Details

Release year: 1958

Storyline

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

Top credits

Directors

Arthur Penn

Writers

Cast

Paul Newman — Billy The Kid
Lita Milan — Celsa
John Dehner — Pat Garrett
Hurd Hatfield — Moultrie

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Did you know

• The film originally was to have been made in 1956 with James Dean in the lead role.

• Despite favorable reviews, Paul Newman was widely felt to be miscast as Billy the Kid since at thirty-three he was considerably older than the character. Billy was supposed to be eighteen at the beginning of the film.

• The title of this movie promotes a widespread myth disproven in 1986. Two almost identical tintypes of Billy the Kid were taken at the same time in 1880. The original of one tintype disappeared years ago. The second original tintype was preserved for years in the Sam Diedrick family and came to light only in 1986. Since tintypes are reversed images, the picture from the first tintype led to the myth of the left-handed gun. After the second tintype came to light, the reversed image was reversed to show the Kid as he actually posed, with a Winchester carbine in the left hand and his holstered Colt single-action on his right hip. See Robert Utley, Billy the Kid, A Short and Violent Life, University of Nebraska Press, 1989. Statement following page 110 alongside the picture of Billy the Kid.