Billy the Kid's Fighting Pals

{{Infobox film

| name = Billy the Kid's Fighting Pals

| image = Billy the kid's fighting pals lobby card.jpg

| caption = 1941 lobby card

| director = Sam Newfield

| producer = Sigmund Neufeld

| writer =

| screenplay = George H. Plympton

| story = George H. Plympton

| based_on =

| starring = Bob Steele
Al St. John
Phyllis Adair
Carleton Young

| cinematography = Jack Greenhalgh

| editing = Holbrook N. Todd

| studio = Sigmund Neufeld Productions

| distributor = Producers Releasing Corporation

| released = {{Film date|1941|04|18|U.S.}}

| runtime = 59 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

}}

Billy the Kid's Fighting Pals (also known as Trigger Men{{cite book|title=He Was Some Kind of Man: Masculinities in the B Western |author=Roderick McGillis |publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University Press |year=2009 |page=129 |isbn=9781554582891 }}) is a 1941 American Western directed by Sam Newfield{{cite book|title= Billy the Kid: A Handbook |author=Jon Tuska |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=1986 |page=168 }} for Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), and the fifth in PRC's Billy the Kid film series.

Plot

Billy the Kid (Bob Steele) and his friends Jeff (Carleton Young) and Fuzzy (Al St. John) are on the run. They make it to Paradise Town, where the trio witnesses the murder of Marshal Mason (Stanley Price). Fuzzy poses as the marshal and rides into the town, which is now ruled by a gang led by Burke (Curley Dresden) under orders from a prominent businessman in Paradise. Setting out to put an end to the gang's lawless rule over the town, the trio faces another problem—the ward of the town banker Hardy (Edward Peil, Sr.), Ann (Phyllis Adair), who is out to set obstacles for them for unknown reasons. Along the journey, they befriend Mexican secret agent Lopez (Julian Rivero), who is posing as a bartender. As the plot thickens, it is revealed that the true mastermind is Hardy, who plans on buying up all the local property to dig a smuggling tunnel to Mexico.

Cast

File:Billy the Kid's Fighting Pals 1941 poster.jpg

Bob Steele as Billy the Kid
Carleton Young as Jeff
Al St. John as Fuzzy
Edward Peil, Sr. as Hardy
Phyllis Adair as Ann
Stanley Price as Marshall Mason
Julian Rivero as Lopez
Curley Dresden as Burke
Budd Buster as Editor Mason

Release

Billy the Kid's Fighting Pals was commercially released on 18 April 1941 in the U.S. through Producers Releasing Corporation.{{cite book|author=Jeff Dykes |title=Billy the Kid: the bibliography of a legend |publisher=University of Mexico Press |year=1952 |page=128 }}{{cite book|title=Grand National, Producers Releasing Corporation, and Screen Guild/Lippert: complete filmographies with studio histories |author=Ted Oduka |publisher=McFarland & Companies |year=1989 |page=232 }}