Sheriff of Sage Valley (1942) User Reviews

Buster Crabbe beside himself

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 6 June 2012]

The Sheriff Of Sage Valley finds Billy the Kid and his two sidekicks Dave O'Brien and Al St. John stopping a holdup and saving the loot, but the sheriff who was riding in the stagecoach with other passengers was killed and the story doesn't quite add up.

Sage Valley has been plagued with an outlaw gang that has many venues of crime including a crooked saloon. With a few fronts it's all ultimately controlled by an outlaw named Kansas Ed. Who is a dead ringer for Buster Crabbe as Billy and could be a long lost brother.

The script is rather clumsy in describing just how these two had not met for many years. But Buster Crabbe who was admittedly no Olivier, Brando, or Tracy acquits himself well in the dual role. The climax fight scene between both of them and the outcome is a heart wringer and above what you get in PRC Poverty Row westerns. Worth checking out.

Sibling rivalry between look-alikes Billy the Kid and Kansas Ed.

[weezeralfalfa · 6/10 · 23 June 2018]

The neatest thing about this offering from the Billy the Kid series is that Buster Crabbe plays both the lead good guy and the lead villain(Kansas Ed), who look remarkably alike, especially after Ed shaves off his moustache.(With his moustache and his personality, he reminds of oily Brian Donlevy). To add to the confusion, at one point, Ed makes Billy change clothes with him, impersonating him. Another unusual feature is that the one woman present(Maxine Leslie, as Janet Morley) , instead of being the usual innocent potential victim of the villain, is part of the gang, as Ed's moll!......In addition to Billy's perennial comedic sidekick Fuzzy(Al St. John), Dave O'Brien, as Jeff Travis, provides a third member of this winning triumvirate, rather similar to Republic's Three mesquiteers, and the Hopalong Cassidy, Lucky, plus Windy team. Jeff would play the pivotal role of shooting Ed to prevent him from crushing Billy's skull in their massive fight to the finish.........Sage Valley had quite a time figuring out who was going to replace the sheriff murdered in the opening segment. Billy was offered the job by Mayor Harrison((Hal Price), initially declined, but later accepted when it became apparent that Kansas Ed was going to pick his own sheriff in gang member Slim Jenkins(Kermit Maynard) if the Mayor didn't come up with someone. After becoming sheriff, Ed captured Billy, and changed clothes with him, including his badge, to play sheriff in getting his man out of jail and putting Billy and Jeff in jail. But with Ed's demise, and the locals, except the mayor, not trusting Billy, when they discovered that he was Billy the Kid, Sage Valley was still without a sheriff when the triumvirate were advised to leave town before they were strung up: an unusual ending for a film in this series.......See the film(available at YouTube) for further details. Be ready for some exciting brawls, stagecoach holdups, horse chases, and shootings.

Buster Crabbe Versus Buster Crabbe

[FightingWesterner · 7/10 · 11 September 2009]

Framed (he's really innocent in this) outlaw Billy the kid rides into the town of Sage Valley. After saving the Mayor from a beating, he's appointed the new sheriff, tangling with a crooked land swindling casino owner who uses gambler's credit to take away homesteader's property and is actually a front for Kansas Ed, a wanted criminal that happens to be Billy's double and may or may not be his long lost brother!

Another entry in Producers Releasing Corporation's Billy The Kid series, this has the requisite amount of action, gun play, and fast paced heroics (with one really well done fist-fight) that fans of the series would expect.

The real draw here is seeing Buster Crabbe acting opposite himself in a dual role as hero and (for the only time I can think of) villain, with a handful of neat split screen scenes of the two characters interacting with one another.

Overall, this is above average and worth viewing for fans of poverty-row westerns.