Themes: Lone Wolves, Obsessive Quests, Sheriffs and Outlaws
Main Cast: Robert Taylor, Brian Donlevy, Ian Hunter, Mary Howard, Gene Lockhart
Release Year: 1941
Country: US
Run Time: 94 minutes
Plot
The famous outlaw rides again in this fictionalized western that chronicles Billy's turn from criminal to fine upstanding citizen. The film received an Oscar nomination for its color cinematography. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Review
MGM, in its heyday, never liked westerns much and when the studio made an attempt the results were almost always overproduced. None more so than Billy the Kid, which in addition to a change of leading man certainly could have used a bit of fresh air. Although Frank Borzage had filmed second unit footage at Tucson, AZ, and at Utah's Monument Valley, most of Billy the Kid was lensed indoors on so-called "green sets," a grave mistake but typical of Metro in the 1940s. Johnny Mack Brown had played the notorious albeit whitewashed outlaw back in 1930 and even he had been considered almost "too pretty." Enter Robert Taylor, Metro's glamour boy number one, who looked even less like a gunman and who in any case was too old for the role. The supporting cast is typically fine, especially Brian Donlevy's Pat Garrett-alike Sheriff Sherwood, but not even the addition of Technicolor can do much against the miscasting of Taylor and a rather lumbering screenplay. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Gile Steele - Costume Designer, Dolly Tree - Costume Designer, David Miller - Director, Robert J. Kern - Editor, Albert Mannheimer - Composer (Music Score), David Snell - Composer (Music Score), Ormand Ruthven - Composer (Music Score), Jack Dawn - Makeup, Cedric Gibbons - Production Designer, William Skall - Cinematographer, Leonard Smith - Cinematographer, Irving Asher - Producer, Edwin B. Willis - Set Designer, Bradbury Foote - Screenwriter, Gene Fowler - Screenwriter, Howard Emmet Rogers - Screenwriter, Walter Noble Burns - Book Author
