Western Cyclone
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
On a western land, a governor's daughter (Marjorie Manners) is kidnapped and held hostage. Billy the Kid (Buster Crabbe) and Fuzzy Q, Jones (Al St. John) try to rescue her and capture a lot of men known to work for the kidnapper and hold them for questioning. While out on the ranch, Billy and Fuzzy spot a cowboy (Kermit Maynard) who happens to be a henchman with a letter about the kidnapped girl. He refuses to tell who gave him the letter so Billy decides just to find the girl on his own and leaves Fuzzy in charge of tying up the henchman and put him with the rest. Fuzzy tells the henchman to pick up a gun on the floor and when he bends down Fuzzy kicks him and knocks him out. While Billy is looking for the girl, Fuzzy ties up the henchman and takes his boots and socks off to perform an Indian fire torture on the soles of his feet in effort to make him talk, but the man still refuses to tell him who gave him the letter and Fuzzy can't bring himself to burn the henchman. While trying to light a cigar, Fuzzy strokes a match down the sole of the man's foot causing him to burst with laughter. Having found out the henchman was ticklish, Fuzzy grabs his feet and ask him to tell him who gave him the letter. The man once again refuses so Fuzzy begins tickle torturing his bare feet. Fuzzy asked him again and the man still refuses to talk, but the more he refused the more Fuzzy would mercilessly keep tickling the soles of his feet. After enduring brutal tickling on his feet, the henchman can't take anymore and confesses. Fuzzy then tells his friends how the henchman was so ticklish that he got him to talk. Now knowing who send the letter the guys all go to try to rescue the kidnapped girl.

Review: Hobnobbing with the governor. This Billy the Kid film from PRC has Billy the Kid hobnobbing with no less than the governor of some western territory/state who is being blamed for a rash of outlawry. In real life the only connection that William Bonney had with a governor was with Lew Wallace in New Mexico when he was negotiating for a pardon.Glenn Strange is the best thing in this film, he's the guy behind the the outlaw activity and he's leading a movement to impeach the governor for his own nefarious purposes not quite explained other than the usual lust for money and power. Buster Crabbe and the good citizens of the area should be grateful that Al St. John is around in this one. Billy the Kid ain't quite up to par in the end and Fuzzy proves invaluable.. Better than I'd expected, though I hated the Billy the Kid angle.. I've already seen a couple other Buster Crabbe westerns and was not at all impressed. While "Western Cyclone" is not a great film, it was a lot better than I expected.Crabbe plays Billy the Kid. Now this version of Billy has no similarity to the real character--and, oddly, quite a few western stars (such as Roy Rogers) played nice-guy versions of genuinely evil real-life bandits. So, despite all the nice things Billy does in this one, this is in no way related to the career of William Bonny--the real Billy the Kid.The film begins with Billy staging a FAKE holdup of the stagecoach and then rescuing a woman when the plan goes awry. It seems Billy wanted to convince the Senator aboard the coach that the west was lawless and needed lawmen to keep order!!! Again, this is an insane version of Billy---no relationship with the real thing! In the midst of Billy's campaign is another one but which is run by an unknown baddie (it turns out to be Glenn Strange*). It seems the baddie is orchestrating a lot of real crimes in order to make the Governor look bad so that they can have a recall election and he can have himself made governor. However, after this unknown stranger kills someone and frames Billy for it, the guy leaves a clue behind--a shell which bears the marks of a gun with a broken trigger. Can Billy and Fuzzy get to the bottom of this, prove their innocence, help the governor avoid a recall AND get the girl? I am no great expert on guns, but the main plot point is that bullet casings were left behind by the killer. However, this really makes no sense, as with an old revolver, the casing is NOT ejected when you fire and the killer would never just toss it on the ground, since this would indicate that there was a shooter other than Billy. But, despite this, a few other plot holes and the notion of making Bill the Kid a hero, the film is entertaining. Much of it is because Al 'Fuzzy' St. John is a wonderful sidekick in this one. Also, the film benefits from not having lots of singing like other B-westerns of the day. Fun to watch--just make sure your brain doesn't think too much as you watch!*By the way, Strange is most famous for playing Frankenstein in the later Universal monster films--such as "Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein". Also, St. John originally was the villain in many of Fatty Arbuckle's comedies. It didn't hurt his chances getting the job since he was Arbuckle's nephew!. Billy The Kid Goes Political. In Western Cyclone, a gang leader and wannabe politician frames Billy the kid (again) for murder and uses Billy's friendship with the governor and a recent string of robberies as a pretense for impeachment and a special election which the villain hopes to garner enough votes to gain power.This is as mediocre as it sounds, with less action than previous entries in Producers Releasing Corperation's Billy The Kid movies and a pretty dumb, far-fetched plot.One particularly silly scene involves sidekick Fuzzy using tickle-torture on an alleged bad-guy detainee in order to find out the identity of the man who framed Billy. Was that legal?!