Young Billy Young

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.

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

"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.

"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.

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.