Movie review - "The Outlaw" (1943) **1/2

Bizarre Western famous for the censorship battle Howard Hughes fought over Jane Russell's cleavage. Russell's role actually very much fourth in importance in the film, most of which concerns Walter Huston and Thomas Mitchell squabbling over Jack Beutel. The film is laced with homosexual innuendo: the way the characters react to each other heavily implies it. The plot revolves around Huston's horse and the relationship between the three, with Russell being the wildcard.

Mitchell and Huston are professional, Beutel is pretty, Russell inexperienced but snarls and looks terrific - OK this is hindsight but she seems to have it whereas Buteul doesn't. Surprise ending, which builds to the death of Billy the Kid... only the amiable Doc Holliday dies and Billy rides off into the sunset. After an interesting beginning the film starts to slump and then is sporadically interesting: Hughes uses "wacky" music every time something funny happens. The last bit of the film throws in some Indians who we never see - production values aren't that high, apart from Jane Russell.