by Moe Zilla

Created on: January 29, 2008   Last Updated: February 27, 2009

A notoriety clings to this movie, some of it deliberate! Howard Hughes financed "The Outlaw," and the movie's posters featured star Jane Russell in a ridiculously low-cut blouse. Billy the Kid is on the run from Pat Garrett - but forget everything you know about the old west. A talented Hollywood screenwriter took familiar legends and re-created them in a story that's strange, wild, and lawless.

The movie industry's standards board argued the movie was morally unacceptable, and its release was delayed for five years. But Hughes himself stoked the rumor's of the movie's notoriety, and when it finally reached audiences in 1946, its poster promised them "The picture that couldn't be stopped." In one scene, Billy the Kid chases down a shooter who's targeting him from inside a dark barn. It's only when Billy gets close, pinning the shooter down in the hay, that he realizes it's "Rio McDonald," an attractive cowgirl played by Jane Russell. During World War II, Jane Russell had already become famous for a pin-up poster showing her reclining in a haystack (with one shoulder seductively exposed). Her career was only helped by the fact that Hughes cast a relatively unknown actor to play Billy the Kid. But the movie upped the stakes by showing her character as tough, wild woman, and added an extra source of tension: Billy isn't interested in her.

What makes this movie so fascinating is the friendship among the male characters. ("Ya got a girl, Billy?" "Nah, I don't trust 'em.") Throwing history out the window, the movie ends with a fierce argument as Doc Holliday inexplicably enters the story, stirring up buried resentments about who's loyal to who. And while history records that Billy the Kid was eventually shot by Pat Garrett, that showdown takes a surprise twist in this movie, creating the possibility that Billy rides off into the sunset instead. A title card announces grandly that there are many, many legends about the characters of the old west, and perhaps this ending can be one of them.

It's only in the final scene that Billy shows any interest in Jane Russell, even though she's willing to follow him throughout the movie. This creates at least the potential for romance, but also a tension as Billy clings to his lone outlaw status. It's been called a bad movie, but its offbeat production makes it unpredictable, occasionally poignant, and in its own way, completely original. Howard Hawks (an uncredited director for the movie) was one of the best directors in Hollywood, since he was also the man behind the camera for great Hollywood classics like "Rio Bravo" and "Sergeant York," as well as the original "Scarface." Out of this mix of money, controversy, and dreams, a film somehow emerged - and it's still one of my favorite westerns.

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