Not being a fan of, or knowledgeable about, cheap B Westerns, I was about to give this film a devastatingly bad review. Fortunately, I had the sense to do some research, and discovered it was the last of a series of Columbia programmers about "The Durango Kid". That doesn't make it any less bad, but at least the film gains some... provenance.
Smiley Burnette is featured in a highly unnecessary role, which includes singing a song he (probably) wrote, "It's the Law". Burnette was at one time a popular sidekick, but unlike (say) Gabby Hayes, is hardly remembered. * It's films like this that might explain why.
Hayes was a good actor who could convincingly play serious roles; Burnette is there strictly for the laughs. Not only does he appear in court dressed as a woman to deliver fake testimony, but when he's accused of wasting the court's time, he sings "It's the Law" wearing a dozen costumes, both male and female. (One suspects this sequence took longer to film than all the rest of the picture.)
Even given that this is a kiddie Western, it's unintentionally risible throughout. Burnette calls armed men "gunsels", the writer apparently not knowing what the word //really// means. And Dixie's riding outfit has to be seen to believed. One can only hope the costume designer was deliberately being campy (rather than believing there was anything historically accurate about it).
"The Kid from Broken Gun" is a laff-riot that, at a very brisk 55 minutes, doesn't wear out its welcome. An ideal "party film".
* Stan Freberg mentions Burnette in the introduction to the "Bang Gunleigh, US Marshal Field" sketch on his 1957 radio show.
Smiley Burnette is featured in a highly unnecessary role, which includes singing a song he (probably) wrote, "It's the Law". Burnette was at one time a popular sidekick, but unlike (say) Gabby Hayes, is hardly remembered. * It's films like this that might explain why.
Hayes was a good actor who could convincingly play serious roles; Burnette is there strictly for the laughs. Not only does he appear in court dressed as a woman to deliver fake testimony, but when he's accused of wasting the court's time, he sings "It's the Law" wearing a dozen costumes, both male and female. (One suspects this sequence took longer to film than all the rest of the picture.)
Even given that this is a kiddie Western, it's unintentionally risible throughout. Burnette calls armed men "gunsels", the writer apparently not knowing what the word //really// means. And Dixie's riding outfit has to be seen to believed. One can only hope the costume designer was deliberately being campy (rather than believing there was anything historically accurate about it).
"The Kid from Broken Gun" is a laff-riot that, at a very brisk 55 minutes, doesn't wear out its welcome. An ideal "party film".
* Stan Freberg mentions Burnette in the introduction to the "Bang Gunleigh, US Marshal Field" sketch on his 1957 radio show.