Outlaws: The Legend of O.B. Taggart

"Outlaws: The Legend of O. B. Taggart" is a strange film. On one hand, it has quite a few recognizable faces in the story (Mickey Rooney, Randy Travis, Larry Gatlin, Ned Beatty, Ben Johnson, Ernest Borgnine, Gloria DeHaven and Billy Barty). But on the other, despite these names, the film seems to have been made for about $1500!

When the story begins, O. B. Taggart (Mickey Rooney) is released from prison. His three sons meet him. One is brain damaged and is favored by O. B.. The other two are evil (Randy Travis and Larry Gatlin). As they travel about, bad things and misunderstandings occur...and all sorts of murdery things take place.

The notion of itsy bitsy Mickey Rooney playing a scary ex-con is silly. I am not sure why they didn't have Ben Johnson or Ned Beatty (both also in the film) play the part....it would have made sense. But this is the least of the problems, as the writing and some of the acting were pretty bad. In particular, the scene where the brain damaged son supposedly scared the young ladies...neither case made any sense due to bad acting as well as bad direction. As for the disabled son, he also was played in a way sure to offend some as the act was really broad.

The bottom line is that although the film makers got some famous names for the story, the movie doesn't have a lot more. The writing, dialog and opening song were pretty bad. It looks more like a movie made directly to video for a pittance than anything else.

By the way, one of the few interesting things about the film is a brief reunion between Rooney and Billy Barty...who both played brothers in the old Mickey McGuire shorts from the late silent/early sound era.