Parson and the Outlaw is a cheapjack rally of washed-up movie actors, leftover sets and cobwebbed cliches. Anthony Dexter, who failed to scale the heights after starring in the 1951 biopic Valentino, plays Billy the Kid, once more as a victim of society. The parson of the title is Sonny Tufts, who by 1957 was already a national joke ("Sonny TUFTS?") Billy the Kid tries to mend his ways thanks to the intervention of the parson, but he winds up plugged and planted trying to avenge the preacher's murder. Even such able supporting actors as Marie Windsor, Jean Parker and Bob Steele look embarrassed by their tawdry surroundings. One of the last and least of Columbia's programmer westerns, Parson and the Outlaw is best buried on Boot Hill and forgotten.