User reviews

I've noticed that a lot of American westerns from the '60s play out like they were made for TV, with the static direction and production values - this is one of them. It's far from the worst western ever made - for one thing, it has Robert Mitchum, and he manages to brighten up each scene he's in. But he can only do so much - the movie is pretty padded, sometimes blatantly so when it shows people riding the desert for minutes on end. It's perhaps no wonder that the spaghetti western caught the American public's fancy around this time - though many of the stories were as standard as this one, they at least were more lively done.

"Young" Billy Young(Walker) is on the run after having killed a ruthless Mexican general. He runs into sheriff Mitchum, who "makes him an offer he can't refuse", i.e. to become his deputy. The young man is reluctant at first, but with bad guy Fred Boone on his way to town, he realizes that his help will be more than welcome.

However, if you think that the story centres on any of these events, you are wrong. It's a bit of everything and always too little of it, if you know what I mean. For example,you hear the characters talk every now and then about the bad guy Fred Boone. However, you won't get to see him until the final gunfight, which is over before you know it. Perhaps, the film is most interesting for fans of Robert Mitchum. He has a great part as the aging sheriff and obviously has a lot of fun playing it too. In fact, he must be one of the most enjoyable characters I have ever seen in an old western.(better than most John Wayne parts)

The acting is actually overall quite good. Angie Dickinson too has a nice part as a local "dancer". The story isn't too bad either, except then for the fact that it seems awfully shortened. The film as a whole lasts only a mere 89 minutes and that's just too short for the potential it has in it. So: not bad, but not better than 6/10.

The title role of this western is played by Robert Walker, Jr. He's a young gun who with partner David Carradine gets separated after doing a contract hit on a Mexican general. In eluding their pursuers Carradine and Walker become separated. Walker comes upon the camp of lawman Robert Mitchum who takes a liking to Walker and makes him a protégé and reclamation project of sorts.

This is the first of two films Robert Mitchum did with writer/director Burt Kennedy. The second was the more humorous The Good Guys and the Bad Guys.

Not that Young Billy Young does not have its moments of hilarity. But it is a tripartite story involving the Walker reclamation, Mitchum's hunt for the bad who killed his son and a romantic triangle involving Mitchum, Angie Dickinson, and town boss Jack Kelly.

The film abounds with nepotism. David Carradine is John's son. Dean Martin's daughter Deana is in this, Walker is the son of Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones and Mitchum's son Chris plays Mitchum's son in some silent flashbacks.

Robert Mitchum got his start in westerns and always looks right at home in them. Angie Dickinson essentially repeats the role she had in Rio Bravo. Walker had a brief career playing rebellious youths and doing a good job at it. I've often wondered what happened to him. He looks hauntingly like his father. Maybe he didn't want to come to such a tragic early end like his father.

And it that wasn't enough, Mitchum fans get to hear old rumple eyes sing the title song at the beginning of the film.

Fans of the movie TOMBSTONE and other Wyatt Earp movies may be interested to know that this movie was very loosely based on Will Henry's WHO RIDES WITH Wyatt, a heavily fictionalized novel about Wyatt Earp's war with the Cowboy gang and his feud with Cowboy-sympathizing sheriff John Behan. In the novel, the "Billy Young" character is actually Johnny Ringo, who--in a completely fictional subplot--is at first protected, befriended and mentored by Wyatt (as Billy is by Kane in this movie), until Ringo gets more and more deeply involved with Curly Bill and the Clantons and Wyatt has to come after him. The novel is grim and dark, with an admirable but not very likable Wyatt. The movie is entertaining fluff, with a storyline that has less and less to do with the novel and the real Wyatt Earp as it goes along. Surprisingly, a good bit of the dialogue of the novel is retained, at least in the early scenes with Kane, and the script even retains the Earp-Behan-Lily triangle. The Behan character is even called "John Behan," and gets a surprising comeuppance from a surprising source. David Carradine is his usual watchable self as a more likable version of Ike Clanton.

Robert Mitchum plays a sheriff in a town dominated by evil bosses and their gangs. When MItchum arrests the son of the boss-man for murder, the gang is determined the sheriff won't live to punish the punk. As for his deputy (Robert Walker Jr.--who, inexplicably, gets the film named after his character), he's rather ambivalent--unsure whether to help or just get out of the way. Can they stand up against the combined forces of evil and survive (what do you think?!)? "Young Billy Young" is an enjoyable western. However, the plot is incredibly familiar--too familiar. Robert Mitchum himself (who stars in "Young Billy Young") appeared in "El Dorado" (a remake of "Rio Bravo")--which is pretty similar to such films as "High Noon" and "Last Train From Gun Hill". All these films (and many more) are like "YBY" because they, too, are stories about honest sheriffs who refuse to knuckle under to gangs who run old western towns. Because of this familiarity, the film just cannot rise above mediocrity even if it did star Mitchum.

