Young Billy Young (1969)

'Old Ben Kane' might have been the better title for this Western flick. Just like his namesake from "High Noon", First Deputy Ben Kane (Robert Mitchum) refuses to leave town when he knows the bad guys are coming just for him. Young Billy Young (Robert Walker Jr.) valiantly intends to help out, even after Kane cold-cocked him once when he snuck up on his campfire in the middle of the night. For his trouble, Kane knocks him out again so he doesn't interfere with one man's mission to go up against a dozen outlaws. You might wonder how rational Kane himself was under the circumstances.There's a good reason Angie Dickinson used to show up in these Westerns with folks like Mitchum and Dean Martin, one look at her opening dance hall number will clue you in. As the sometime lady pal of Gaslight Saloon owner John Behan (Jack Kelly), Lily Beloit recalls her association with Kane back in Dodge City, and the reason Kane is all fired up to go against Frank Boone (John Anderson), who actually doesn't show up until the last part of the story. With Dave Carradine in the role of Jesse Boone, I was once again reminded how much the Carradine Brothers resembled John Anderson, who could have played their father, and actually did in the same year's "Heaven With a Gun" in which he and David portrayed a father and son.Except for the name of John Behan in the story, I would never have guessed this was based on a novel titled "Who Rides With Wyatt". There's really no other connection I can decipher among the principals being based on Wyatt Earp or his contemporaries, so I guess one has to take the film maker's word for it. Although Kane using his weapon to pistol whip Billy a couple of times came pretty close to resembling Wyatt Earp's style.See if you can catch a really weird error in that confrontation between Kane and Frank Boone. Riding atop Charlie's (Paul Fix) stagecoach, Kane shoots Boone and there's a quick cut to Boone lying on the ground. When the camera comes back to the coach, Kane is sitting next to Charlie, but after another quick cutaway, Kane is back on top of the coach! Talk about lightning fast, he did that almost as quick as hauling Lily off to get married!

Billy Young and Jesse Boone (David Carradine) sneak onto a troop train and kill a Mexican General and his men. Billy loses his horse and is left behind with Mexican troops hot on Jesse's tail. Ben Kane (Robert Mitchum) is on his way to be a deputy sheriff and meets Billy. Ben is only allowed to be a tax collector. While in town, Billy gets into a fight over cards, kills the sheriff and gets run out of town. Billy runs into Ben Kane again. In town, Kane confronts John Behan and dancehall girl Lily Beloit (Angie Dickinson) offers her help alluding to an old incident. Jesse's father Frank Boone killed Ben's son.This movie needs a darker harder edge. The material is geared more towards that end but the movie seems intent on making this a fun western. The light tones and music are ill-fitting. Also it's too precious with Ben's past. It should have explained the backstory much earlier which would have given the characters more compelling interactions. It would raise the stakes. By leaving the reveal so late, the characters don't have the connections. Ben and Billy should have stayed together but they keep bumping into each other haphazardly. They really need the time together to develop the needed chemistry.

Robert Mitchum plays a sheriff in a town dominated by evil bosses and their gangs. When MItchum arrests the son of the boss-man for murder, the gang is determined the sheriff won't live to punish the punk. As for his deputy (Robert Walker Jr.--who, inexplicably, gets the film named after his character), he's rather ambivalent--unsure whether to help or just get out of the way. Can they stand up against the combined forces of evil and survive (what do you think?!)? "Young Billy Young" is an enjoyable western. However, the plot is incredibly familiar--too familiar. Robert Mitchum himself (who stars in "Young Billy Young") appeared in "El Dorado" (a remake of "Rio Bravo")--which is pretty similar to such films as "High Noon" and "Last Train From Gun Hill". All these films (and many more) are like "YBY" because they, too, are stories about honest sheriffs who refuse to knuckle under to gangs who run old western towns. Because of this familiarity, the film just cannot rise above mediocrity even if it did star Mitchum.In addition to Mitchum, the film stars two sons of famous actors--Robert Walker Jr. and David Carridine. They are competent but no more in the film. Its strengths are its acting by Mitchum as well as the nice relationship he has with Angie Dickenson (who was ALSO in Rio Bravo!). Negatives are Mitchum singing the opening song (uggh!) and the ridiculously easy way the two young guns kill off the Mexican general near the beginning of the film. The ending is also a bit abrupt.

The title role of this western is played by Robert Walker, Jr. He's a young gun who with partner David Carradine gets separated after doing a contract hit on a Mexican general. In eluding their pursuers Carradine and Walker become separated. Walker comes upon the camp of lawman Robert Mitchum who takes a liking to Walker and makes him a protégé and reclamation project of sorts.This is the first of two films Robert Mitchum did with writer/director Burt Kennedy. The second was the more humorous The Good Guys and the Bad Guys. Not that Young Billy Young does not have its moments of hilarity. But it is a tripartite story involving the Walker reclamation, Mitchum's hunt for the bad who killed his son and a romantic triangle involving Mitchum, Angie Dickinson, and town boss Jack Kelly.The film abounds with nepotism. David Carradine is John's son. Dean Martin's daughter Deana is in this, Walker is the son of Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones and Mitchum's son Chris plays Mitchum's son in some silent flashbacks.Robert Mitchum got his start in westerns and always looks right at home in them. Angie Dickinson essentially repeats the role she had in Rio Bravo. Walker had a brief career playing rebellious youths and doing a good job at it. I've often wondered what happened to him. He looks hauntingly like his father. Maybe he didn't want to come to such a tragic early end like his father.And it that wasn't enough, Mitchum fans get to hear old rumple eyes sing the title song at the beginning of the film.