When I was at the WalMart they had this big display of $5 movies. The dvd cases were arranged on shelves. So it was easy to see the titles. Some WalMart's often have these cheap movies in a huge trough and you have to root around like a pig looking for truffles. And they aren't the good chocolately kind. Some stores treat their customers better I guess. I poked about and picked up the fatest dvd on the shelves. 20 Billy the Kid movies for $5. They were from the early 1940's. Billy the Kid was played by Buster Crabbe and Bob Steele in this series of films. This often happened and for many reasons. I like Crabbe from the Flash Gordon serials and I was interested in Bob Steele.
Buster Crabbe made 3 dozen Billy The Kid films from 1941 to 1946. They put 17 of them on this set. It's a good sampling from the beginning to the end of his run. Some of you might have seen the old serials for Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. If you haven't, you should see them, they are fun to watch. Buster Crabbe played Flash in three serials and Buck just the single time. Those are pretty much the only movies I have with Crabbe in them. He isn't in much that I really want to see, or see again. That's Al Fuzzy St John on the right. He's Billy's sidekick and comic relief machine. He does a lot of physical comedy and mugging at the camera. He's pretty good to have around but slightly annoying at times. Al plays the same character though all the series as far as I can tell. The stories are pretty much formula westerns. Some bad guys trying to take over a town or a ranch. Billy and Fuzzy ride in, clean up the bad guys, and ride out, often narrowly escaping such civilized horrors as getting married or having to go to work at a regular job.
Bob Steele played Billy from 1940 to 1941. Steele had a long and interesting 53 year career. His list of movies starts in 1920 and there are 232 more titles listed on the IMDb. One of my favorites is his portrail of Lash Canino in The Big Sleep. He's such an amazing cold evil man. I think the scene where he scares some info out of Elisha Cook Jr's Harry Jones, then makes him drink poison, is one of the most chilling scenes I have ever seen. That's what's really scary. The powerless man up against cold murderous evil. I can't wait to see Lash get gunned down by Marlowe. It was a good fight. Steele did a lot of westerns, including F Troop where he played Trooper Duffy. He was also in National Velvet, The Longest Day and The Atomic Submarine. The quality of these Billy The Kid movies is not up to that standard but they are watchable enough. The video isn't too great but what I would expect from a cheap dvd release. I doubt anyone is spending much money trying to restore these movies or trying to find the best prints to work from. Certainly well worth the $5 I paid, especially since it's going on Amazon for $15. Either way it's 18 hours and 26 minutes. Not too bad.
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