Not quite Billy the Kid...

Jack Slade

1953

A few years ago, in the semi-autobiographical Roughing It, the great Samuel Clemens told America about a legendary figure in the Old West, a man Clemens had heard stories of during his travels. The man was Jack Slade. He wasn't as well known as others like Jesse James or Billy the Kid, but Slade was equally savage, if not even more so. On the flip side, as an agent for the Overland Stage Company and the Pony Express, Slade was an important part of the opening of the west. While those events are true, I suppose it's really unknown how much of this movie is.

Beginning with an incident in Slade's childhood back in Illinois, the film stops way short of his Virginia City hanging at the hands of the infamous Vigilantes of Montana. Like with so many Based Upon Biopics, what was covered is really just an overview of Slade's life. B-actor Mark Stevens does a nice job playing Slade while Dorothy Malone is a treat as the rather gorgeous and voluptuous Virginia Dale, the woman Slade married and tried to live a civil life with.

Unfortunately, this movie doesn't do his interesting life justice. Because Jack Slade was no Billy The Kid, I suppose that's why his life story hasn't been given a better treatment in the big screen. Oh well.

More info on Jack Slade at: www.over-land.com