Buster Crabbe Double Feature: Rustler's Hideout (1945) / Fugitive Of The Plains (1943)

In 1941, with his cliffhanger-serial triumphs (as Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Tarzan) behind him, former Olympic swimming champion Larry "Buster" Crabbe accepted an offer from producer Sigmund Neufeld to star in a series of low-budget Westerns for Producers Releasing Corporation, the smallest studio in Hollywood. Teamed with silent-screen comic Al St. John, Crabbe starred for PRC in three-dozen horse operas over the next five years, first as reformed bad man Billy the Kid and later as wandering cowboy Billy Carson. The series became immensely popular due to their fast action, familiar casts and, above all, the palpable chemistry between Buster and Fuzzy. The former range partners were so beloved by youthful Saturday-matinee audiences that PRC eventually billed them on screen as "Our Old Pals." - Ed Hulse

Rustler's Hideout (1945, B&W): Billy Carson faces impossible odds as he battles a gang of crooked cattlemen. Starring Buster Crabbe, Al "Fuzzy" St. John, Patti McCarty, Charles King, John Merton; Directed by Sam Newfield.

Fugitive Of The Plains (1943, B&W): Billy the Kid is accused of perpetrating a series of crimes committed in the badlands. With his sidekick Fuzzy, the former bandit heads for Red Rock County and infiltrates the outlaw gang determined to clear his name. Starring Buster Crabbe, Al "Fuzzy" St. John, Maxine Leslie, Jack Ingram, Karl Hackett; Directed by Sam Newfield.

• western