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Sheriff of Sage Valley
USA 1942
produced by Sigmund Neufeld for PRC
directed by Sam Newfield (as Sherman Scott)
starring Buster Crabbe (= Larry Crabbe), Al St. John, Dave O'Brien (as Tex O'Brien), Maxine Leslie, Charles King, John Merton, Kermit Maynard, Hal Price, Jimmy Aubrey, Budd Buster, Bert Dillard, Jack Kirk, Al Taylor
written by George Wallace Sayre, Milton Raison
Billy the Kid, Fuzzy, Billy the Kid (Buster Crabbe), PRC's Billy the Kid
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Billy the Kid (Buster Crabbe) and his friends Fuzzy (Al St. John) and
Jeff (Dave O'Brien) are the most feared outlaws of the region - unfairly
so, because they hardly ever hurt a fly, and actually save the stage to
Sage Valley to be robbed at one point ... which makes the mayor of Sage
Valley Harrison (Hal Price) want to appoint Billy for sheriff - but Billy,
regarding his however unfair criminal record, politely declines ... until
of course shady casino owner Sloane (Charles King) has his own patsy
(Kermit Maynard) declared sheriff without the least bit of an election.
Now Billy pushes to be sheriff, and gets in the way of the puppeteer of
the whole region, Ed Bonney, who's not only his look-a-like but also his
brother (and thus also played by Buster Crabbe). Ed of course wants to
lure Billy in a trap, and soon the two of them switch roles - but while Ed
as Billy turns all the locals against himself, Billy manages to sabotage
Ed's gang from the inside, and ultimately, in a shoot-out, good defeats
evil and Ed is killed ... but Billy and friends are arrested for what Ed
had done to Billy's reputation ... but mayor Harrison knows Billy's a good
guy at heart and sets him and Fuzzy and Jeff free out of gratitude, and
however many laws he has to break doing so. Sheriff of Sage
Valley is by no means a great genre film, just your typical B-Western,
but it's structured well enouch, Buster Crabbe proves he's equally
convincing as the good guy as he's as the bad guy, Al St. John (not as
funny as in later films) and Dave O'Brien make two ok sidekicks, and
Charles Kind as a baddie is a pretty safe bet. As I said, nothing great,
but ok genre entertainmen if you have a little under an hour to spend.
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