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Western Cyclone
USA 1943
produced by Sigmund Neufeld for PRC
directed by Sam Newfield
starring Buster Crabbe (= Larry Crabbe), Al St. John, Marjorie Manners, Glenn Strange, Charles King, Karl Hackett, Milton Kibbee, Hal Price, Kermit Maynard, Jack Ingram, Lane Bradford, Steve Clark, Lou Fulton, Herman Hack, Robert F. Hill, Frank McCarroll, Milburn Morante, Charles Murray jr, Artie Ortego
written by Patricia Harper, music by Leo Erdody
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) holds up stagecoaches only to show his
friend, the gouvernor (Kar Hackett), that security needs to be improved.
But evil banker Randall (Glenn Strange) and his cronie bar owner Harmon
(Charles King) don't like that one bit ... so they pin a murder on him,
and before he knows it, Billy is arrested and sentenced to death. But
Billy has a friend on the outside, Fuzzy (Al St. John), who finds some
evidence that might lead to the true killer, and he breaks Billy out of
jail, too. Now Randall and Harmon don't like that one bit, so ultimately
they have the gouvernor's daughter (Marjorie Manners) kidnapped - which
Billy and Fuzzy turn on them, convincing them she has been freed to make
the baddies lead them to their hideout. Ultimately, the situation gets
so desperate that Randall shoots Harmon dead and then tries to pin the
murder on Billy - but it's only his own undoing, as it turns out both
Harmon and the man Billy was accused of killing previously were killed by
the same gun - Randall's. He naturally gets his just desserts. Very
routine Western of PRC's Billy the Kid-series: Now
Buster Crabbe and Al St. John might be a likeable enough hero and
sidekick, and St. John's slapstick certainly is hilarious, but the story
as such seems to be awfully far-fetched and at the same time not all that
engaging, the effort this movie goes through to make Billy the Kid the
good guy is almost hilarious, and in general the story seems to be a bit
too big for the film's low budget. Not a total loss, and PRC has
produced a whole lot worse B Westerns, trust me on that one, but not
really great (even in comparison to other films of the series) either.
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