The Kid from Texas (1950)

Director:

Kurt Neumann

Writers:

Robert Hardy Andrews (screenplay)
Robert Hardy Andrews (story)
(more)

Release Date:

1 March 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

The true savage story of BILLY THE KID!

Plot:

Billy the Kid becomes embroiled in Lincoln County, NM, land wars. When rancher who gave him a break is killed by rival henchman...

Plot Keywords:

Billy The Kid | Lincoln County War | Beautiful Woman | Character Name In Title

Cast

Audie Murphy	...	William Bonney ('Billy the Kid')
Gale Storm	...	Irene Kain
Albert Dekker	...	Alexander Kain
Shepperd Strudwick	...	Roger Jameson
Will Geer	...	O'Fallon
William Talman	...	Minninger
Martin Garralaga	...	Morales
Robert Barrat	...	Gen. Lew Wallace (as Robert H. Barrat)
Walter Sande	...	Crowe
Frank Wilcox	...	Sheriff Pat Garrett
Dennis Hoey	...	Major Harper
Ray Teal	...	Sheriff Rand
Don Haggerty	...	Morgan
Paul Ford	...	Sheriff Copeland
John Phillips	...	Sid Curtis
Harold Goodwin	...	Matt Curtis
Zon Murray	...	Lucas
Tom Trout	...	Denby
Rosa Turich	...	Maria
Dorita Pallais	...	Lupita
Pilar Del Rey	...	Marguarita
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Parley Baer	...	Off-Screen Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Johnny Carpenter	...	Henchman (uncredited)
Edmund Cobb	...	Hale (uncredited)
Jack Curtis	...	Extra (uncredited)
William Fawcett	...	Cook (uncredited)
Jack Ingram	...	Wagon Driver (uncredited)
Pierce Lyden	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
Dick Wessel	...	Deputy Bart, the Jailer (uncredited)

Directed by
Kurt Neumann

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Robert Hardy Andrews		screenplay
Robert Hardy Andrews		story
Karl Kamb		screenplay

Produced by
Paul Short	....	producer
George C. Bertholon	....	associate producer (uncredited)

Cinematography by
Charles Van Enger		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Frank Gross

Art Direction by
Bernard Herzbrun
Emrich Nicholson

Set Decoration by
Oliver Emert
Russell A. Gausman

Costume Design by
Rosemary Odell		(gowns)

Makeup Department
Joan St. Oegger	....	hair stylist
Bud Westmore	....	makeup artist
Jack Kevan	....	makeup artist (uncredited)
Ann Locker	....	hair stylist (uncredited)

Production Management
Dewey Starkey	....	production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Joseph E. Kenney	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Leslie I. Carey	....	sound
Robert Pritchard	....	sound

Stunts
Jerry Brown	....	stunts (uncredited)
Roy Bucko	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Burrows	....	stunts (uncredited)
Johnny Carpenter	....	stunts (uncredited)
Fred Carson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Warren Fiske	....	stunts (uncredited)
Clem Fuller	....	stunts (uncredited)
Leroy Johnson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bert LeBaron	....	stunts (uncredited)
Glenn McCarthy	....	stunts (uncredited)
Tom McDonough	....	stunts (uncredited)
Chuck Roberson	....	stunts (uncredited)
George Sowards	....	stunts (uncredited)
Dale Van Sickel	....	stunts (uncredited)
Sailor Vincent	....	stunts (uncredited)
Willard W. Willingham	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bud Wolfe	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Fred Buckley	....	grip (uncredited)
Sherman Clark	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Ross Saxon	....	gaffer (uncredited)
Lloyd Ward	....	camera operator (uncredited)

Music Department
Daniele Amfitheatrof	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Miklós Rózsa	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Hans J. Salter	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Paul Sawtell	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Walter Scharf	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Milton Schwarzwald	....	musical director (uncredited)
Frank Skinner	....	composer: title music (uncredited)

Other crew
William Fritzsche	....	technicolor color consultant
Connie Earl	....	script supervisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Universal International Pictures (UI) (presents) (as Universal - International)

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1950) (USA) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures (1951) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Comet Video (????) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Texas Kid, Outlaw (UK)

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (MPAA rating: certificate #14031) | UK:U | West Germany:16 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

New Mexico, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Quotes:

Sheriff Brand: Suppose I told you there were half a dozen warrants out for his arrest right now. One for killing a man out of Silver City, Colorado, eight years ago with a knife. Another for killing four Chiricahua Indians.
Alexander Kain: Eight years ago? Well, that's ridiculous. The boy couldn't have been more than twelve years old!
Sheriff Brand: You don't judge a rattlesnake by his age. He's a rattler whether he's got one rattle or a dozen.

My boyhood crush

Had I been born a couple of decades earlier my boyhood crush might have been Errol Flynn but growing up when I did it was always Audie Murphy, that baby-faced non-actor who just happened to be the most decorated soldier of World War 11. (He turned his experiences into a memoir entitled "To Hell and Back" which was filmed in 1957 with Audie playing himself; as a child I must have seen this film countless times). Of course, being the most decorated soldier of World War 11 in itself is no guarantee of or justification for a career in the movies so what did Audie have that enticed producers to hire him? To my childish mind it was the idea of this innocent, fresh-faced kid whose very demeanor radiated gentleness being able to handle himself in a scrap, of not being afraid to stand up to the bad guys. I doubt if it was this that John Huston saw when he cast him as the young soldier in "The Red Badge of Courage". Perhaps Huston thought Murphy still looked young enough to pass himself off as a bewildered boy.

That he couldn't act was irrelevant and perhaps because of that it was in a series of second-rate westerns he was usually cast. (There were exceptions; he seemed ideally blank and with just the right degree of annoying priggishness for the title role in "The Quiet American"). In "The Kid from Texas" someone had the bright idea of casting Audie as Billy the Kid, not as villain but as a poor-little-put-upon-me misunderstood youngster. It was an early film in his career and was probably even more of a non-performance than the ones which followed it, (just talking seems like an unnatural act to him). As for the film, it's a lame little Z-Western, brightly coloured and full of corn; Saturday matinée fare of the kind that would have given me a buzz half a century ago, simple and strangely innocent and light years away from the tortured psychology of Paul Newman and Arthur Penn's "The Left Handed Gun".