“BILLY THE KID”

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3153, 5 August 1942, Page 5

“BILLY THE KID”

ROBERT TAYLOR AT BEST PROGRAMME AT REGENT TECHNICOLOUR PRODUCTION All the action of the best-loved picture of them all—the Westernplus the beauties of the finest Technicolour production to reach the screen and an outstanding portrayal by Robert Taylor, make “Billy the Kid” one of the most remarkable bite of film entertainment viewed this year. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture will show at the Regent Theatre to-night, Thursday and Friday.

Taylor’s horsemanship and easy manner in the outdoors give credence to the stories of his riding exploits since boyhood days in Nebraska. He is playing the kind of role that he has been begging to do for years, and he shows it. Brian Donlevy, too, performs brilliantly in his role as Taylor’s friend, who ultimately is forced to a showdown with him. It’s easily his best work since “The Great McGinty.”

Taylor, in the title role, enters the story with a record as a killer, and his first thrilling act is to free a guitarist and singer from gaol. He considers the fellow good luck and from that point on takes him everywhere with him.

In making the gaol-break, however, he has out-manoeuvred the sheriff, a tool of Dan Hickey, boss of one of the range gang’s. Hickey immediately persuades Billy to join his outfit. After his first “jo>b,” starting a stampede of an English rancher’s stock, Billy quits Hickey and swings over to the Englishman.

Donlevy, as foreman for the latter, and Mary Howard, as Donlevy’s fiancee, have much to do with the temporary reformation of Billy that follows. But when Hickey’s men shoot Billy’s guitarist and then kill his English boss, he goes wild in his demand for revenge.

Donlevy and the girl try to curb him, even having him thrown in gaol, but Billy escapes and succeeds in “getting” all the .Hickey gang concerned, ending up with Hickey himself. Donlevy, meanwhile, has been sworn in as a deputy to halt Billy’s lawlessness. In a showdown between the two, Billy, slow on the draw for the first time in his life, is killed.

Highlight scenes are many, but the stampede of 1500. wild cattle is one of the masterpieces of the screen. The battle in the streets between the two cattle factions is another thriller, while Billy’s chase of the Hickey men and his revenge is breath-taking. The final meeting of Taylor and Donlevy is packed with drama and suspense. Miss Howard, lan Hunter, Gene Lockhart, Lon 'Chaney, Jnr., and Henry O’Neill give splendid performances. David Miller’s direction is excellent and the out-door photography in colour is a constant treat to the eye.