Billy the Kid (1930)

A strange film that is alternately stiff and fluid. Johnny MacBrown is no kid--more like 30. His acting is fairly amateurish but some lines have been well-rehearsed. Outdoor scenes are impressive but the indoor scenes are pure early-talkie confinement. Beery and the subsidiary actors seem to have the talkie thing down pat. Some of the action scenes were probably more impressive in 70mm and the outdoor recording is very good considering the sound limitations. Nasty revenge storyline where Billy justifies his many killings, but he's sure a nice guy about it. There are many killings and lots of mayhem. Some of the comedy lines between Mr. Butterworth and Mr. Hatfield are incredibly corny considering the circumstances. "The Big Trail" is a much better film from the same year and is still available in its impressive 70mm version. You have to really like westerns to appreciate "Billy The Kid", but there are lots of devoted followers.

If you listen to the opening scenes from this early talkie from another room, as I did, you'll quail. The acting is broad and the dialog like spoken title cards. ("Say, he can't outgun me.") But visually, crude as it is, it's not at all painful.For one thing, limited use is made of the typical "Western" ranches and towns that we see constantly on television and in films like "High Noon." There's a town here alright, but it's just a couple of ramshackle buildings, evidently built for the purpose in Northridge, California, where you can still find dilapidated buildings. Some of the important scenes are shot on locations, including two national parks.For another, it sticks fairly closely to historical reality, at least until the ending, when the virtuous Billy the Kid (Johnny Mack Brown) gallops off into the sunset with his girl friend. I have only an elementary grasp of the Johnson County wars, but my understanding is concurrent with the plot. At least I recognized some of the important names -- McSween and Tunston, for instance.The acting is all over the place, dominated by the need to shout lines so they'll be picked up by the hidden microphones. Wallace Beery,as Pat Garett, is his usual hammy self; this time he's a sheriff determined to keep the law but he has a soft heart when it's called for. The bad guys are really BAD. Johnny Mack Brown in the principal role looks okay, I guess, although perhaps a bit older than he might be, but he can't utter a believable line. Russell Simpson does pretty well by the Scotsman McSween.But the values promoted by the film are problematic. Billy the Kid takes it upon himself to murder those who murdered his friends and employers. The most evil of the evildoers is killed in cold blood. This is a reflection of the chivalric code of the aristocratic plantation owners of the South, the Cavaliers who believed that a man settled his own problems. That's what the sociologist Max Weber called "traditional authority," not the "rational/legal authority" that civilization now lives under. Mix that element of Southern values with the greed and ruthlessness of the Northern Robber Barons and you get land wars with vengeful shoot outs.It's a curious blend, still in evidence today.

Western Movie Fans are not Likely to be Disappointed in this Rowdy Shoot em' Up from 1930. It is a Big Production all around and there is Plenty of Gunplay and Wide Open Spaces, a Large and Scruffy Cast, and a Substantial Running Time.Holding it Back from Greatness are some Stiff Dialog Scenes and a Meandering Script Peppered with Down Home Humor and an Awkward Love Story. But there are Dozens of Deaths by Gunpowder and there are a Few Striking Set Pieces. Billy and the Gang Hold Up and Surrounded in a Cabin, Billy's Capture and Escape from the Lincoln County Jail, and a Cave Dwelling, Starving Billy the Kid forced into the Open by a Pan of Frying Bacon, Among Others.Overall it is a Rip Roaring Western that Helped Johnny Mack Brown stay a Star and it also didn't Hurt Wallace Berry's Career as He Plays a Rather Subdued Pat Garrett.

This film was full of surprises for me, given its less-than-stellar reputation. One has to view it in terms of Hollywood myth-making and not as if it's an episode of `Biography.' King Vidor's camerawork is startlingly fluid - he uses camera movement and cutting very effectively. One of the biggest surprises was the brutality (not to be confused with gore) of certain scenes. The film also does an excellent job of creating a mood of futility. As for Johnny Mack Brown, at first I thought he was inappropriately cast. But as the movie continued, his characterization seemed more valid. And of course, the location shots are stunning. This film is underrated and overdue for critical re-evaluation. Perhaps that will happen if an archivist finds a widescreen print!