Billy the Kid Returns (1938)
Billy the Kid Returns (1938)
„Billy the Kid Returns“ is a 1938 western film directed by Joseph Kane, based on the screenplay by Jack Natteford.
Billy the Kid is revered by homesteaders for his help, even though he has become a thief and a murderer. After he escapes from a shootout with lawmen and is recaptured by his former friend, Sheriff Pat Garrett. Garrett is forced to kill him rather than let him escape again.
Following the shooting of Billy the Kid by his former friend Sheriff Pat Garrett, Billy’s look-alike Roy Rogers arrives and is mistaken for him. Rogers helps a wagon train of new „nesters,“ as the homesteaders are called, from attacks by the large ranchers.
Garrett is suspicious of Rogers. U.S. Marshal Dave Conway convinces Garrett that Rogers bears a striking resemblance to Billy can work to their advantage. Although a murderer, Billy was on the side of the homesteaders against the large ranchers. As Billy’s death is unknown, Rogers gets Garrett to let him pose as Billy to continue the fight, but without the killing. So, while remaining loyal to Garrett, Rogers is secretly deputized to pose as Billy, and takes his place to defend the honest settlers of Lincoln County, New Mexico, from evil ranchers, assisted by traveling musical instrument salesman Fran „Frog“ Milhouse.
When rancher and town boss J. B. Morganson and his henchman Matson plan to steal money from honest merchant Danny O’Moore, Roy overhears and takes the money first, making Garrett, Moore and his daughter Ellen Moore think that he has been deceiving them. With his own cunning and the help of his childhood friend, Frog, Roy defeats Morganson and his gang, returns the money, wins the respect of the entire town, and restores the tranquility of Lincoln County after subduing the criminal element. Now convinced of his honesty, Garrett willingly accepts Roy as his deputy, and Moore accepts him as a future son-in-law.
A 1938 American Western film directed by Joseph Kane, produced by Charles E. Ford, written by Jack Natteford, cinematography by Ernest Miller, starring Roy Rogers, Smiley Burnette, Lynne Robert, Morgan Wallace, Fred Kohler, Wade Boteler, Edwin Stanley, Horace Murphy, Joseph Crehan, and Robert Emmett Keane.
Smiley Burnett, was a frequent sidekick for Gene Autry.
This is Roy Rogers’ second starring feature film and one of the earliest where he’s billed using this moniker. He’d appeared in a few films in small roles as Leonard Slye (his real name) as well as in a couple as ’Dick Weston’. This was the first of three times that Rogers played a dual role in his films, before „Jesse James At Bay“ (1941), and „Sunset On The Desert“ (1942). Rogers portrayed other historical men of the West, „Young Bill Hickok“ (1940), „Jesse James at Bay“ (1941), and „Young Buffalo Bill“ (1940).
In his first Western, Rogers rode Trigger but it was just a horse like any other, if rather glamorous. In this one, though, Trigger is already beginning his advance to stardom. He gets a line (Rogers asks him a question and he neighs in reply) and we can see it won’t be long before he will be the smartest horse in the movies. There’s still no sign of Dale or Bullet, though. They’ll come later.
An LA Times print ad dated 9/5/1938 shows that this film had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Orpheum Theater on that date on a double bill with I’ll Give a Million (1938), with a personal appearance by Roy Rogers, „Acclaimed the Screen’s Greatest Find of the Year, Singing the Songs of the West... The Songs You Love Best!“
It was inevitable that once Billy the Kid became a national character, which Walter Noble Burns’s 1920s bestseller The Saga of Billy the Kid and the MGM movie Billy the Kid of 1930 had done, he would enter the realm of the one-hour second feature Western destined for the juvenile market. The idea of Kid heroes was well suited: young boys could identify with such a champion. Equally obviously, the Billy the Kids that appeared had to be sanitized and bowdlerized versions, cleansed of all murderous intent. The real Billy didn’t smoke or drink, so that was good for Hollywood morality of the time, but on screen he also had to be a good man, rightin’ wrongs and such.
The musical numbers are strategically placed as tension-breakers for the hair-raising moments.
Soundtrack music:
„Born to the Saddle“ –Written by Eddie Cherkose, performed by Roy Rogers
„Trail Blazin’“ –Written by Eddie Cherkose, performed by Roy Rogers
„Save a Smile for a Rainy Day“ –Written by Sid Robin and Foy Willing, performed by Roy Rogers
„Sing a Little Song About Anything“ –Written by Smiley Burnette, performed by Smiley Burnette
„When I Camped Under the Stars“ –Written by Tim Spencer, performed by Roy Rogers
„When the Sun is Setting on the Prairie“ –Written by Eddie Cherkose and Alberto Colombo, performed by Roy Rogers
While not a history lesson on the real Billy the Kid, there’s plenty of music, comedy and action. Fans of Rogers will find this...
Cast:
- Roy Rogers – Roy Rogers / Billy the Kid
- Smiley Burnette – Frog Millhouse
- Lynne Roberts – Ellen Moore
- Morgan Wallace – J. B. Morganson
- Fred Kohler – Matson
- Wade Boteler – Sheriff Pat Garrett
- Edwin Stanley – Nathaniel Moore
- Horace Murphy – Mr. Miller, Homesteader
- Joseph Crehan – U.S. Marshal Dave Conway
- Robert Emmett Keane – Mr. Page
„Billy the Kid lebt“ ist ein Western aus dem Jahr 1938 unter der Regie von Joseph Kane, basierend auf dem Drehbuch von Jack Natteford.
Billy the Kid wird von den Homesteadern für seine Hilfe verehrt, obwohl er zum Dieb und Mörder geworden ist. Nachdem er aus einer Schießerei mit Gesetzeshütern entkommen ist, wird er von seinem ehemaligen Freund, Sheriff Pat Garrett, wieder eingefangen. Garrett ist gezwungen, ihn zu töten, um ihn nicht noch einmal entkommen zu lassen.
