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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
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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 ...
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