Clarence Linden Crabbe II made a boat load of B Westerns for PRC in the 1940's, all of them with Al 'Fuzzy' St. John as his sidekick. In the first thirteen of them his character was Billy The Kid. The name was changed to Billy Carson for another twenty three oaters, presumably to remove the outlaw stigma from the character. In 1936, Sam Newfield directed a film called "Lightnin' Bill Carson", but that one starred Tim McCoy in the lead role. Newfield also directed this one for Producers Releasiing Corporation.
The story is as formulaic as they come, but when it comes to these era flicks I just can't help myself. Almost every one comes up with at least one element that hadn't been done before. This time out, the evil town boss Hayden (Steve Darrell) calls in the loans on local ranchers, but here's the hook. He has his henchmen rob the mail coming in on the stage coach carrying various correspondence that might help the town folk. Like an approval on a note that would help extend the Wrights (Henry Hall and Mady Lawrence as daughter Jane). Or in the case of Jim Murray, a couple hundred dollars sent by his brother to tide him over. I was curious about that one - Carson replaced the money in the letter to Murray, then Fuzzy kicked in with a few bucks. What were the chances of that totaling exactly two hundred as the letter stated? Maybe I'm being too nit-picky.
Fuzzy has a couple of good moments in the story. The Mexican jumping bean episode comes to mind and later in the picture he pulls off one of the slickest moves I've seen in one of these flicks. Presumably knocked out by the town sheriff and lying on the floor outside the jail cell door, he kicks the sheriff while on his back from behind and locks him up tight to make the getaway. Pretty slick trick. If I had this on DVD, I'd have watched it a couple more times - the Fuzzy move, not the whole thing.
The story is as formulaic as they come, but when it comes to these era flicks I just can't help myself. Almost every one comes up with at least one element that hadn't been done before. This time out, the evil town boss Hayden (Steve Darrell) calls in the loans on local ranchers, but here's the hook. He has his henchmen rob the mail coming in on the stage coach carrying various correspondence that might help the town folk. Like an approval on a note that would help extend the Wrights (Henry Hall and Mady Lawrence as daughter Jane). Or in the case of Jim Murray, a couple hundred dollars sent by his brother to tide him over. I was curious about that one - Carson replaced the money in the letter to Murray, then Fuzzy kicked in with a few bucks. What were the chances of that totaling exactly two hundred as the letter stated? Maybe I'm being too nit-picky.
Fuzzy has a couple of good moments in the story. The Mexican jumping bean episode comes to mind and later in the picture he pulls off one of the slickest moves I've seen in one of these flicks. Presumably knocked out by the town sheriff and lying on the floor outside the jail cell door, he kicks the sheriff while on his back from behind and locks him up tight to make the getaway. Pretty slick trick. If I had this on DVD, I'd have watched it a couple more times - the Fuzzy move, not the whole thing.
