Billy the Kid (film series)

The Billy the Kid series of 42 Western films was produced between 1940 and 1946, and released by Poverty Row studio Producers Releasing Corporation.

The initial six star Bob Steele as Billy the Kid who left PRC to return to Republic Pictures. The next thirteen star Buster Crabbe as Billy the Kid, and the following 23 feature Crabbe as the same character, renamed "Billy Carson". All 42 films in the series are directed by Sam Newfield, "America's most prolific sound film director",[1] sometimes under pseudonyms. All films feature Al St. John as Billy's sidekick "Fuzzy" Jones; St. John also played the same character as the sidekick in the Lone Rider series from 1941-1943.[2] Carleton Young also played Billy's friend Jeff Travis in the first five movies.[3]

The films were shot in 10 or 12 days each, with an average cost of $25,000 a film.[4]

  1. ^ Wheeler Winston Dixon (November 2007). "Fast Worker: The Films of Sam Newfield". Senses of Cinema (45). Retrieved 2019-01-19.
  2. ^ Anderson, Chuck. "PRC's Lone Rider Series". The Old Corral. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  3. ^ Boggs, Johnny D. (2013). Billy the Kid on Film, 1911-2012. McFarland & Co. p. 38. ISBN 978-0786465552. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  4. ^ p.30 Vermilye, Jerry Buster Crabbe: A Biofilmography McFarland, 29 Apr. 2014