Billy the Kid in Santa Fe

USA 1941
produced by
Sigmund Neufeld for PRC
directed by Sam Newfield (as Sherman Scott)
starring Bob Steele, Al St. John, Rex Lease, Marin Sais, Dennis Moore, Charles King, Dave O'Brien, Karl Hackett, Steve Clark, Hal Price, Frank Ellis, Kenne Duncan
written by Joseph O'Donnell, music by Johnny Lange, Lew Porter

Billy the Kid, Fuzzy, Billy the Kid (Bob Steele), PRC's Billy the Kid

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Once again, Billy the Kid (Bob Steele) is framed and convicted for murder and sent to the gallows, but somehow he escapes execution and together with his sidekicks Fuzzy (Al St.John) and Jeff (Rex Lease), he sets up shop in a new town where soon enough he is hired by rancher/banker Pat Walker (Marin Sais) to assist in her fight against the usual baddies, led by respectable citizen Steve Barton (Charles King).

Barton eventually kills a man and pins the crime on gambler Texas Joe (Dave O'Brien), who was so drunk at the time of the murder he himself cannot be sure he hasn't done it. A lynchmob soon enough comes after Tex and he is hanged after a short and unfair trial ... and all that while Billy manages to get enough evidence to convict Barton two times over.

Barton sure gets what he deserves, but problem is Tex had a brother, penpusher Don Benson (Dennis Moore), once the most feared gunman North of the whatever. Benson soon goes after those who killed his brother, killing them one by one and always leaving a playing card with the corpses. Billy, who once rode with Benson, knows he can't let this happen for too long, so he goes after him ... but when they have their final shootout, Billy can't bring himself to actually hit Benson while Benson has come to the duel with his gun intentionally emptied. To end this farce of a shootout, Fuzzy forms a citizens' trial and acquits Benson of all his crimes (?) ...

One of the lesser PRC Billy the Kid-films, basically because it never really seems to find its story, instead gets stuck with loosely to not-at-all connected genre clichées, flat to boring characters, and a lack of engaging action. And not even Fuzzy gets an opportunity to be funny ...

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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