The Return of Wild Bill

As western entertainment for the Saturday matinée kiddie crowd you can't beat The Return Of Wild Bill. So identified with the nickname of Wild Bill, be it Hickok or Saunders as it is in this film, Gordon Elliott would be billed in films and for the rest of his life as Wild Bill Elliott. The movie is a fast paced hard riding, fast shooting film without too much plot to tax the brain cells.

Elliott gets word that his father is being bothered by a gang of vigilantes who are using the lack of law and order which they've created to grab a lot of ranches. They've started feuds with peaceable neighbors and they make their biggest mistake going after the father of a man who prides himself on being peaceable.

Two women vie for Wild Bill here, Iris Meredith who is the daughter of a man they've lynched and Luana Walter who is the sister of the murderous Kilgore brothers, a pair of bottom feeding villains if I ever saw two. These guys have as many redeeming qualities as Liberty Valance and I'm sure Lee Marvin would have treated his sister as badly as they do their's.

The Return Of Wild Bill is not a bad introduction to Wild Bill Elliott.

When Matt Kilgore and his men frame and then hang an innocent man, Lige Saunders sends for his son Wild Bill who arrives to find his father shot by Matt's brother. When the brother is killed in his fight with Bill, Matt sends two fake Deputies to arrest Bill whom he then plans to hang. But Matt's sister, attracted to Bill, overhears the plan and rides for help.

The Return of Wild Bill is a western by Columbia Pictures starring Wild Bill Elliott and Dub Taylor, and though it's rather standard stuff it has some good moments such as the long chase between Wild Bill and the thug who shot his father. It's an intense scene. There's some neat plot threads, and some lively gunplay. Luana Walters is very good as the sister torn between her bad kin and the good guys. A little pathos is added.