Son of Belle Starr (DVD)

He's got a lawless reputation, a coiled temper and a score to settle. Handsome 19505 Western stalwart Keith Larsen plays the smoldering title role - here simply called "The Kid" - in this fanciful yarn about a corrupt sheriff's plan to ensnare The Kid by tempting him into a gold-hijacking scheme. However, The Kid enters into the plot wide-eyed, because he's after the mastermind pulling the lawman's strings, the one who framed him for another theft a year earlier. The Kid also captures the eye of a fine lady (Peggie Castle), whose allegiance he juggles with that of a sensuous senorita (Dona Drake). Biography it's not (the lady outlaw's real-life offspring also had a wild side, but the resemblance ends there), but Son of Belle Starr - from director Frank McDonald, helmer of many a Gene Autry and Roy Rogers vehicle and hundreds of classic TV episodes in a 30-year career - is solid-gold entertainment.

• western