To me, this movie is perfection.

That was an excellent one.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

'Old Ben Kane' might have been the better title for this Western flick. Just like his namesake from "High Noon", First Deputy Ben Kane (Robert Mitchum) refuses to leave town when he knows the bad guys are coming just for him. Young Billy Young (Robert Walker Jr.) valiantly intends to help out, even after Kane cold-cocked him once when he snuck up on his campfire in the middle of the night. For his trouble, Kane knocks him out again so he doesn't interfere with one man's mission to go up against a dozen outlaws. You might wonder how rational Kane himself was under the circumstances.There's a good reason Angie Dickinson used to show up in these Westerns with folks like Mitchum and Dean Martin, one look at her opening dance hall number will clue you in. As the sometime lady pal of Gaslight Saloon owner John Behan (Jack Kelly), Lily Beloit recalls her association with Kane back in Dodge City, and the reason Kane is all fired up to go against Frank Boone (John Anderson), who actually doesn't show up until the last part of the story. With Dave Carradine in the role of Jesse Boone, I was once again reminded how much the Carradine Brothers resembled John Anderson, who could have played their father, and actually did in the same year's "Heaven With a Gun" in which he and David portrayed a father and son.Except for the name of John Behan in the story, I would never have guessed this was based on a novel titled "Who Rides With Wyatt". There's really no other connection I can decipher among the principals being based on Wyatt Earp or his contemporaries, so I guess one has to take the film maker's word for it. Although Kane using his weapon to pistol whip Billy a couple of times came pretty close to resembling Wyatt Earp's style.See if you can catch a really weird error in that confrontation between Kane and Frank Boone. Riding atop Charlie's (Paul Fix) stagecoach, Kane shoots Boone and there's a quick cut to Boone lying on the ground. When the camera comes back to the coach, Kane is sitting next to Charlie, but after another quick cutaway, Kane is back on top of the coach! Talk about lightning fast, he did that almost as quick as hauling Lily off to get married!

I saw this movie many, many moons ago and I thought at the time, That has to be the dumbest movie since "Pony Express" with Charlton Heston. No doubt Mitchum thought about quitting the movies after he made this one. It would not surprise me to learn he thought about slitting his wrists. I watched it again to see if I remembered it right. Reminds me of the Hush-Puppy shoe commercials. The Japanese could have made it cheaper but they could not have made it dumber. Has all the stupid clichés. Outlaws chasing a stagecoach. No one did that. Not even the Indians. Saguaro cacti in a place they never grow. Fast draw duel. Man lights a candle and a 40 watt light bulb illuminates the room. One tap on the head and a man is unconscious with no ill effects. Don't know how many more times I will be afforded the opportunity to not watch this movie but I look forward to every one.

Robert Mitchum plays a sheriff in a town dominated by evil bosses and their gangs. When MItchum arrests the son of the boss-man for murder, the gang is determined the sheriff won't live to punish the punk. As for his deputy (Robert Walker Jr.--who, inexplicably, gets the film named after his character), he's rather ambivalent--unsure whether to help or just get out of the way. Can they stand up against the combined forces of evil and survive (what do you think?!)? "Young Billy Young" is an enjoyable western. However, the plot is incredibly familiar--too familiar. Robert Mitchum himself (who stars in "Young Billy Young") appeared in "El Dorado" (a remake of "Rio Bravo")--which is pretty similar to such films as "High Noon" and "Last Train From Gun Hill". All these films (and many more) are like "YBY" because they, too, are stories about honest sheriffs who refuse to knuckle under to gangs who run old western towns. Because of this familiarity, the film just cannot rise above mediocrity even if it did star Mitchum.In addition to Mitchum, the film stars two sons of famous actors--Robert Walker Jr. and David Carridine. They are competent but no more in the film. Its strengths are its acting by Mitchum as well as the nice relationship he has with Angie Dickenson (who was ALSO in Rio Bravo!). Negatives are Mitchum singing the opening song (uggh!) and the ridiculously easy way the two young guns kill off the Mexican general near the beginning of the film. The ending is also a bit abrupt.

Fans of the movie TOMBSTONE and other Wyatt Earp movies may be interested to know that this movie was very loosely based on Will Henry's WHO RIDES WITH Wyatt, a heavily fictionalized novel about Wyatt Earp's war with the Cowboy gang and his feud with Cowboy-sympathizing sheriff John Behan. In the novel, the "Billy Young" character is actually Johnny Ringo, who--in a completely fictional subplot--is at first protected, befriended and mentored by Wyatt (as Billy is by Kane in this movie), until Ringo gets more and more deeply involved with Curly Bill and the Clantons and Wyatt has to come after him. The novel is grim and dark, with an admirable but not very likable Wyatt. The movie is entertaining fluff, with a storyline that has less and less to do with the novel and the real Wyatt Earp as it goes along. Surprisingly, a good bit of the dialogue of the novel is retained, at least in the early scenes with Kane, and the script even retains the Earp-Behan-Lily triangle. The Behan character is even called "John Behan," and gets a surprising comeuppance from a surprising source. David Carradine is his usual watchable self as a more likable version of Ike Clanton.