In addition to Mitchum, the film stars two sons of famous actors--Robert Walker Jr. and David Carridine. They are competent but no more in the film. Its strengths are its acting by Mitchum as well as the nice relationship he has with Angie Dickenson (who was ALSO in Rio Bravo!). Negatives are Mitchum singing the opening song (uggh!) and the ridiculously easy way the two young guns kill off the Mexican general near the beginning of the film. The ending is also a bit abrupt.

"It's you and me Billy against the whole town!" Young Billy Young (Robert Walker Jr.) learns the hard way that he shouldn't mess with the stubborn but smarter Deputy Ben Kane (Robert Mitchum) and if you can't beat 'em, you may as well join 'em. It takes almost the entire film to realize that Deputy Kane has his personal reason(s) for trying to bring law and order to the local town. But Deputy Kane is up against the richest cattle rancher in a man named Boone (John Anderson) in the the territory who has hired the most hired hands and the best guns money can buy.

To keep this western interesting so that their male audience did not lose their attention the producers included a sexy saloon girl named Lily Beloit (Angie Dickinson) as the love interest of Deputy Kane. There is a memorable scene in the film in the latter half when Lily Beloit decides to take a bubble bath in her cabin and all Deputy Kane (the gentleman) can do to contain himself is to go out and get firewood and stoke the fire. Now this scene alone with Angie Dickinson in the bubble bath is worth watching this 1969 film for any teenage boy which is what I was when this film was first released.

The film moves along at a good clip with lots of gunfighting, and a good versus evil plot. I give the film a decent 6 out of 10 IMDB rating.

Billy Young and Jesse Boone (David Carradine) sneak onto a troop train and kill a Mexican General and his men. Billy loses his horse and is left behind with Mexican troops hot on Jesse's tail. Ben Kane (Robert Mitchum) is on his way to be a deputy sheriff and meets Billy. Ben is only allowed to be a tax collector. While in town, Billy gets into a fight over cards, kills the sheriff and gets run out of town. Billy runs into Ben Kane again. In town, Kane confronts John Behan and dancehall girl Lily Beloit (Angie Dickinson) offers her help alluding to an old incident. Jesse's father Frank Boone killed Ben's son.

This movie needs a darker harder edge. The material is geared more towards that end but the movie seems intent on making this a fun western. The light tones and music are ill-fitting. Also it's too precious with Ben's past. It should have explained the backstory much earlier which would have given the characters more compelling interactions. It would raise the stakes. By leaving the reveal so late, the characters don't have the connections. Ben and Billy should have stayed together but they keep bumping into each other haphazardly. They really need the time together to develop the needed chemistry.

The film is based on Will Henry novel titled ¨Who rides with Wyatt Earp¨ , it is starred by Deputy Ben Kane (Robert Mitchum) , before working as a policeman in Wichita (Kansas) and as town marshal assistant of Dodge City (Kansas) , he served other towns like well being narrated in this film . Earp was a man of cool courage and gunfighting skill , he was hired as a shotgun by the authorities and became the town marshal . Here is developed his friendship with a young gunman called Billy (Robert Walker Jr.) who results to be actually Johnny Ringo , a subsequent enemy and along with Clanton-McLaury faction resulted on 26 October 1881 the explosive showdown known as ¨the Gunfight at the OK Corral¨ .

This exciting picture contains sensational main actor casting and a character-full supporting cast . Robert Mitchum as brave sheriff , although affected for previous death , is astounding , his character has a backbone of bitterness somewhere deep inside . Robert Mitchum said he intended to retire from acting when this movie finished filming in late 1968 , but in the following year he agreed to star in Ryan's daughter (1970). Despite being top billed Robert Mitchum does not turn up until 19 minutes into the film . Robert Walker as impetuous gunman is cool , he makes a similar role to Ricky Nelson in ¨Rio Bravo¨ . Angie Dickinson repeats her usual character as Saloon call-girl . Paul Fix as stagecoach driver makes a role likeness to Walter Brennan . The film was well directed by Burt Kennedy . An eighty per cent of this American director's movies have been Western , bad , good and indifferent in equal proportions . He made delightful and tremendously agreeable Westerns (Support you local Sheriff , Support your local gunfighter) but also realized objectionable ,duds , muddled and disastrous Westerns , though his greatest success was as screenwriter of the splendid series Boetticher-Scott in the late 50s (Tall T , Ride lonesome , Comanche station) . This motion picture will appeal to Robert Mitchum and Angie Dickinson fans.

