The Kid from Broken Gun (1952) User Reviews

"It takes a while to kill a man legally..."

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 28 December 2014]

If the story seems confusing, well there might be a reason. There are no less than five, count 'em, five flashback scenes in a film that comes in under an hour. Not only that, but the flick is peppered with numerous instances of politically incorrect dialog alluding to a woman's proper place, and it's not in the courtroom as prosecuting attorney Kiefer (Myron Healey) is fond of pointing out. His counterpart is lawyer Gail Kingston (Angela Stevens), defending Jack Mahoney in a murder trial, but as we come to find out later, Miss Kingston is also one of the bad guys!! Oops - that might be politically incorrect too!

Common sense never seemed to be a strong point of old time B Westerns, as a recent viewing of a whole host of Durango Kid and Hopalong Cassidy films appears to be bearing out. By the time this flick gets to the pivotal courtroom scene, the Durango Kid takes over the trial and Jack holds a gun on the judge!!! What!?!? And man oh man! - what's with the Smiley Burnette dream sequence and that goofy 'It's the Law' song?

You know, the film makers could have saved themselves some payroll expense by having actress Stevens portray both her own character and that of sister Dixie King in one of the flashback scenes. Then again, maybe they did, as the Dixie footage is listed as archival footage in the credits. Never let it be said that studios couldn't economize in every which way when they had to - I got a kick out of that scene when Durango escapes from the baddies by hustling up a long staircase on the side of a building and jumping on the neighboring rooftop. The same scene appeared in "The Rough, Tough West" made earlier the same year.

Well Charles Starrett probably deserved better for his Durango Kid swan song, but when all is said and done, he had a pretty nice run as the masked hero. He never wanted to be typecast during his early career, but this turned out to be his bread and butter for seven years, and for millions of matinée fans, The Durango Kid was one of the best.

Adios, Kid

[boblipton · 7/10 · 16 December 2008]

Charles Starrett ends his acting career, having spent seven years as 'the Durango Kid', one of the regulars on the Top Ten Western Stars list, with this fairly interestingly set up courtroom drama. Here he is on trial for murder and the events are shown in flashback. It's an interesting story-telling technique, weakened, however, by the fact that we know Starrett is a good guy and didn't do it. Costs on this one were kept down by using a single courtroom set for half the one-hour film and using footage from an earlier picture for the rest, which is why Jock Mahoney appears in two roles.

Columbia, the studio that produced Starrett's movies, was getting out of bread-and-butter westerns. The studio had dropped most of its movie series like BLONDIE and THE LONE WOLF and relegated its B production to the cheap Sam Katzman unit. Within a couple of years B movies would be the province of independents like AIP and the movie western would disappear under the onslaught of TV series. Writer Ed Earl Repp would move to TV, cinematographer Fayte M. Browne would be DP on one more movie and director Fred Sears would move to cheap sci-fi flicks... and the long history of genre westerns would end. Too bad.

Fred F. Sears at his best!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 24 March 2018]

Copyright 18 August 1952 by Columbia Pictures Corp. U.S. release: 19 August 1952. No New York opening. 55 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Jack Mahoney plays himself because the writer simply identified the character as one that Jack could adequately fill, since he was Starrett's double and would be hanging around the set anyway. It was assumed that the director would change the name, but this didn't happen. The movie was shot so fast, there just wasn't time! Anyway, our Jack is charged with murder, but Steve Reynolds proves that the real guilty party is none other than...

COMMENT: Starrett's 132nd western and the last of his 166 movies, turns out to be one of the more exciting of the 1950's Durango Kids - inventively directed by Sears at his best and attractively photographed. However, it should be noted that all the flashback material (in which Helen Mowery appears) is lifted from a previous entry, The Fighting Frontiersman (1941).

Admittedly, the murder mystery, such as it is, rates as strictly kiddies' matinee stuff, and even at 55 minutes it doesn't arouse all that much interest. On the other hand, the cast is agreeable. The burdensome Smiley Burnette has a smaller role than usual and is allowed only the one song - "It's the Law" - but it too is quite imaginatively handled. Slick film editing is also a major asset.

Disappointing but.....,

[bobthepoet-1 · 17 December 2008]

This is disappointing in that the plot is incredibly convoluted for a short (55m) Movie. However, it's worth seeing for a few reasons;

1) The It's the Law I almost called it video with the seven faces of Smiley Burnette. It's almost surrealistic the way it happens. It's also the only music in the film.

