Rustlers' Hideout

By this time Billy The Kid was no longer William Bonney, but a kinder and gentler Billy played by Buster Crabbe with the lovable Fuzzy St. John as his usual sidekick. It was not having to deal with the notorious reputation of the real Billy The Kid that probably allowed greater creativity for the folks and PRC pictures.

In this episode the villains are working all fronts, banking, gambling, and rustling all trying to get a hold of a ranch and a packing plant. One way is rustle the cattle, another way is the bad guys to cheat at poker and buy up IOUs. Finally to just call a note due. But Crabbe and St. John are on to all the tricks of villainy.

Nothing special, but nice afternoon entertainment for the front row matinée kids.

Working as cowboys, Billy Carson and Fuzzy Jones take on a crooked gaming house/ bank and it's owner who schemes to rustle a herd of cattle belonging to an indebted rancher in order to seize his spread and who has also framed Billy for the murder of a cheating gambler.

Another above average entry in Producers Releasing Corporation's Billy Carson series, this has a tougher than usual script with good dialog and some really good scenes, particularly the one where Carson busts up a crooked card game and takes the house for all it has.

Pay attention to the title cards where Billy Carson is incorrectly printed as Billy Gibson, a mistake that the famously cheap P.R.C. deemed to costly to correct!

In this one, Buster Crabbe rides to the rescue of the victims of some greedy rustlers who are plaguing the locals. In true cowboy hero fashion, he proceeds to clean up the range in no time at all. Lovable sidekick Fuzzy is up to his usual share of hilarious hi-jinks.

Crabbe is best remembered today as Flash Gordon, but in this western series he does a pretty good job ---- This one particular is fun and a good example of how entertaining some of the programmers can be. When compared to the later series with Lash LaRue, theses films are slightly better overall.

This film is a little routine, but when viewed in context it is well worth a look.

I know that the Alamo didn't go so well for Davy Crockett, but I didn't realise he'd gone into the cattle business afterwards!? Luckily, though, he's got the reliable "Billy" (Buster Crabbe) doing his herding for him as that spares them getting rustled by a ruthless gang who hope to starve their landowners into surrendering their ranches. When that effort fails, they resort to even more toxic tactics that leads "Billy" into especially dangerous territory as it's not just the cows he has to keep safe, but the fiery "Barbara" (Patti McCarty) too. This is one of the livelier and better outings for Crabbe and "Falcon" with less distractions to what is a more solid boys-own style of adventure movie. There are plenty of shoot 'em ups, loads of duplicity and a baddie that we've quickly identified for us to boo and hiss at. What is it about men with tiny Derringers? Are they euphemistic? Much better and worth an hour.