One of the PRC series of B westerns starring Buster Crabbe as Billy the Kid/Billy Carson, and comical sidekick Al St. John as Fuzzy. In this series, every now and then, Fuzzy gets a hankering to buy and run a small business, at least for a short while, until Billy decides it's time to vacate this town. The owner of the newspaper, John Martin(John Elliot) was shot dead in the street after giving a speech promoting his crusade against the local outlaws, and advocating the local financing of a telegraph line. This left his daughter Edith in charge of the newspaper. However, she couldn't run it alone. Thus, pretty soon , it was in foreclosure, and a sheriff's sale held. Bidding rose to $3000., which was all the money, save 50c,that Fuzzy had from his reward money for bringing in 2 bank robbers. So, he bid $3000.50. Unrecognized outlaw Pete(John Merton) wanted to bid up again, but bad boy Billy pushed through the crowd and punched Pete in the breadbasket, so that he was temporarily unable to speak. This sealed the deal for Fuzzy. Of course, Billy and Pete had a slugfest after Pete recovered. And, of course, Fuzzy was woefully qualified to be a newspaper editor........When Fuzzy and Billy go into the saloon, Fuzzy is reading a newspaper. Pete throws an uncooked egg that goes through the newspaper and hits Fuzzy in the face. Billy returns the favor, and Billy and Pete are in another brawl........Later, rancher and unrecognized leader of the local criminal element, Lafe Barlow(Charles King) warns Fuzzy and Edith that inflammatory editorials will be risky to their well being. Barlow would become the leader of the minority anti-telegraph faction, whereas Fuzzy would become the leader of the majority pro-telegraph faction. Fuzzy was elected to take care of the money from the most recent telegraph drive. After accidentally spilling the ink bottle near the money, he hid it, but, unfortunately, some peeping Toms saw where he hid it. They burst in, knock him out, and take the money. A little later, Billy is trailing a suspicious man, who goes to Barlow's ranch house. Billy bursts through the door, and knocks out the man. Soon, Pete enters and Billy knocks him out(for the 3rd time), as well. He then searches around the desk, and finally finds what appears to be the stolen money. He takes Pete with him to town, and enters a room where Barlow is whipping up the crowd to lynch Fuzzy. He shows the money, and Pete corroborates his finding. I'm very surprised that he doesn't point out the ink-stained bills as proof that this is the stolen money!.......The climactic scene follows. I will let you see the film to find out what happens. It's available at YouTube. In any case, as with his other short-term entrepreneurships, when Fuzzy sees Billy leaving town, he abandons his property and catches up with Billy. Poor Edith: she lost her newspaper owner, and her potential boyfriend(Billy).

Al St. John got his start in pictures by appearing in numerous comedy shorts along with his uncle, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. By the 1930s, St. John had reinvented himself and was no longer a comic foil but a cowboy sidekick--and was re-christened Al 'Fuzzy' St. John--and he made a ton of westerns as Fuzzy. The title of this film refers to this character, though it certainly could also be referring to the print available from archive.org--a site linked to IMDb for hundreds of public domain films. So, if you can find a better copy elsewhere, more power to you--this one is badly in need of restoration.The film begins with a bank robbery. Fuzzy solves this crime and collects a reward. On a whim, he buys a local newspaper--one dedicated to standing up to the evil rustlers. With the help of his friend, Billy (Buster Crabbe), he fights the forces of not-niceness. Naturally, they aren't about to just give up and frame Fuzzy for embezzling the funds for the new telegraph lines. Can these swell heroes prevail? While this film is made by the crappy low-budget PRC Studio, the acting and script are pretty good. Plus, unlike many other series westerns, there's no singing! Enjoyable fluff--with a very strange ending.

Without knowing a lot about Buster Crabbe, it certainly was big of him to let Fuzzy St. John take center stage in this adventure. While both men capture a pair of bank robbers in the opening scene, Fuzzy uses the reward money to buy a newspaper in Red Rock and try to live like a 'normal' citizen. You know this can only go so far, and pretty soon Fuzzy finds himself in the middle of a local dust up between cattle rustlers and the locals.Even with the serious subject matter, Billy Carson (Crabbe) spends a lot of time laughing heartily at Fuzzy's expense throughout most of the picture. That seemed a bit out of character for him but Fuzzy took it in stride the way he always does. If you keep an eye on Fuzzy when he leaves the newspaper office the first time, the amount of printer's ink on his face increases by the time he picks up his beer at the saloon.You know, if you really pay attention to what's going on in these old Westerns, you begin to wonder how they came up with some of this stuff. Like in the Red Rock Saloon - why were there raw eggs in dishes on the bar? Other than provide a prop for the bad guys to throw down with Fuzzy, why would they have been there?Or how about the scene when Carson knocks out Rusty while he was trying to set fire in the barn. The other four henchmen hung around while Carson brought Rusty in to the rancher meeting for questioning; why didn't one of them go ahead and start the fire? I guess that's why I get such a kick out of these oaters. Not only Westerns, but mysteries, sci-fi and horror flicks of the era as well. There didn't seem to be much pressure to keep things believable to keep a story line going. I will say this though, the boots behind the boulder gimmick in the opener was something I hadn't seen before. Very clever, but..., wait a minute - how did they do that?

Of all of the B Western sidekicks, Smiley Burnette was the only one to get top billing in a B Western. Fuzzy Settles Down should have had Al St. John with top billing in the credits. As Fuzzy Q. Jones, St. John is the title character and he has the most screen time. Buster Crabbe, as Billy Carson, is a strong hero, but he really is like a "reverse sidekick" for most of the movie. It is strange, but in the way that sidekicks usually said things to build up the image of the hero, Billy Carson's words and actions work to strengthen Fuzzy's character.Fuzzy earns reward money (with Billy's help) for catching two bank robbers. He is determined to use that money to settle down somewhere. When Fuzzy and Billy happen to ride into a town where the local newspaper is up for auction, Fuzzy decides to buy it. They use the newspaper to help rid the town of local bandits. Billy Carson moves the plot along at all the right times, but it is only at the climax of the movie that he does anything significant.Al St. John was usually a better actor than the lead actors he supported, and the people at PRC must have been aware of it. He absolutely knew how to entertain and draw attention to himself while on screen. This movie is his showcase. If you are a fan of Fuzzy Q. Jones, this movie spotlights his character more than usual.