Bob Burns | Through the Shattered Lens

Clem Peterson (Richard Cramer) has a plot to force all of the ranchers in the valley to give up their land. He gives a phony land claim to Carson (John Merton), who presents himself as being a Mexican nobleman. In a situation like this, you need a singing cowboy and luckily, there’s one nearby. Fred (Fred Scott) and Fuzzy (Al St. John) get involved after their cattle are stolen by Clem and his men. Fred not only fights to save the ranchers but he also sings a song or two.

Singing cowboy films are always strange. Cowboys who ride horses and pull guns and get into fistfights should not also be tenors. Fred Scott looks convincing on a horse and he has one heck of a fistfight towards the end of the movie but he’ll also start singing at the drop of a hat and it just doesn’t feel right. John Wayne did a few singing cowboy films early in his career and he could usually pull it off. Fred Scott wasn’t much of an actor and had a forgettable screen presence. He had a good voice, though.

This film was produced by Stan Laurel, of Laurel and Hardy fame. Always read those credits. You never know who you might find.

Billy the Kid (Bob Steele) escapes from a Mexican prison (where he was being held on a trumped-up charge) and ends up in Corral City, Texas with his old friend, Fuzzy Jones (Al St. John). This version of Billy the Kid may be an outlaw but he’s a really nice outlaw. He holds up two men who had previously held up a express wagon but he turns over the loot after he and Fuzzy are appointed the new law in Corral City. The bad outlaws don’t want Billy the Kid or anyone else as their new sheriff so they bring in a notorious gunslinger (Carleton Young) to help them keep the town under their control but it turns out that Billy and the gunslinger have a past that no one knew about.

Bob Steele played Billy the Kid in a series of films, until Buster Crabbe took over the role in 1942. Steele was a convincing cowboy and a convincing gunman but he wasn’t a convincing kid. Of course, this version of Billy the Kid didn’t have much in common with the real Billy the Kid. The movie version of Billy the Kid got into a lot of trouble but it was usually due to a misunderstanding.

Billy the Kid In Texas is definitely a Poverty Row western. It looks cheap and it was cheap but it did feature a good fight scene between Bob Steele and Charles King and the relationship between Billy the Kid and Carleton Young’s gunslinger also added some extra dimension to the otherwise predictable story. This film is okay for western fans who aren’t sticklers for historical accuracy.