Audie Murphy Collection IV [The Kid from Texas / The Cimaroon Kid / Drums Across the River]

This collection features three classic Technicolor westerns from the 1950s starring the incomparable Audie Murphy. The Kid from Texas (1950) – The True, Savage Story of Billy the Kid! In the movie that catapulted him into cinema legend, Audie Murphy (No Name on the Bullet) portrays the infamous William H. Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, who becomes embroiled in the historic land wars of Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory. In 1879, a rancher named Jameson takes a shine to the outlaw Billy the Kid and gives him a job as a hired hand. But when thugs working for a rival rancher kill Jameson in an ambush, the young gunslinger decides to take out every man responsible for his boss’s death. Billy guns down the culprits one by one, always staying just out of the law’s reach—until Sheriff Pat Garrett catches up with him. Directed by the prolific Kurt Neumann (Island of Lost Men, The Fly) and co-starring Gale Storm (Revenge of the Zombies), Will Geer (Broken Arrow) and Albert Dekker (Dr. Cyclops), The Kid from Texas was Murphy’s first Technicolor western and the first film on his Universal-International Pictures contract which launched the young WWII hero into western iconography. The Cimarron Kid (1952) – He Led the Last Great Outlaw Raids! Audie Murphy (Ride a Crooked Trail) came into his own as a western star in this rousing Technicolor tale of Bill Doolin, aka The Cimarron Kid, directed by the renowned Budd Boetticher (Horizons West, Wings of the Hawk, Seven Men from Now). After being falsely accused of a payroll heist, the Cimarron Kid heads for the high country where he joins up with his boyhood pals, the notorious Dalton gang. But when the Daltons are decimated during a daring daylight bank robbery, the Kid takes over what is left of the gang and hides out at a local ranch. Here he is reformed by the love of a rancher’s daughter (Beverly Tyler, Chicago Confidential), but not so reformed that he doesn’t embark upon one last heist. James Best (Kansas Raiders), the alluring Yvette Duguay (Cattle Queen of Montana) and Hugh O’Brian (The Fiend Who Walked the West) co-star. Drums Across the River (1954) – A Wilderness of Danger! An Empire of Savage Hate! Driven to desperation by hard times, Frank Walker (Lyle Bettger, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral) and a party of miners decide to dig for gold in Ute territory despite a peace treaty that forbids trespassing on their land. Joining the group in spite of his father’s warning is Gary Brannon (Audie Murphy, Night Passage), who has no qualms about breaking the treaty since his mother was killed by the tribe. The miners’ actions soon incur the wrath of the Ute and Gary finds himself caught in the middle of a deadly situation that threatens to explode into a bloody race war. Directed in Technicolor by Nathan Juran (Gunsmoke, The Golden Blade), Drums Across the River is distinguished by a cast of sagebrush giants such as Hugh O’Brian (The Shootist), Jay Silverheels (The Lone Ranger) and the great Walter Brennan (The Westerner).