It is a performances centric movie

Excellent but underrated film

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

In most of my reviews of Audie Murphy pictures I'll comment on how his youthful appearance worked against him, particularly in films where he's a villain or operating on the wrong side of the law. But as Billy the Kid, his real of age twenty six closely approximated that of William H. Bonney at twenty one, and on that score his casting here worked about the best I've seen in slightly more than a dozen pictures I've had a chance to watch.I'm curious why the film makers chose to change the names of most of the principals except for Billy, Pat Garrett (Frank Wilcox) and acting New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace (Robert Barrat). William Bonney's real life mentor and employer was William Tunstall, here called Roger Jameson (Shepperd Strudwick). Jameson's business partner and attorney is Alexander Kain (Albert Dekker), whereas Tunstall's partner was Alexander McSween. Major Harper (Dennis Hoey) would have been Jimmy Dolan, and Sheriff Rand (Ray Teal) would have been Sheriff William Brady, who's murder by Billy the Kid's band of Regulators escalated the Lincoln County War, and wound up turning public sentiment against The Kid. In this story, Rand isn't killed.For one of his first starring roles, Audie Murphy doesn't appear very charismatic, some would go so far as to say his acting here is wooden. Fair enough, though the reason he went into pictures was for film makers to capitalize on his record as a genuine hero in World War II. Probably his best regarded movie is the one telling his real life story in 1955's "To Hell and Back".As for the picture itself, it's passable enough as an entertaining Western if the license taken with the characters doesn't bother you too much. The opening of the film states that liberty was taken with the characters and chronology of events depicted, so with that in mind, you can settle back and enjoy it, especially if you're an Audie Murphy fan.

With this film Audie Murphy achieved another distinction besides being our most decorated war hero. Having played young Jesse James in Kansas Raiders, Murphy then played the second great outlaw name of the old west Billy The Kid in The Kid From Texas. Among many of the other inaccuracies of this film is the fact that Billy The Kid was not from Texas. He was born Henry McCarty in New York City and went west and became William H. Bonney. And as his outlaw reputation grew he became Billy The Kid.Next to Robert Taylor's Billy The Kid this may yet be the most inaccurate retelling of the Kid's life. In fact the story is so confusing that there's no doubt Murphy is one dangerous young man, but he's so appealing that we don't know what to think. Whether by accident or design that left me quite confused.Only three people's names were left as they were in life. Billy The Kid, Pat Garrett played here by Frank Wilcox who is really a peripheral character to the main drama and Governor Lew Wallace of New Mexico territory played by Robert Barrat. Everyone else you've seen in such films as Pat Garrett&Billy The Kid, Chisum, The Left Handed Gun or the Young Guns films has had his and her name changed.Sheppard Strudwick, Albert Dekker, Ray Teal, Paul Ford, Will Geer, and William Talman all are in this. You'll note Talman who is a particularly vicious outlaw who gets a personal vendetta against Murphy going and pays in the end.As to why Billy just didn't clear out of the territory once it got hot for him, just think of those last lines of King Kong and you'll know why.

As everyone knows, Audie Murphy was the most highly decorated soldier of World War II, and a most improbable one. Here, a few years after his almost unbelievable exploits in Europe, he still looks like a teenager. He and Universal Studios established a symbiotic relationship. They gave him a splendid pay check in return for allowing himself and his fame to be exploited.He was cast repeatedly in inexpensive Westerns with only a few forays outside the genre, mostly forgettable except for one, John Huston's "Red Badge of Courage", in which he was given a chance to act.In this early film, "The Kid From Texas", he hasn't yet learned his chops. He's handsome in a very young and very boyish way but his expression is that of a department store mannequin. I don't believe he blinks. He's given a taciturn personality for obvious reasons. He was particularly graceless for a warrior. When he walked he hardly swung his arms, and kept his fingers half closed into fists.The story sticks closely to historical fact but not too closely. In the one or two photographs I've seen of Billy the Kid he looks looks like a street urchin from New York who is desperately in need of a tailor and some dental work.But here's how Universal has his decked out here. Gray shirt, black hat, tight trousers, black leather bolero jacket, two guns tied down, a black horse, and a black choker. Not a neckerchief, but a choker, straight out of Toulouse-Lautrec's sketch of Marcel Lender an innumerable other singers and whores of Paris in 1885.I can't even count the number of movies about Billy the Kid, some fictionalized more than others. I think Robert Taylor may have struggled with the role at twice the age of William Bonney. The most artistic effort -- too stylized for my taste but gripping nonetheless -- is Arthur Penn and Paul Newman's "The Left Handed Gun." Billy the Kid lived for a time in Mesilla, New Mexico, about an hour from where I live. You may visit the square at any time and enjoy the delights of the many curio shops and restaurants. I recommend the margaritas at the elegant Double Eagle de Mesilla. Bring your wallet.

I had forgotten this movie and how much I enjoyed it back in the 50's. I enjoyed most of Audie Murphy's westerns , but do not have a copy of "The Kid From Texas" (hope to get one soon). The only trouble with some of these movies is that when I see them as an adult, they are not the way I remembered them.