Fuzzy Settles Down (1944)

Powerful

Absolutely brilliant

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

One of the PRC series of B westerns starring Buster Crabbe as Billy the Kid/Billy Carson, and comical sidekick Al St. John as Fuzzy. In this series, every now and then, Fuzzy gets a hankering to buy and run a small business, at least for a short while, until Billy decides it's time to vacate this town. The owner of the newspaper, John Martin(John Elliot) was shot dead in the street after giving a speech promoting his crusade against the local outlaws, and advocating the local financing of a telegraph line. This left his daughter Edith in charge of the newspaper. However, she couldn't run it alone. Thus, pretty soon , it was in foreclosure, and a sheriff's sale held. Bidding rose to $3000., which was all the money, save 50c,that Fuzzy had from his reward money for bringing in 2 bank robbers. So, he bid $3000.50. Unrecognized outlaw Pete(John Merton) wanted to bid up again, but bad boy Billy pushed through the crowd and punched Pete in the breadbasket, so that he was temporarily unable to speak. This sealed the deal for Fuzzy. Of course, Billy and Pete had a slugfest after Pete recovered. And, of course, Fuzzy was woefully qualified to be a newspaper editor........When Fuzzy and Billy go into the saloon, Fuzzy is reading a newspaper. Pete throws an uncooked egg that goes through the newspaper and hits Fuzzy in the face. Billy returns the favor, and Billy and Pete are in another brawl........Later, rancher and unrecognized leader of the local criminal element, Lafe Barlow(Charles King) warns Fuzzy and Edith that inflammatory editorials will be risky to their well being. Barlow would become the leader of the minority anti-telegraph faction, whereas Fuzzy would become the leader of the majority pro-telegraph faction. Fuzzy was elected to take care of the money from the most recent telegraph drive. After accidentally spilling the ink bottle near the money, he hid it, but, unfortunately, some peeping Toms saw where he hid it. They burst in, knock him out, and take the money. A little later, Billy is trailing a suspicious man, who goes to Barlow's ranch house. Billy bursts through the door, and knocks out the man. Soon, Pete enters and Billy knocks him out(for the 3rd time), as well. He then searches around the desk, and finally finds what appears to be the stolen money. He takes Pete with him to town, and enters a room where Barlow is whipping up the crowd to lynch Fuzzy. He shows the money, and Pete corroborates his finding. I'm very surprised that he doesn't point out the ink-stained bills as proof that this is the stolen money!.......The climactic scene follows. I will let you see the film to find out what happens. It's available at YouTube. In any case, as with his other short-term entrepreneurships, when Fuzzy sees Billy leaving town, he abandons his property and catches up with Billy. Poor Edith: she lost her newspaper owner, and her potential boyfriend(Billy).

On a whim, Fuzzy Jones uses his reward money from the capture of a fugitive in order to buy a small town newspaper, of which the previous owner was gunned down for going up against a group of cattle rustlers. Picking up where the slain man left off, he uses the pen and Billy Carson uses his gun to clean up the town.One of many times Fuzzy tried to settle down, this light-hearted, fast-paced, and action-packed entry in Producers Releasing Corporation's Billy Carson series is well-written and one of the best.There's a heavy emphasis this time on Al "Fuzzy" St. John. However, Buster Crabbe delivers one of his best performances ever, with the usually more stoic hero caught in a particularly silly frame-of-mind and getting almost as many laughs as Fuzzy this time around!

Of all of the B Western sidekicks, Smiley Burnette was the only one to get top billing in a B Western. Fuzzy Settles Down should have had Al St. John with top billing in the credits. As Fuzzy Q. Jones, St. John is the title character and he has the most screen time. Buster Crabbe, as Billy Carson, is a strong hero, but he really is like a "reverse sidekick" for most of the movie. It is strange, but in the way that sidekicks usually said things to build up the image of the hero, Billy Carson's words and actions work to strengthen Fuzzy's character.Fuzzy earns reward money (with Billy's help) for catching two bank robbers. He is determined to use that money to settle down somewhere. When Fuzzy and Billy happen to ride into a town where the local newspaper is up for auction, Fuzzy decides to buy it. They use the newspaper to help rid the town of local bandits. Billy Carson moves the plot along at all the right times, but it is only at the climax of the movie that he does anything significant.Al St. John was usually a better actor than the lead actors he supported, and the people at PRC must have been aware of it. He absolutely knew how to entertain and draw attention to himself while on screen. This movie is his showcase. If you are a fan of Fuzzy Q. Jones, this movie spotlights his character more than usual.

While it's a very predictable story, this B-Western is still not bad overall. Buster Crabbe and Fuzzy St. John are a likable pair of heroes, and it has a couple of lighter moments and some decent action. The story starts with Fuzzy deciding that he wants to 'settle down' instead of wandering about with Crabbe. He decides to become a 'respectable' citizen working on a newspaper, but very soon he gets caught in the middle of a dangerous confrontation with a gang of rustlers. Quite a bit happens after that, and while most of it is pretty predictable, the action is not bad. St. John also gets more screen time than he does in a lot of his supporting roles. Overall, it's nothing great, but worth a look if you like older Westerns.