Billy the Kid Trapped (1942)

Memorable, crazy movie

Best movie ever!

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Billy The Kid and his intrepid sidekicks Al St. John and Dave O'Brien start the film in a real pickle, in less than a day they're to be hung at sunrise. But a miracle happens, a shooting fracas starts, their guns are tossed through a window, the key as well, and horses left outside. Now who could be such a guardian angel?Well it ain't no angel. It's Glenn Strange who is the local outlaw boss and three of his guys dress like Buster Crabbe, St. John, and O'Brien. And if they're dead or locked up indefinitely, that part of Strange's action is closed down indefinitely. It's a devil's choice for Strange because when our three heroes get out they set to find out who's been framing them and you know the result won't be good for the bad guy.The most important leading lady that Crabbe ever had is in this film in the series. Anne Jeffreys is the sister of the sheriff of an outlaw town who Crabbe saves and she's grateful. Of course her fame came later in television as Marion Kerby in Topper.Definitely one of the better of the Billy The Kid series.

Awaiting execution for a murder they did not commit, Billy the kid, his sidekick Fuzzy Jones, and their pal Jeff are busted out by the real killers, a group of outlaws who proceed to impersonate them in order to rob and terrorize with impunity.Billy then trails the killers to Mesa City, run by crooked town boss (and future Frankenstein monster) Glenn Strange, who's turned it into a safe hub for lawbreakers and realizes that in order to clear his name he'll have to clean up the town.The ninth film in Producers Releasing Corporation's Billy The Kid series and Buster Crabbe's third, this is well paced and action packed, with some great gun battles, raucous fistfights, and nasty villains, definitely worthwhile for fans of the series.

I've never seen a Western before where the hero and his sidekick pals start out in jail! It turns out to be a set up for the good guys getting sprung by a trio of look alike outlaws. Billy the Kid (Buster Crabbe) and his partners, Fuzzy (Fuzzy St. John) and Jeff Walker (Bud McTaggart) spend the rest of the picture attempting to get the goods on Mesa City town boss Stanton (Glenn Strange) and his gang of henchmen. It's actually a pretty creative idea that Stanton's gimmick is providing protection for outlaws in Mesa City with the help of a crooked town judge (Milt Kibbee). Beyond that, what you have is a fairly standard 'B' Western shoot 'em up, complete with a pretty female (Anne Jeffreys) who eyes up The Kid, but the hint of a romance is never really brought to the fore."Billy The Kid Trapped" is the third in a series of films Buster Crabbe did for Producers Releasing Corporation in the early 1940's. Later on, because of it's negative connotation, the name of Crabbe's character was changed to Bill Carson. However even in his Billy the Kid stories, Crabbe was never portrayed as a bad guy, rather as a hero wrongfully accused of a crime.As for Anne Jeffreys, she appears in the story as a blond, and looking nothing like the character she portrayed in the Topper TV series of the mid 1950's. I just took a quick look at her stats on IMDb and nearly jumped out of my seat to learn that she's still alive!, and will be appearing in a movie to be released this year!!! Holy cow, maybe she really is the ghost of Marion Kerby!Keep a keen eye on Fuzzy in the picture and you might catch the only time you'll ever see a bearded sidekick actually spit a chaw in the face of a bad guy! Fuzzy had quite the staying power of a loyal pardner, and his career at PRC took him through a host of saddle pals, beginning with Bob Steele in the Billy the Kid series, followed by the stint with Buster Crabbe. Later, he teamed with George Houston and Bob Livingston in the Lone Rider pictures, and then a new PRC series with Lash LaRue.Closing out with a bit of trivia - Buster Crabbe rode a palomino in the Billy the Kid series, even though the horse appeared white. The horse's name was Falcon.

Billy The Kid Trapped is one of those western team movies. In this case it is a trio rather than just a hero and a sidekick. Buster Crabbe plays Billy The Kid, as in William Bonney, rather than Billy Carson. He also gets to be a hero in this one instead of letting Fuzzy St. John hog all the scenes. Fuzzy's beard is a little short in this film instead of the full forward thrusting beard he had at other times. The character Jeff Walker (Bud McTaggart) really doesn't do much more than support Billy and Fuzzy, but he adds to the fun. There are no automobiles or radios in this one, either. It's a real western. The movie starts off with the trio in jail, accused of murder, when someone mysteriously breaks them out. We find out later that there are three imposters posing as Billy The Kid and his gang. They dress just like Billy, Fuzzy, and Jeff. When Fuzzy gets shot at by his "pals" and then "himself" the three so-called outlaws figure out why they have been accused of so many crimes. Sheriff Masters (Ted Adams) recognizes this after Billy saves his life and tells them the bad guys are in Mesa City. As they investigate Mesa City they run into Stanton, the local crime boss running the town.Stanton is played by Glenn Strange. I've seen Strange play a sheriff in one movie, but he was almost always a henchman. In Billy The Kid Trapped he is the bad guy in the suit. Glenn Strange was good at being the boss in this movie.The sets are absolutely perfect with the exception of flimsy railing in the bar fight scene. The details and the props in every scene are full of western imagery. The bouncing railing ruins the effect of the stage dressing, but then it wouldn't be a B western without it.Billy The Kid Trapped is what a B western should be. The action never slows down and the movie has a great western feel to it.