for the stage company run by Ellen Gorman (Joan Barclay).

Fuzzy St. John is an effective comedy relief character backing up The Kid, getting a lot of mileage out of his trusty slingshot. He has to take his lumps too, as he gets belted hard a couple of times, including a hefty knock out blow from Billy early in the picture. Fuzzy's a trooper though, and proves a loyal ally to his partner.

You'll catch a lot of the era's mainstays in the picture on both sides of the law - Carleton Young is Billy's friend, Marshal Jack Carson, while Rex Lease, Howard Masters and Buddy Roosevelt make appearances as villains or henchmen. Ultimately, the story itself winds up largely forgettable, but at least while you're watching, you'll have a good time with the story and it's characters.

Enjoyable Billy the Kid entry is a typical B Western with a typically misleading title but a good performance by Charles Starrett and an overwrought one by his frenzied, grizzled sidekick Al St. John. Typically one-dimensional villains in this film that has Billy being accused of crimes he did not commit and desperate to prove his innocence. Certainly no relation to real history, so you just have to take it with a grain of salt or sand for the entertainment value which is plenty. Joan Barclay isn't convincing as the heroine, but there are plenty of goodies in the supporting cast with Carleton Young, Milton Kibbee and Rex Lease. The film has decent pacing, and available prints look pretty good. Like the thousands of other B westerns of the 1940's, it's pretty indistinguishable from many and quite formula, but for Western fans, it's definitely worth seeing although there's nothing really unique about it to make it stand out and certainly not much to analyze.