The Left Handed Gun (1958)

After his employer is murdered by rival cattlemen, a troubled and uneducated young cowboy vows revenge on the murderers,

Director:

Arthur Penn

Writers:

Leslie Stevens (screenplay), Gore Vidal (play)

Stars:

Paul Newman, Lita Milan, John Dehner

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Paul Newman	...	Billy The Kid
Lita Milan	...	Celsa
John Dehner	...	Pat Garrett
Hurd Hatfield	...	Moultrie
James Congdon	...	Charlie Boudre
James Best	...	Tom Folliard
Colin Keith-Johnston	...	Tunstall
John Dierkes	...	McSween
Robert Anderson	...	Hill (as Bob Anderson)
Wally Brown	...	Deputy Moon
Ainslie Pryor	...	Joe Grant
Martin Garralaga	...	Saval
Denver Pyle	...	Ollinger
Paul Smith	...	Smith
Nestor Paiva	...	Pete Maxwell

Storyline

William Bonney - Billy the Kid - gets a job with a cattleman known as 'The Englishman,' and is befriended by the peaceful, religious man. But when a crooked sheriff and his men murder the Englishman because he plans to supply the local Army fort with his beef, Billy decides to avenge the death by killing the four men responsible, throwing the lives of everyone around him - Tom and Charlie, two hands he worked with; Pat Garrett, who is about to be married; and the kindly Mexican couple who take him in when he's in trouble - into turmoil, and endangering the General Amnesty set up by Governor Wallace to bring peace to the New Mexico Territory.

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Plot Keywords:

sheriff | cowboy | murder | revenge | death | 

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Taglines:

I don't run. I don't hide. I go where I want. I do what I want.

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Genres:

Biography | Western

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

26 September 1958 (France)

Also Known As:

Billy the Kid

Filming Locations:

Columbia/Warner Bros. Ranch - 411 North Hollywood Way, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Haroll Productions, Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

First film for producer Fred Coe.

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Goofs

The "Englishman" describes his origins as from Ayrshire, a county in South West Scotland. In that case he would be a Scot and not English.

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Quotes

Celsa: Stay here. They'll kill you!
Billy The Kid: They've been killin' me. Now I don't wait. I go first!
Celsa: What are you going to do?
Billy The Kid: I don't run. I don't hide. I go where I want. I DO what I want!
[He puts scarf around her neck and pulls her toward him in a provocative way]

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Connections

Version of The Time Tunnel: Billy the Kid (1967)

User Reviews

Milan, Dehner Good; The Rest Are 'Cartoonish'

Like many 1950s films, this western tended to slant on the melodramatic side although it has its share of many elements. The actors and their characters are mostly overwrought and can get on your nerves by the halfway point of the 102-minute movie. The directing, though, is very good and the photography is top-shelf. As usual, Warner Brothers has put out a very good DVD transfer of this 52-year-old movie. It was issued as part of the "Paul Newman Collection."

Everyone knows about Paul Newman, who plays the lead character "Billy The Kid." However, I found Lita Milan and John Dehner the most interesting. Milan was a new face and not someone a lot of people know about and Dehner played against-type and played the most mature person in the story.

Milan as "Celia" will get the males' attention, especially if they're into sultry, striking-looking females. According to the IMDb mini biography here, shortly after making this film married the son of Trujillo, a famous Dominican Republic dictator, and that was the end of her screen career. Several years later, her husband took over the country when his father was assassinated, and a few years later they had to flee the volatile Latin American country. Wow, it sounds like she led a life that wasn't far away from the violent world of "Billy the Kid," the subject of this film.

It was kind of odd seeing Dehner, who played a lot of bad guys on TV westerns of the 1950s, playing good-guy "Pat Garrett," a friend of William Bonney ("Billy the Kid") for most of the movie. Whether he turned out to be "good" in the end, is your call. Actually I thought Dehner did the best job in here and played the best character, one of the few that was subdued and tolerable. Newman and his buddies in this film were all loud, immature and stupid, which is how they were supposed to be portrayed, but they are almost "cartoonish." The story has its ups and downs and isn't bad overall, but not something that I'd watch a second time.

By the way, "Billy The Kid's" real life name was Henry McCarty (not "William Bonney," which was one of several alias he used. How much of this story is factual, I couldn't tell you but knowing Hollywood I wouldn't trust a lot of this to be exactly accurate. A