Cattle Stampede

Al St. John got a little more attention in this Billy the Kid feature Cattle Stampede. While he and Billy are rescuing the leading lady St. John who was quite the rubber faced comedian was given a great moment in the series to perform some comic bits.

Buster Crabbe and St. John are once again fleeing the law and once again get themselves involved in a local situation, this time involving another would be cattle king trying to corner the local market. Part of this film involves St. John trying and succeeding in taking on one of the henchmen in a fist fight and making the outlaw look stupid and embarrassed. It would be better for his reputation to lose a gun battle with Buster Crabbe than to have Fuzzy take you out.

St. John was a great physical comedian with great use of his face and body for laughs. Western sidekicks usually fall in two categories, those who really help the hero and those who the hero keeps around for laughs and who more often than not the hero has to bail from trouble.

St. John mixed the types better than anyone else ever did. He looks so useless and that was very deceptive. This film from PRC poverty row studio that it was was one of St. John's finest cinema hours.