Gangster's Den (1945)

One of the Billy the Kid series. Fuzzy(Al St. John) knew he was playing with fire when he emptied the safe he and Billy Carson(Buster Crabbe) shared at their goldmine cabin. He just had to buy Old Man Taylor's saloon while the latter was in a selling mood. Taylor was afraid of lawyer and gang leader Horace Black, knowing that he also wanted to buy the saloon. Presumably, Black wanted to get some of the gambling money, but his main reason was the rumored gold mine entrance in a trapdoor in the office floor. Unfortunately, Black saw Fuzzy enter the saloon with his 3 bags of gold dust, and laid plans to intercept Taylor and his gold in his way out of town. This worked as planned. But, a similar plot to ambush Fuzzy was broken up by Ruth Lane(Sydney Logan), who happened to be riding around with her rifle........Well, Fuzzy soon discovered that managing a saloon wasn't as much fun as he anticipated, especially when his cook and bartender quit the first day(not clear why?). Pretty soon, he was ready to sell, even to Black, who brought the 3 sacks of gold Fuzzy had given to Taylor. Black wrote up a Bill of Sale, which was contingent on there being an entrance to a goldmine below the trap door. Fuzzy hadn't had time to read the conditions when they were disturbed by a gun battle in the saloon between several of Black's henchmen and Fuzzy's body guard. When Black stepped out into the saloon, he was shot by one of his henchmen who had guessed he was about to skip town with all the gold. Since the sale was invalidated by the goldmine provision, Fuzzy ended up with the clearly stolen gold and the saloon. He gave the gold to Buster to put back in their safe, and tried to give the saloon to his cook .......Besides Fuzzy, there are 2 other comical characters who show up frequently. Skinny Emmett Lynn is known as Webb, although Fuzzy calls him Webfoot, to his irritation. He initially was Fuzzy's cleanup man, but soon regained his prior occupation as cook, when the cook resigned. There is a stove pipe cook's hat that neither Fuzzy nor Webb can keep on their head correctly, because it's too big, and falls down over their eyes.......Then, there is rotund Charles King(Butch); an unruly customer, and later bodyguard for Fuzzy. He likes the superpowerful mixed drink that Fuzzy concocts, and is paid for his service in drinks. He also keeps getting hit on the head, and instigates the climax shootout that results in Black's death. King usually played villains, but here reverts to his former career in silent comedy shorts......The easily recognizable I. Stanford Jolley, in his usual villain role, plays Black, usually dressed in black.....This was Sydney Logan's only credited film role, she being cast in several uncredited roles. Michael Owen, who played her brother Jimmy Lane, was also mostly used in uncredited roles in a short film career......There's a whole nother side to the plot I haven't touched on, which relates to Black's attempts to secure the Lane's ranch, perhaps including Sydney, by devious means. Buster is much more involved than Fuzzy in this story. See the film to learn the details of this story. It's available at YouTube.

You will not find not a hint of a modern 20th century gangster in this Billy the Kid western, but we see a guy like I. Stanford Jolley operate like a gangster with a bit of a Snidely Whiplash villain thrown in.Jolley has two objectives to acquire that saloon from which he can operate with impunity bilking the locals, but he also wants to acquire Sydney Logan's ranch the object being Sydney, he's slowly acquiring her by extending lots of credit to her brother who is deep in debt. It's the ranch or her or maybe both.Fuzzy St. John gets the saloon temporarily and the best scenes are him trying to run it and be his own best customer. Good thing Buster Crabbe was around to set things right.Gangster's Den, an amusing item from the Billy The Kid series.

Buster Crabbe had the look, build, and voice for a western hero. Al St. John had the look, build, and mannerisms of the perfect sidekick. Gangster's Den had these two men as an advantage from the start, but the movie centers around the sidekick more than the hero. I'm beginning to notice that pattern to the Billy Carson series. In this movie Fuzzy ends up buying a saloon and all the trouble that comes along with it. I. Stanford Jolley plays a lawyer trying to illegally take control of a ranch and Fuzzy's saloon because a mine runs underneath. Half of the movie is over before the hero does anything heroic to catch the evil lawyer and his henchmen. Yes, Billy Carson looks good saving the day, but it's Fuzzy who has the fist fight with the villain in the end. There is no mistake that half of the screen time was given to Al St. John. He was good enough to carry a movie on his own.Gangster's Den shows Charles King in an unusual role. He provides part of the comedy in this movie. Of all the movie bad men, Charles King was probably the best of the bad guys in the B western era. This time he plays an unruly customer in Fuzzy's saloon who gets hired to be Fuzzy's bodyguard.King's character is hilarious as he mistakes getting hit on the head for the strong drinks he keeps ordering, and when he takes the job of bodyguard too seriously.Emmett Lynn is almost a sub-sidekick to Fuzzy. The two of them argue with each other constantly in a way that only old sidekicks can. Kermit Maynard still looks strong and tough in this movie, and he has a better role in the movie than in so many other movies where he hardly spoke at all.

Fuzzy uses sacks of gold dust, saved by himself & Billy, to buy a bar from Taylor, who is trying to avoid selling it to crooked lawyer Black, who wants to bar and property as part of a valuable mining property land grab. While Black and his henchmen try to scare off Fuzzy, Billy has his hands full battling Black and helping Ruth Lane to save her brother Jim from losing money gambling with Black's henchmen and then their ranch to Black. Decent entry in the Billy Carson series, which doesn't feature Crabbe/Billy that much, but focuses Fuzzy's comedy antics and his encounters with Emmett Lynn as the bar's new cook and Charlie King as Fuzzy's bodyguard with a taste for strange booze concoctions. All in all, it's a fun hour to spend watching this. Rating, based on B westerns, 6.