Here we have a little paean to the Wild West outlaw -- Billy the Kid, emblem of a dying breed.
"Guns and shooting are on the way out," rancher Keating (Ian Hunter) tells Billy (Robert Taylor). "Law and order is on the march."
And the changes don't sit so well with our gunslinger. As his sidekick Pedro (Frank Puglia) accurately points out, "Anybody say to you, 'Don't do,' you right away do."
Taylor's Billy is a well-rounded rogue. The quickest guy on the draw is also a charmer. "I wanna be on the side of you that's nearest your heart," he tells a gal at the saloon. His exchanges with old buddy Sherwood (Brian Donlevy) are moving, particularly in the movie's final frames.
The frontier tale takes place in Monument Valley, on today's Utah-Arizona border, and it's stunningly filmed. Check out that cattle stampede -- powerful stuff. And how 'bout the living-room sing-a-long down at Keating's place? Left me yearning for the days of pre-tech.
A couple fine lines that I'd like to remember:
"Don't work for nobody" -- Billy, on his employer.
"Time ain't exactly a beauty treatment" -- Sherwood, on still being ugly.
"I keep on living, and hoping for the best" -- from an old-timer in town. (What else can people of any era do?)
I won't rag on this Western for fictionalizing Billy. I'm not helpless; if I want accuracy, I can always read a book.
"Guns and shooting are on the way out," rancher Keating (Ian Hunter) tells Billy (Robert Taylor). "Law and order is on the march."
And the changes don't sit so well with our gunslinger. As his sidekick Pedro (Frank Puglia) accurately points out, "Anybody say to you, 'Don't do,' you right away do."
Taylor's Billy is a well-rounded rogue. The quickest guy on the draw is also a charmer. "I wanna be on the side of you that's nearest your heart," he tells a gal at the saloon. His exchanges with old buddy Sherwood (Brian Donlevy) are moving, particularly in the movie's final frames.
The frontier tale takes place in Monument Valley, on today's Utah-Arizona border, and it's stunningly filmed. Check out that cattle stampede -- powerful stuff. And how 'bout the living-room sing-a-long down at Keating's place? Left me yearning for the days of pre-tech.
A couple fine lines that I'd like to remember:
"Don't work for nobody" -- Billy, on his employer.
"Time ain't exactly a beauty treatment" -- Sherwood, on still being ugly.
"I keep on living, and hoping for the best" -- from an old-timer in town. (What else can people of any era do?)
I won't rag on this Western for fictionalizing Billy. I'm not helpless; if I want accuracy, I can always read a book.