Watch Gangster's Den For Free

Pretty Good

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One of the Billy the Kid series. Fuzzy(Al St. John) knew he was playing with fire when he emptied the safe he and Billy Carson(Buster Crabbe) shared at their goldmine cabin. He just had to buy Old Man Taylor's saloon while the latter was in a selling mood. Taylor was afraid of lawyer and gang leader Horace Black, knowing that he also wanted to buy the saloon. Presumably, Black wanted to get some of the gambling money, but his main reason was the rumored gold mine entrance in a trapdoor in the office floor. Unfortunately, Black saw Fuzzy enter the saloon with his 3 bags of gold dust, and laid plans to intercept Taylor and his gold in his way out of town. This worked as planned. But, a similar plot to ambush Fuzzy was broken up by Ruth Lane(Sydney Logan), who happened to be riding around with her rifle........Well, Fuzzy soon discovered that managing a saloon wasn't as much fun as he anticipated, especially when his cook and bartender quit the first day(not clear why?). Pretty soon, he was ready to sell, even to Black, who brought the 3 sacks of gold Fuzzy had given to Taylor. Black wrote up a Bill of Sale, which was contingent on there being an entrance to a goldmine below the trap door. Fuzzy hadn't had time to read the conditions when they were disturbed by a gun battle in the saloon between several of Black's henchmen and Fuzzy's body guard. When Black stepped out into the saloon, he was shot by one of his henchmen who had guessed he was about to skip town with all the gold. Since the sale was invalidated by the goldmine provision, Fuzzy ended up with the clearly stolen gold and the saloon. He gave the gold to Buster to put back in their safe, and tried to give the saloon to his cook .......Besides Fuzzy, there are 2 other comical characters who show up frequently. Skinny Emmett Lynn is known as Webb, although Fuzzy calls him Webfoot, to his irritation. He initially was Fuzzy's cleanup man, but soon regained his prior occupation as cook, when the cook resigned. There is a stove pipe cook's hat that neither Fuzzy nor Webb can keep on their head correctly, because it's too big, and falls down over their eyes.......Then, there is rotund Charles King(Butch); an unruly customer, and later bodyguard for Fuzzy. He likes the superpowerful mixed drink that Fuzzy concocts, and is paid for his service in drinks. He also keeps getting hit on the head, and instigates the climax shootout that results in Black's death. King usually played villains, but here reverts to his former career in silent comedy shorts......The easily recognizable I. Stanford Jolley, in his usual villain role, plays Black, usually dressed in black.....This was Sydney Logan's only credited film role, she being cast in several uncredited roles. Michael Owen, who played her brother Jimmy Lane, was also mostly used in uncredited roles in a short film career......There's a whole nother side to the plot I haven't touched on, which relates to Black's attempts to secure the Lane's ranch, perhaps including Sydney, by devious means. Buster is much more involved than Fuzzy in this story. See the film to learn the details of this story. It's available at YouTube.

You will not find not a hint of a modern 20th century gangster in this Billy the Kid western, but we see a guy like I. Stanford Jolley operate like a gangster with a bit of a Snidely Whiplash villain thrown in.Jolley has two objectives to acquire that saloon from which he can operate with impunity bilking the locals, but he also wants to acquire Sydney Logan's ranch the object being Sydney, he's slowly acquiring her by extending lots of credit to her brother who is deep in debt. It's the ranch or her or maybe both.Fuzzy St. John gets the saloon temporarily and the best scenes are him trying to run it and be his own best customer. Good thing Buster Crabbe was around to set things right.Gangster's Den, an amusing item from the Billy The Kid series.

'Fuzzy' St. John could have been top billed here and I don't think anyone would have a problem with that. A perennial sidekick to film cowboys Lash LaRue and George Houston's Lone Rider, Fuzzy backs up Buster Crabbe's character Billy Carson in this oater heavy on the laughs and pratfalls. In fact, Fuzzy has a couple of comedic sidekicks of his own, running gags with 'don't call me webfoot' Emmett Lynn, and the dense but harmless Charles King.Carson and Fuzzy Jones are partners in a mining operation, when Fuzzy decides to use their profits to buy the town saloon from Old Man Taylor. There's a locked trap door in the saloon's back office that hides the entrance to a gold mine, and is sorely desired by town boss Horace Black (I. Stanford Jolley). Black also has designs on the Lane Ranch, and spends virtually all of his screen time plotting how to weasel an interest in both of them."The Gangster's Den" is about as predictable as they come for 'B' Western fare. For his part, Buster Crabbe spends most of his screen time getting the low down on his adversaries by calmly watching their play, and mixing it up with the villains when he has to. But when you get right down to it, the real treat is provided by Fuzzy and his wayward pals.

Fuzzy uses sacks of gold dust, saved by himself & Billy, to buy a bar from Taylor, who is trying to avoid selling it to crooked lawyer Black, who wants to bar and property as part of a valuable mining property land grab. While Black and his henchmen try to scare off Fuzzy, Billy has his hands full battling Black and helping Ruth Lane to save her brother Jim from losing money gambling with Black's henchmen and then their ranch to Black. Decent entry in the Billy Carson series, which doesn't feature Crabbe/Billy that much, but focuses Fuzzy's comedy antics and his encounters with Emmett Lynn as the bar's new cook and Charlie King as Fuzzy's bodyguard with a taste for strange booze concoctions. All in all, it's a fun hour to spend watching this. Rating, based on B westerns, 6.