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The Outlaw

         Just watched an old movie, The Outlaw, from 1943. It starred a young Jane Russell, barely out of her teens. Wow, was she a young beauty. Yes, there were lots of cleavage shots. Apparently, she hadn't learned at that point that she could say no to directors and cameramen. And there were some really crummy close-ups of her face and lips in supposedly romantic scenes. Those lousy shots were the men's fault, not hers.

         What I liked about the movie is the way it mixed up the Billy the Kid legends. They cooked up a plot where Billy's death by Pat Garrett was faked, and he really rode off with Rio, the young beauty who had secretly married him while he had a fever. I've read a lot about Billy the Kid, and none of this ever came up. His friendship in this movie was with Doc Holiday--played by Walter Huston--not Pat Garrett. Most legends have him being like a younger brother to Pat Garrett.

         Billy had Mexican girlfriends. He ran across the border frequently. In the 60's TV show, The Tall Man, Billy had an affectionate relationship with Pat, but there was always a foreboding about the lawman and the fun-loving young prankster who walked the edge of the law.On that show he had a girlfriend named Rita.

         We know the legend was bigger than the man. Billy didn't kill as many people as the tall tales would let us believe, according to historians. He didn't commit as many crimes as he was credited. The researchers think his name may have been an easy one to use for unsolved crimes. William Bonney captured the imagination of the nation and continues to captivate us today.