Dirty Little Billy *** (1972, Michael J Pollard, Richard Evans, Lee Purcell) – Classic Movie Review 11,183

Director Stan Dragoti’s 1972 film Dirty Little Billy is a hard-nosed, darkly comedic revisionist Western vehicle for briefly-popular Michael J Pollard (C W Moss in Bonnie and Clyde, a coincidence since this film is written by C Moss) which sets out to show that ‘Billy the Kid Was a Punk’.

Pollard’s interesting and powerful, if one-note star performance as the twitching, demented young outlaw William ‘Billy’ H Bonney is matched by an unappealing script and Dragoti’s dull direction. The realist-style screenplay examines the birth of a psychopath with a few screws loose (contrasting with the usual portrayal of Billy the Kid as a misunderstood rebel without a cause) and turns the West into a nasty, brutish place full of people with short lives.

Though Pollard was 33, he is playing a displaced teenager, the 17-year-old Billy Bonney at the beginning of his criminal career in the days leading up to his evolution into the notorious outlaw Billy the Kid.

Dirty Little Billy is a typical anti-Western of the Vietnam War period, debunking the myths and deconstructing the hero. There is some considerable appeal in this 70s revisionist take on the West as a dirty place, mixed with a laconic, throwaway sense of humour, but mostly it is unsympathetic. Reality bites but it hurts. And yet the film is very well made, strikingly shot in Arizona and New Mexico by Ralph Woolsey, with a good, gritty feel for the West, and with Sascha Burland’s soundtrack, Malcolm C Bert’s art direction and Mickey Sherrard’s costume design also notable.

The story and screenplay are by Charles Moss and Stan Dragoti.

It is set in Coffeyville, Kansas.

Also in the cast are Lee Purcell, Richard Evans, Charles Aidman, Alex Wilson, Dran Hamilton, Willard Sage, Mills Watson, Ronny Graham, Josip Elic, Richard Stahl, Dick Van Patten, character actor Scott Walker (1922–1988), Rosary Nix, Severn Darden, Len Lesser and Gary Busey (as Basil Crabtree!). It is Ed Lauter’s film debut (as Tyler) and also marks the screen debut of Nick Nolte (as town gang leader, uncredited).

Dirty Little Billy is directed by Stan Dragoti, runs 93 minutes, is made by WRG and Dragoti Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures (1972) (US) and Columbia-Warner Distributors (1972) (UK), is written by Charles Moss and Stan Dragoti (story and screenplay), is shot in Eastmancolor by Ralph Woolsey, is produced by Jack L Warner and scored by Sascha Burland, with art direction by Malcolm C Bert.

RIP Dick Van Patten (1928–2015).

RIP Michael J Pollard (1939–2019). He was Oscar nominated as Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Bonnie and Clyde (1967).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,183

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