James Craig plays Pat Garrett, who successfully tracks and guns down Billy the Kid, but pays a heavy price. All of Billy’s outlaw friends start gunning for him, determined to keep Lincoln County as wide open as it was when Billy was alive.
Afraid his presence will only lead to more bloodshed, Garrett quits his job as lawman, leaves his fiance behind and heads off in search of a place where he’ll be able to settle down. He lands in Stone Center, a quiet town with no future, and thinks it might be a safe haven. Then the outlaws intercept a letter to his lady love, revealing his new location.
So it’s off to the outlaw town of Toscosa, where everyone seems to have a past and no one uses their real name. Garrett doesn’t either. But he unwittingly winds up working as barman/bouncer for a woman named Sarita McQuire (Margia Dean) who once called Billy the Kid her husband. And she has a younger brother Bert who fancies himself the next Billy the Kid. The first notch he wants to put on his six-shooter: None other than Pat Garrett.
Review:
A laughable opening scene has Pat Garrett sneaking into a home through a bedroom window and trying to to convince an occupant to tell him which room Billy is in. Then it settles into standard low-budget Western fare, no better or worse than a score of others.
Jim Davis has a key role as Garrett’s deputy; Barton MacLane is Mosby, leader of the outlaw gang and more plodding than menacing. Margia Dean was a former Miss California who wound up in a series of low-budget Westerns in the 1950s. One of the more memorable scenes here comes when she meets up with another of Billy’s “wives.”
Directed by:
Sam Newfield
Cast:
James Craig … Pat Garrett
Jim Davis … Deputy John Poe
Barton MacLane … Mosby
Margia Dean … Sarita McGuire
Stanley Clements … Bert McGuire
Donna Martell … Felice
Myrna Dell .. Clara Wightman
Bob Steele … Charlie Bowdre
Dick Elliott … Walter Stone
Runtime: 72 min.
Memorable lines:
Walter Stone to Pat: “You know, Stone Center is so far out of the way, even the Apaches never found us.”
Pat: “But you stuck it out. Why?”
Stone: “Well, you know all those jokes you hear about rolling stones never gathering any moss, I decided here was one stone that wasn’t gonna roll. And after nearly 20 years, all I’ve gathered is dust.”
John Poe: “Look, Pat, you can just keep on running. Eventually you’re gonna wind up in a corner.”
Pat: “You know, John, I might be in one right now.”
Pat to Sarita: “Your husband? Don’t waste any tears on him. Billy must have married half a dozen girls in this territory, just like he did you. And for the same reason.”
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