2) It's the very last Durango Kid Movie.

3) The rooftop running and jumping scenes and some of the other action scenes are worth sitting through the rest of this hard to follow courtroom drama.

It is a shame that the last film of a generally fun Series like this is so woebegone.

Pleasant fluff, comic touches in unusual B Western

[adrianovasconcelos · 7/10 · 20 February 2021]

There are Tom Mix touches to Durango Kid jumping roofs and on to his horse like a parcourt gymnast. Good acting from Jack Mahoney and Smiley Burnette playing themselves, and Angela Stevens as the lovely heavy.

Unusual screenplay for any Western, with flashbacks reminiscent of film noir.

Good photography for a B pic, zippy dialogue, and some great comic relief and singing from Burnette. Recommended

A cowboy star hangs up his guns.

[michaelRokeefe · 7/10 · 13 March 2015]

Western hero Charles Starrett ends his seven year career as The Durango Kid for Columbia Pictures. Fred F. Sears directs. Starrett once again plays the part of do-gooder Steve Reynolds, who is an underground postal inspector. And you know the Durango Kid will never be far away. Steve and sidekick Smiley Burnett want to help good friend Jack Mahoney(Jock Mahoney)clear his name after being falsely accused of murder. The Durango Kid helps teach Jack how to quick draw and hold his own with a six-shooter. Outlaws will be rounded up and brought to justice; and you'll never guess who the real killer turns out to be. You may find yourself wondering how this movie really ended. Sources say that Mahoney did most of Starrett's stunts as well as his own. And who can find fault with that? There always comes a time when the hero decides to hang up his guns.

Other players: Angela Stevens, Myron Healey, Pat O'Malley, Tristram Coffin and Edgar Rearing.

So long Durango

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 29 May 2017]

Charles Starrett as the Durango Kid made his farewell appearance in this film The Kid From Broken Gun as Columbia Pictures put an end to the series. Television killed Durango and the rest of the B western cowboys as stuff like this one was getting for free at home.

Harry Cohn sure didn't splurge for this one as half the film was cannibalized from a previous Durango Kid feature. The same group of villains looking to steal a fortune in Spanish gold continue their pursuit, but the Durango Kid foils them at every opportunity.

This film has Jock Mahoney on trial for his life for the murder of one of the gang. What he doesn't know is how beautifully he's bit set up. Durango has to hold unofficial court to get the truth. In the real trial movie heavy Myron Healey is in the unexpected role as prosecutor.

Smiley Burnette who was sidekick to a number of Republic's cowboy heroes is also here. But I have to say he was more oafish than funny in this feature.

Aging Saturday matinée kids of all ages should like this.

Durango Kid is in courtroom!

[coltras35 · 7/10 · 25 January 2021]

Interestingly mixing courtroom and flashbacks ( which were apparently taken from a previous Durango Kid film), The kid from broken gun is a well-paced, convulated time filler with plenty of action in between courtroom scenes. The Durango kid leaps off rooftops, swinging from it as well, and Jock Mahoney, playing a guy accused of murder and robbing Santa Anna treasure, also gets the show his athleticism in an energetic fight scene. It's a well-directed, however I found the Smiley Burnette singing it's the law a bit odd, especially when it abruptly appeared, cleaving through suspense, but the last Durango kid film soon got on track. A fitting end to the Durango Kid.

Durango Rides Off Into the Sunset!

[bsmith5552 · 5/10 · 11 April 2018]

"The Kid From Broken Gun" has the distinction of being the last of the Durango Kid series starring Charles Starrett and Smiley Burnette which had been running since 1945. Unfortunately, like many of the latter day Durangos, this one also relies on extensive use of stock footage, this time from "The Fighting Frontiersman" (1946).

The "new" footage is set in a court room where Jack Mahoney (himself) aka "The Kid From Broken Gun" is on trial for the murder of Matt Fallon (Chris Alcaide). Prosecuting the case is none other than good old Myron Healey. Defending Mahoney is female lawyer Gail Kingston (Angela Stevens) who harbors a secret of her own. Steve Reynolds (Starrett) and his pal Smiley Burnette have arrived to support Mahoney.

Being set in a court room offered Columbia the opportunity to bring in a hefty amount of stock footage from an earlier film. The back story concerns the legendary Santa Ana gold which has wound up in the hand of unscrupulous express agent Martin Donohugh (Tristram Coffin) for safekeeping. The murder of Fallon occurs when Mahoney seeks him out for insulting Gail.

