Billy the Kid Returns (1938) is a musical singing-cowboy-Western based on the mistaken identity and frontier justice to transform the legend of Billy the Kid into a feel-good movie. The film is a public domain, which features Roy Rogers in one of his first lead roles and is packed with music, action, and light comedy, which makes Billy the Kid Returns (1938) full movie a good free classic movie to be enjoyed by those who like western movies.
Movie Background Table
Movie Cast Table
Roy Rogers and Smiley Burnette carry the film with easy chemistry, songs, and comic banter.
Full Plot Summary
The movie begins with the legendary lawbreaker, Billy the Kid being hunted by his former friend, Sheriff Pat Garrett and is killed. Billy is an outlaw who has been covertly assisting small homesteaders to rise against a group of cattle ranchers in the Lincoln County, New Mexico.
Otherwise, Roy Rogers, a young Texan deputy sheriff, rides into the area seeking employment as a peace officer soon enough. Roy just happens to look just like Billy the Kid. The ranchers in the area capture him, believing that he has to be the outlaw, and take him to the Marshal Conway and Sheriff Pat Garrett.
Garrett is aware that Billy is dead, as he had shot him the previous night but he also realizes that the homesteaders had lost their one and only true defender. Garrett and Conway spot an opportunity, and suggest a dangerous scheme: Roy will impersonate Billy the Kid who has come back to life, and through the dreadfulness of the outlaw’s name will scare off the crooked ranchers and save the settlers, without killing any of them.
Roy reluctantly agrees. He is joined up with a travelling musical-instrument salesman, Frog Millhouse, who turns out to be his comic companion and ally. Roy, as Billy, rides across the country, fighting with J. B. Morganson, Matson, and other cattlemen who have been stealing cows, bullying homesteaders, and attempting to make them leave their homes.
Meanwhile, Roy becomes intimate with Ellen Moore, daughter of a storekeeper Nathaniel Moore who is also in favor of the homesteaders. Their young love brings warmth to the story and provides Roy with another excuse to remain and struggle to fight justice.
Roy is then using his guns, his wit, and his songs, to enact daring actions against the bad guys, sometimes even stealing the cattle barons and aiding the settlers in his manner of the Robin Hood-like image, yet always on the legal side of the fight. Frog offers music release and some distraction in case the things become tense.
When Morganson and his men increase their campaign, rustling, sabotage and threats, the settlers grow impatient. The cattlemen finally find something wrong about this “Billy.” Suspension, back-stabbings, and gun fights ensue, culminating in a climax that sees the real identity of Roy and his true loyalties being known.
Through the assistance of Garrett and Conway, Roy reveals the criminal activities of the ranchers, clears up the homesteaders, and restores harmony in Lincoln County. Through the actions of Roy, the myth of Billy the Kid is changed, we have turned him into a symbol of justice and no longer an outlaw to fear.
Genre and Key Themes
Billy the Kid Returns (1938) is a singing-cowboy Western film, which is mixed genre with action, a slight sense of comedy, and musical interludes.
Key themes include:
Redemption in re-inventing.
By cashing in on Billy and his image to guard the weak and not to frighten them, Roy redeems the name of the outlaw.
Law, order, and myth
The film is a game with the Western legend and how people can be controlled or liberated as a result of stories and reputations.
Homesteaders vs. cattle barons.
Traditional Western antagonism: small farmers against the might of ranch interests armed and in purse.
Music as identity
The fact that Roy sings, unlike the actual Billy the Kid, makes him distinguishable and his songs assist in gaining trust and preventing conflicts.
The outcome is an amiable, easy-going Billy the Kid Returns (1938) movie that is more hopeful than the majority of the outlaw movies.
Billy the Kid Returns (1938) Full Movie Watch and Download
Watch Billy the Kid Returns (1938) on Internet Archive:
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Movie Review
Being one of the first Roy Rogers films, Billy the Kid Returns (1938) explains why Republic soon understood that they have a new Western sensation. It is the good Billy twist that pays off as Rogers adds a carefree flair, powerful singing voice and believable decency to the dual role.
On loan on Gene Autry films, Smiley Burnette introduces general humor and catchy musical snippets as Frog Millhouse. Lynne Roberts is a good-looking love interest, Morgan Wallace and Fred Kohler are old-fashioned Western villains.
Joseph Kane is a fast-paced director who can keep the 53 minutes long film running tight with a lot of riding, fights and songs. The black-and-white photography, ranch settings, and small-town sets provide the movie with the typical Republic Pictures appearance.
It is quite formulaic in the plot and overly relies on genre tropes: mistaken identity, land grab villains and a redeemer hero. Nevertheless, to those who love singing cowboy Westerns, that recognizability is also part of the package. The movie is going to be a light and rather nostalgic B-movie entertainment instead of a historical drama and is most likely to enjoy the film by modern audiences.
Being a popular field film that can be found in the archives or in the collections of the tight-budget filmmakers, Billy the Kid Returns (1938) complete film is readily available to the viewers trying to be friends of Roy Rogers, Western film enthusiasts, and even to anyone with interest in the way Hollywood recreated the legend of Billy the Kid into a musical morality story.
Movie Tags
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