From time to time I know right from the start of a movie this will not be a joyride. The title song is sung by no one else then Mr. Robert Mitchum himself .IMO he was a not a good singer but a very fine actor. Unfortunately this is not the only bad music score choice in this movie. The movie has the title Young Billy Young but it's more about a marshal and his revenge. There are some fine flashback scenes and they got repeated again and again. After some time we learn what is all about and then it got us told several times. The plot is underdeveloped as the characters are. Of course Angie Dickenson is beautiful and it's nice to see her in a bathtub. But it shouldn't be the only good reason to watch it. Next to her and Bob Mitchum we see Robert Walker as Billy Young, David Carradine, Jack Kelly and John Anderson. It could have been a more entertaining movie but Director Burt Kennedy made an uneven Paycheque Film. 3/10

I have enjoyed all of Robert's westerns and this must be in the top 4. He didn't have John Wayne or Dean Martin but did great on his own. Lower ratings seem to be because of the lack of western fans. The plot may not have been perfect but better than most. Plenty of shots fired anyhow.

I'm quite surprised none of the reviews mentioned that this film is a full remake of another Mitchum film from 1955 "Man With The Gun".. Same exact story with very minor changes and same problem : not much action while waiting for the final showdown which by the way was much better handled in "Man With The Gun".

But any movie with Robert Mitchum or Angie Dickinson is worth seeing.

And here you have them both.

A good entertainment but nothing more : in this western we are between the classics and the spaghetti ones. This provides us a good a conventional story but it's always a pleasure to see Robert Mitchum with his legendary flegma although he isn't as fit as in the forties or the fifties. And don't forget David Carradine is the son of John Carradine

I saw this movie many, many moons ago and I thought at the time, That has to be the dumbest movie since "Pony Express" with Charlton Heston. No doubt Mitchum thought about quitting the movies after he made this one. It would not surprise me to learn he thought about slitting his wrists. I watched it again to see if I remembered it right. Reminds me of the Hush-Puppy shoe commercials. The Japanese could have made it cheaper but they could not have made it dumber. Has all the stupid clichés. Outlaws chasing a stagecoach. No one did that. Not even the Indians. Saguaro cacti in a place they never grow. Fast draw duel. Man lights a candle and a 40 watt light bulb illuminates the room. One tap on the head and a man is unconscious with no ill effects. Don't know how many more times I will be afforded the opportunity to not watch this movie but I look forward to every one.

I'm not a fan of robert walker jr, jack kelly or david caradine, so i was looking for mitchum to provide some excitement, unfortunately, the only excitement was seeing angie dickinson naked in a bath tub and that made this film a memorable watch...

Since lots of comedic westerns were made in the late 1960s with mature actors, I thought Young Billy Young was going to be funny. There are some jokes sprinkled in, but most of it is a regular "new sheriff has to maintain law and order" movie. Robert Mitchum is the hired lawman, and as usual, meets adversity by some of the townsfolk who don't want an abundance of shooting. As usual, there's a beautiful prostitute that catches his eye, and as usual, the young sidekick has attitude before he learns more about his older mentor.

Robert Walker, Jr. and Angie Dickinson join the cast as the young sidekick and the beautiful prostitute, respectively. If you like the three leads, you can rent this one, but it probably won't become your favorite western flick. There is, though, a hilarious preoccupation with Angie Dickinson's lack of clothing. In one scene, Robert Mitchum threatens that if she doesn't take off her clothes, he'll do it for her. In another, he suggests they run off together, while she only has her skimpy costume on; they can buy new clothes in whatever town they end up in. "Do you think I'll have much use for them?" she asks. Well, all I can say is given his answer, she's one lucky lady!

Director Burt Kennedy brings memories: I was still living in then Lourenço Marques, now Maputo, Mozambique, when I watched SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF, which he directed - and which I have enjoyed immensely every time I have watched it.

