Billy The Kid

Billy the Kid (1941) is an early example of the use of Technicolor. The film is visually outstanding. Cinematographers William V. Skall and Leonard Smith received an Oscar nomination for their work on the film and should have won. From close-ups to panoramic views of Monument Valley, Kanab, Utah and other locations they used color, composition and especially light masterfully. Some scenes evoke the stillness of a Vermeer and others the chiaroscuro of Rembrandt. Near the end of the movie Billy is standing near the window of a tumbledown shack. The viewer is outside and can see his body fading into the shadows except for the upper part of his face, especially the intense blue eyes. There is a Caravaggio-like spotlight on the hand and gun the outlaw is pointing out the window.Historically, there is little resemblance between the film and the actual life of Billy the Kid. The general details of his background is correct but the names have all been changed, perhaps to head off the complaints of purists. There is no Pat Garrett, but rather a Jim Sherman (Brian Donlevy), no William Tunstall but an Eric Keating (Ian Hunter). The filmmakers obviously wanted to tell a good story without regard to historical accuracy.Robert Taylor was 30 when Billy the Kid was filmed. He's too old for the part but not by as much as some have made out. To seem younger, Taylor plays Billy as uncouth, uneducated and probably illiterate. The outlaw is incapable of understanding the consequences of his actions. He's always being bombarded by new ideas and new customs. There is a lighthearted scene where Billy is handed a teacup and saucer, objects obviously new to him. He picks the cup up as though it were a glass until he sees what Keating is doing. Billy holds the cup awkwardly by the handle until Keating turns away then he gulps the tea with his original hold.This was Robert Taylor in his element. He was a superb rider and did all of his own riding in this film, even in the long shots. Taylor also had the western swagger down pat and seems very comfortable in his cowboy costumes. In private life, he often wore jeans, boots and a Stetson. In the first and last parts of the film, Billy dresses all in black. In the middle he wears a blue shirt to indicate his changed lifestyle. Robert Taylor practiced left-handed drawing and shooting for weeks before the film and used the skill again in the film Ride Vaquero in 1953.Taylor and Donlevy are comfortable with one another, having worked together before in This Is My Affair in 1937. The easiness of their relationship makes Billy's (temporary) transformation into an honest cowboy believable. Mary Howard has a small role as Eric Keating's sister and makes the most of it. Ian Hunter is believable as rancher Keating. The villains, especially Hickey (Gene Lockhart) are suitably nasty. Henry O'Neill, a leading character actor, throws himself with gusto into the role of a newspaper publisher whose press is constantly being sabotaged.So whether you like a good story, a series of beautiful visuals or just like to look at Robert Taylor, this film is for you.

This King Vidor film of Walter Noble Burns' 1926 heavily fictionalized biography, "The Saga of Billy the Kid" is now worth seeing almost solely for its historical interest. Along with "The Big Trail" released the same year, 1930, "Billy the Kid" was filmed in an early wide screen (70mm) process that emphasized the immensity of the western landscape. No wide prints are currently known to exist. Many of the movie's outdoor scenes - vistas, town street scenes, gunfights, and jailbreaks - were filmed on location in southeastern New Mexico's Rio Bonito valley and the town of Lincoln, New Mexico, the very areas where Billy the Kid rode and fought some fifty years before. Lincoln appears on film almost unchanged from late 1870's photographs. Finally, "Billy the Kid" begins with a written endorsement by the 8th govenor of New Mexico, Richard C. Dillon, extoling the film's emphasis on Billy the Kid's pursuit of justice and individual liberty in frontier New Mexico. The film's narrative is a mishmash of historical nonsense, vaudeville routines, false associations, racial stereotypes,and romanticized foolishness. This hodge-podge is the direct result of following Burns' idealization of anything associated with Billy the Kid and Vidor's use of three additional script "doctors" to flesh out and coordinated the script's dialogue. The acting in the film is uniformly mediocre. Perhaps, the best contemporay critic of "Billy the Kid" was the 85-year-old Lincoln County War survivor, Sue McSween Barber, who attended the film's premiere in a New Mexico small-town theater; she reportedly "really hated the movie". During the film's climactic scene of the burning of her Lincoln home, she shook her fist at the screen, shouted "all lies" and stormed out of the theater; this was by no means an easy task for an elderly women using a walker.

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This is the finest in the long line of Billy the Kid movies and it was the first one in sound. Filmed in 70 mm in Lincoln County, NM, where the events actually took place, adds to the entertainment value. Johnny Mack Brown as The Kid and Wallace Berry as Pat Garrett was brilliant casting. I would have given it 5 stars, however resisted as the ending was changed after it was showed to the public in order to seek feedback. The audience, especially the feminine set, were upset with the demise of the Kid as they had been charmed by him with his boyish mannerism, good looks and Southern drawl. That said, it is definitely worth adding to your collection of Western classics.

This is the original sound version made by MGM in 1930. It was remade by MGM in 1940 in color.Starring John(Johnny) Mack Brown & Wallace Beery the film utilised 70mm film frames in part(Grandeur). It was shown as such in its first release in some theatres who could show a larger frame format. Such footage is not in this quality DVD-R from Warner Archive. The dialogue is always understandable. The script is an entertaining telling of the Billy The Kid legend.A number of films had 70mm sequences like others had 2-strip Technicolor scenes in the 1929-31 period then widescreen was over until TV forced the majors to look at widescreen amongst other ideas to get people back into the theatres from TV viewing in the early 1950s.

I love Robert Taylor but did not care for this film. This role was not for him. The 3 star rating was for the movie, not for the seller. I would purchase again from this seller

Great Movie with one of the best actors Robert taylor. The DVD arrived quickly very pleased.

I DON T KNOW WHO HAS WRITTEN THE SCENARIO OF THIS MOVIE,CAUSE IT MAKES NO SENSE TO ME, JUST TOO BAD