Lightnin' Bill Carson (1936) User Reviews

"They say white horses are lucky".

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 6 February 2010]

If I knew how many Ace of Spades were going to show up in the story I would have kept count. They were all over the place, and as far as I can recall, card cheat Pecos Kid (Rex Lease) only had one fixed deck.

You know, once the picture was over and I began thinking about it, I couldn't come up with a central plot element that made the story work. Breed Hawkins (John Merton) never delivered the letter to Marshal Bill Carson (Tim McCoy) requesting he name his own ticket to be sheriff of San Jacinto. Carson, for his part, ordered Pecos Kid out of Blue Gap, even though they had some connection in the past and Carson liked him personally. That pretty much sums it up for me, but then for some reason, Carson decided to follow Pecos, not knowing he was headed for San Jacinto. My question then is, what would have been the point of that? Pecos wasn't going anywhere in particular until Breed Hawkins enticed him with a gambling proposition. But to my mind, there was no particular reason I can think of for Carson to follow The Kid in the first place since he just ran him out of town. Am I missing something?

Here's something else that wasn't thought through very well - when Silent Tom Rand (Harry Worth) has that 'Vertigo' style flashback, he envisions his brother (who happens to be the Pecos Kid) being hung by the sheriff's posse, just the way it happened. But he wasn't there! I recall a similar scene in a 1961 sci-fi flick, "The Phantom Planet". It makes me wonder why it never struck the film makers that you can't have a memory of something that you didn't experience - very baffling.

I'll give the picture a bonus point though for the creative ending in which Silent Tom paid for his role in avenging his brother's death. You knew that Marshal Lightnin' would have to go after him, but the kicker was that Tom had emptied his six-gun. It seemed to me that Carson didn't feel all that bad about it.

Pecos Kid

[StrictlyConfidential · 5/10 · 16 September 2021]

"Lightnin' Bill Carson" was originally released back in 1936.

Anyway - As the story goes - The marshal of Blue Gap steps down from his post in order to take to the road to track down two outlaws he had previously driven out of town. The marshal comes across the bandits while they are robbing a stage and he witnesses one of them killing the driver.

Confused plot with too little action

[malcolmgsw · 3/10 · 24 November 2010]

I rather wonder what the audience would have made of this went it was originally released.Given that the main audience of these type of films would be children how would they have dealt with the confused and almost unintelligible plot,the lack of action,the funereal pace and the downbeat ending.I am grateful for the other review to confirm that i was not going mad and that the story was totally confusing.Tim McCoy was clearly a big name at one time but by the time this film was made,one of 8 in that year,he was clearly showing his age.The last 20 minutes with the lynching ,the vengeance of the brother and his virtual suicide in the gun fight at the finale are more reminiscent of "The Ox Bow Incident" than a standard B movie.Also i would mention that the brother appears to be badly wounded in the 3rd killing but the only problem it seems is the hole it made in his jacket.Not a film worth viewing.

Possibly McCoy's best.

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 24 February 2021]

The summary on IMDB actually doesn't address the first 20 minutes or so of "Lightnin' Bill Carson". When the story begins, Sheriff Bill Carson (Tim McCoy) has been keeping the town he works for safe and crime-free. One of the crooks he deals with there is the Pecos Kid, a professional gambler and card cheat. However, instead of arresting him, he kindly just tells him to keep moving....and the Kid appreciates it so much he decides to give up his wicked ways and he heads to San Jacinto*, Texas.

It's an interesting coincidence that the Kid goes to this town, as the people of San Jacinto have sent someone to Lightnin' Bill to ask him to become their new sheriff...though the guy is a crook and never asks Bill! However, the trail to some bandits also leads to San Jacinto and he heads to this town anyway. Before he arrives, some crooks rob the stage and kill the deputy....and pin it on the Pecos Kid! And, they do such a good job that the Kid think he actually DID kill the deputy!

After Lightnin' Bill captures the Kid and places him in jail, the same baddies who framed him help the Kid to escape...so that they'll have an excuse to kill him and keep him quiet. The current sheriff deputizes a posse and quickly finds the Kid...and instead of bringing him back to jail, they do a quickie trial and hang him...in other words, it was a lynch mob. It's a shame, as in the meantime, Lightnin' Bill has discovered who's behind all this and he arrests him!

Now if this was just a typical B-movie, the film would end here as there's more than enough plot for a 50-65 minute film (which Bs were). But tiny Excelsior/Puritan Pictures pulled out the stops and the film is A-picture length at 75 minutes. This final portion consists of the Kid's brother exacting revenge on the lynch mob...something you certainly can understand! But what does Bill do about all this? See the film and find out for yourself.

This is a dandy Tim McCoy film...far longer and better than most. In total, he made 8-10 of these Lightnin' Bill Carson films and most were among his best movies. And, it's hard to imagine that it was made by an itty-bitty studio, as you'd expect much less than the movie delivers. Well worth seing.



*If you care, San Jacinto is just north of Houston, Texas.