The Law vs. Billy the Kid

Law vs. Billy the Kid, The (1954)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

William Castle is best known for his horror films but he did mangle in the western genre for the majority of his career. This Columbia "C" picture has Billy the Kid (Scott Brady) and his buddy Pat Garrett (James Griffith) finding work on a farm but when the owner is killed by a bad sheriff, the kid decides to seek revenge, which will have all the law looking for him. I'm still not too familiar with Castle's western era even though I did sit through Jesse James vs. the Daltons. This film here isn't nearly as entertaining and for the most part this comes off very flat with very little life, action or energy. The biggest problem is that the screenplay is all over the map in what it's trying to do. We see Billy as a good kid and then we see him as a jerk. The film starts off with the relationship between Billy and Pat but then goes off into different directions. I'm really not sure what the point of the movie was but perhaps they were just trying to throw as much stuff they could into a 72-minute movie. Brady is pretty poor as Billy the Kid as he brings no life or energy to the role. Griffith isn't much better as Garrett and Alan Hale, Jr. of the Skipper fame doesn't fare any better. I doubt western fans will find anything worth watching this for so it'll probably have to be seen by those wanting to know what Castle did before making a name for himself with Vincent Price.