I saw YOUNG BILLY YOUNG in a reprise in South Africa, a few years later, and beginning with the shot of the locomotive chimney I found the film run of the mill in spite of sound acting from Robert Mitchum (except his opening song) and the statuesque Angie Dickinson.

Good support cast, too, with Robert Walker Jr and David Carradine as two trigger-happy youngsters but not completely devoid of moral values. John Anderson plays Boone, the man who killed Mitchum's son, but the part is so tiny that I could hardly see him as villainous.

Unremarkable cinematography from Harry Stradling Jr, particularly underachieved when Mitchum has flashbacks on his son's demise.

Uneven script, despite some effective dialogue. 6/10.

Minor late 60's western with an ageing Robert Mitchum in the lead and an underused Angie Dickinson in the undeveloped female role; indeed all the roles are undeveloped or completely derivative of many other works both in their written characters and in the interpretation offered by their actor and the director.

The first 15 minutes are however well worth watching: a sparse suspense is built to a well executed payoff; the remaining runtime has only minor value, mainly keeping an eye on Mitchum and Dickinson dealing with lesser parts than their talents deserve.

I rate a 3/10 for the film as a whole and I recommend to fans of Mitchum and die hard western buffs; most film fans will, I suspect, find limited engagement with 'Young Billy Young' beyond the first quarter hour.

"Young Billy Young" 1969 G 1h 29m. What a great movie. Admittedly, it's pretty cookie-cutter. The plot is like 10,000 other westerns. But, it's still swashbuckling fun. It's all about the characters. Really reminds me of Rio Bravo, and El Dorado. Angie Dickinson was in Rio Bravo. And Robert Mitchum was in El Dorado. Kind of the same settings and plots. Both of those movies, and this one were directed by Howard Hawks. // And guess what? Noflicks does not carry, Young Billy Young! LMAO // The Bushwacker 12/24/2021.

Released in 1969, "Young Billy Young" tells the story of Lordsburg, Arizona, where a new lawman comes to town (Robert Mitchum). He takes to a foolish young gun (Robert Walker Jr.) because he reminds him of his murdered son and also to a saloon girl (Angie Dickenson) who's happens to be the woman of the bad man who runs the town (Jack Kelly). John Anderson plays the criminal whom the lawman came to bring to justice. Deana Martin (Dean's daughter) is on hand as the kid's possible romantic interest while David Carradine plays a ne'er-do-well.

The story is based on Will Henry's "Who Rides with Wyatt," a fictionalized novel that focuses on Wyatt Earp's relationship with young Billy Clanton, but the names were changed for the movie. Wyatt becomes Marshal Kane (Mitchum), Billy Clanton becomes Billy Young (Walker Jr.) and the town villain is named after the corrupt sheriff of Tombstone, John Behan. The plot is similar to 1959's "Rio Bravo" and 1966' "El Dorado" while the tone is akin to the more contemporary "El Dorado" and 1968's "Bandolero!" Speaking of the latter, the quirky nature of the score by Shelly Manne is reminiscent of the score to "Bandolero!," albeit not quite as good, yet still very notable (of course, some hate it). Robert Mitchum sings the title song.

If you favor any of those three films you'll likely appreciate "Young Billy Young," although it's the least of 'em. While the cast is great, with Mitchum towering as the fearless and confident protagonist, and there are numerous impressive Western visuals – e.g. the awe-inspiring locomotive/train, the magnificent stagecoach and the ensuing stagecoach hold-up attempt – there are too many glaring unlikelihoods. For instance, why don't the bandits chasing the stagecoach simply shoot one of the eight horses linked to it? That'd bring it down real quick. Nevertheless, there's enough good here for an enjoyable Western experience, even though you might say "Yeah, right" now and then. The chemistry between Mitchum and Dickinson is palpable and there's a moving line the latter says to the former that steals the show.

The film is short-n-sweet at 89 minutes and was shot in Old Tucson, Arizona.

GRADE: B-

The most memorable image from this film is of Angie Dickinson flaunting herself in tights like she wore in 'Rio Bravo'. But although billed second she remains (like most of the women in the film) ensconced back at the saloon while most of the action outdoors involves the two Roberts, Mitchum and Walker.

As in 'Thunder Road' ten years earlier, which also boasted a title song sung by Mitchum (in which his son Jim had played his brother), the film is really about the bond between Ol' Man Mitchum and the younger Robert Walker as they tangle with the sneering son of yet another Hollywood veteran, David Carradine.