Wow! Such a good movie.

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Better Late Then Never

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Devil Riders finds Buster Crabbe with a change of last name, from Bonney to Carson. No longer would his Billy The Kid past and reputation need explanation, from now on Crabbe would be Billy Carson the rest of the series, just your average white hat cowboy hero.This film has Crabbe riding for the Pony Express, but a new stagecoach line is coming into the area which will eventually mean the end for the Pony Express. No hard feelings, it's just progress.But some villains want that land the stage goes over and will try to create a feud between the rivals. But when they're up against a genuine cowboy hero, better they not start the whole thing in the first place.Devil Riders is highlighted by the guest appearance of Tex Williams one of the great country/western performers of his time doing a couple of numbers. It would have been nice if Williams had done his legendary classic Smoke Smoke Smoke That Cigarette. His record of that song which talks plaintively about nicotine addiction was a big seller a few years after Devil Riders came out. Phil Harris had a nice version of that song as well.Nothing special here are than Billy is a full fledged hero and Tex Williams gives us a couple of songs.

Every once in a while, the B Western format took time off from the more common water rights/mineral rights/rangeland feuds, and offered up a story about competing business interests like the one found here. Billy Carson (Buster Crabbe) rides for the Pony Express in competition with the stage line owned by Tom Farrell (Frank LaRue) and his daughter Sally (Patti McCarthy). But the real story has villain Del Stone (Charles King) trying to pit Carson against Farrell so he can position himself to gain valuable land grants along the stage route. It's not really clear to me why having the friendly rivals battle each other would have helped out Stone, but it sounded devious enough when Stone hooked up with his attorney Higgins (John Merton).Now I've seen Fuzzy St. John any number of times side-kicking for the likes of George Houston, Lash LaRue and Buster Crabbe, but I don't think I've ever seen him kick out the jams with the kind of slick moves he does here at the Mesa City barn dance. All eyes are on Fuzzy as he gyrates to the sounds of the Big Slicker Band, and if I was a betting man, I would have lost when he did that cartwheel in the middle of the floor. You go Fuzzy.Even with a run time of just under an hour, the picture eats up at least a good ten minutes with a series of chases at various points, making the fast forward button a valuable ally when watching flicks like this. After watching a few hundred of these oaters, I'm well past the point of worrying that I'll miss something important. At the start of the 1940's, Buster Crabbe did a series of films for Producers Releasing Corporation in which he portrayed the character Billy the Kid, very loosely based on the historical figure, but generally positioned as a good guy who found himself in questionable circumstances. Starting with "Devil Riders", PRC changed his name to Billy Carson, kept Fuzzy as the comedic sidekick, and banged out another twenty three pictures; he did thirteen as The Kid. In the majority of those movies he rode the same golden palomino with the long white face blaze that he has in "Devil Riders". It's not mentioned in this story, but the horse's name was Falcon.

Tired of trying to con the public into thinking Billy the kid was anything but a cold-blooded murderer, Producers Releasing Corperation brought stars Buster Crabbe and Al "Fuzzy" St. John back together for a new series featuring a new squeaky-clean hero, changing his name from Billy Bonney to Billy Carson and his clothes from black to white, with the exception of his hat. Though not a wanted (or framed) outlaw anymore the new Billy was pretty much the same as before.The Devil Riders is typical but entertaining, with the usual amount of shootouts, horse chases and fistfights. There's also a good musical interlude with authentic 1940's western swing music.The plot involves a new stage line passing through outlaw territory. Billy, the proprietor of the local Pony Express and the stage owner are friendly rivals for a mail contract. The outlaws try to kill the coach line by attempting to start a feud between the two competitors but ending up with Billy and pals fighting back against them.