Billy the Kid Returns (1938)

Director:

Joseph Kane

Writer:

Jack Natteford (original screenplay)

Release Date:

4 September 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Music | Western

Tagline:

MARSHAL of LAW...MASTER of MEN...he fights for right and the girl he loves! (original poster)

Plot:

After Pat Garrett kills Billy the Kid, Billy's look-alike Roy Rogers arrives and is mistaken for him...

Plot Keywords:

Song | Billy The Kid | Rancher | Death | Homesteader

Cast

Roy Rogers	...	Roy Rogers / Billy the Kid
Smiley Burnette	...	Frog Millhouse
Lynne Roberts	...	Ellen Moore (as Mary Hart)
Morgan Wallace	...	J. B. Morganson
Fred Kohler	...	Matson (as Fred Kohler Sr.)
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

Runtime:

53 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA High Fidelity Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #4547) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

Republic Pictures

Trivia:

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!"

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Decoys 2: Alien Seduction (2007) (V)

Soundtrack:

Born to the Saddle

Okay Roy Rogers film would have been better had it not looked like every other Republic Western

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Bad guy Billy the kid is cornered and killed by Pat Garret. Not long after singing cowboy Roy Rogers shows up and is mistaken for the dead villain. He has to prove himself as a lawman in order to convince people that he's not the deceased bad guy. Okay Republic Pictures programmer is well made and has a certain flair for the dramatic. The problem is that its is one of a series of films where Rogers essentially plays himself, granted in period, so any sense that anything can happen is lost. Rogers was a stalwart hero and its easy to understand why he became a star with him shining in a variation of a plot he'd done before and run into again. The problem is that like much of the Republic production at the time, the film is too by the numbers. There was a point when Republic became so good at what they did that there films became essentially off the shelf machine with the various parts switched in and out in an off the shelf formulaic manner. The serials and many of the westerns they cranked out all looked the same because they just switched parts that worked around. This doesn't mean its bad, its not its just that the film looks and acts like the rest of the republic western product. Worth a look if you've not seen a great number of republic westerns recently.