Valley Of Vengeance (1944) On DVD

As young boys, Billy Carson and Fuzzy Q. Jones witness the brutal murder of their parents committed by Andrew Carberry and Rance Brett. Years later, Billy and Fuzzy return to the frontier town of King City, in search of the murderers. Before they can exact their revenge, Carberry and Brett are shot and killed. Arrested as the prime suspects Billy and Fuzzy tell the U. S. Marshal a strange tale of thievery, treachery, and murder

Possibly the best of the several dozen PRC B Westerns starring Buster Crabbe and Fuzzy St. John,Valley of Vengeance is certainly the most unusual. It begins with the story apparently well underway and quickly proceeds to what would normally be the climax, albeit one leaving numerous questions unanswered. Screenwriter Joe O'Donnell throws the viewer a curve by having Crabbe explain everything in flashbacks consuming most of the film's running time - an offbeat narrative gimmick that enhances the intricate plot. Buster and Fuzzy are also seen in this disc's special added attraction: an episode of "The Gabby Hayes Show," the ABC series in which the beloved sidekick introduced abridged versions of vintage PRC Westerns.

This PRC "Billy the Kid" western once more teams Buster Crabbe, as Billy Carson, with Al St.John, as perennial sidekick Fuzzy Q. Jones. Motivating the plot is the wholesale slaughter of two families by a gang of outlaws. Twenty years later, Billy and Fuzzy, survivors of the massacre, return to the small town where the instigator of the killings resides. Out of several suspects, our heroes narrow down the culprit by means of a twitching eye-the same device used by Hitchcock in YOUNG AND INNOCENT (1937). Evelyn Finley, who'd been a western ingenue since the 1930s, doesn't look a day older as the film's heroine.