When Mahoney is found guilty, the Durango Kid re-convenes the court and .........................................................................

Also in the cast are John "Lefty" Cason as Chuck, Chris Horvath aas Al Donohugh's henchmen and Pat O'Malley as Doc Hardy who is murdered during the trial. Helen Monery, George Chesebro, Robert Fibner, Emmett Lynn and Zon Murray among others, appear in the stock footage.

With the ending of the long running series a number of questions remained unanswered: - how did Smiley never guess the real identity of Durango?; - where DID Starrett hide the white horse Raider?; - how did he get Raider from town to town without being seen?; -how did Starrett achieve his quick changes from Steve to Durango without aid of a phone booth?; - how did he keep his clothes for both characters so neatly pressed; and - how did Durango manage to keep his mask on during his numerous encounters with the bad guys?

Charles Starrett had been making westerns for Columbia since 1935. For him, this would be his final film. -

Smiley who...?

[grizzledgeezer · 3/10 · 7 October 2013]

Not being a fan of, or knowledgeable about, cheap B Westerns, I was about to give this film a devastatingly bad review. Fortunately, I had the sense to do some research, and discovered it was the last of a series of Columbia programmers about "The Durango Kid". That doesn't make it any less bad, but at least the film gains some... provenance.

Smiley Burnette is featured in a highly unnecessary role, which includes singing a song he (probably) wrote, "It's the Law". Burnette was at one time a popular sidekick, but unlike (say) Gabby Hayes, is hardly remembered. * It's films like this that might explain why.

Hayes was a good actor who could convincingly play serious roles; Burnette is there strictly for the laughs. Not only does he appear in court dressed as a woman to deliver fake testimony, but when he's accused of wasting the court's time, he sings "It's the Law" wearing a dozen costumes, both male and female. (One suspects this sequence took longer to film than all the rest of the picture.)

Even given that this is a kiddie Western, it's unintentionally risible throughout. Burnette calls armed men "gunsels", the writer apparently not knowing what the word //really// means. And Dixie's riding outfit has to be seen to believed. One can only hope the costume designer was deliberately being campy (rather than believing there was anything historically accurate about it).

"The Kid from Broken Gun" is a laff-riot that, at a very brisk 55 minutes, doesn't wear out its welcome. An ideal "party film".

* Stan Freberg mentions Burnette in the introduction to the "Bang Gunleigh, US Marshal Field" sketch on his 1957 radio show.

A must see, with great stunts and action, but badly told

[morrisonhimself · 8/10 · 17 December 2008]

This late entry in the long-running Durango Kid series is flawed by being told in flashbacks.

It gets rather muddled because people are shown knowing stuff they really couldn't have known.

Still, the cast is great, and it's star Charles Starrett's last movie, so it is a must see.

Myron Healey gets a chance at something unusual, too: Instead of a gun-carrying bad guy, he's the prosecuting attorney. (The other comment, at this writing the only other one, gets something wrong: It's not the Starrett character on trial; it's the title character, the Kid from Broken Gun.)

John Cason is one of the gun-carriers, and he is accompanied by some familiar faces who aren't listed in the credits, even here at IMDb.com, and that's a shame.

Tris Coffin does get credit, and he is such a smooth actor, I often wonder why he didn't get more fame and a closer approach to real stardom. He had good looks, a pleasing manner, even as a bad guy, and a beautiful voice.

Smiley Burnette has a strange musical interlude that seems to have been included just to pad out the movie ... yet it has its own charm, even if it seemingly drags down the movie.

The action is great fun to watch. My guess is Ted Mapes did the stunts (because he was Starrett's stunt double in the series' beginning, as well as Gary Cooper's and Jimmy Stewart's), but Jock Mahoney has a major part, and watching his athletic grace adds a lot to the general enjoyment.

He reminded me of David Sharpe in some of his movements, the way he vaulted over a hitching post, for example, instead of walking around.

Maybe it is a shame that Charles Starrett should end his career with such a poor script. He really deserved better. But there is ultimately more good than bad and "The Kid from Broken Gun" is, really, a must see.

(((This is added after seeing information about Ted Mapes at http://www.b-westerns.com/stunt12.htm: Likely he was not the stuntman; more likely it was Jock Mahoney.)))