Wed 20 May 2020
A CISCO KID Western Movie Review by David Vineyard: THE GAY CAVALIER (1946).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[6] Comments
THE GAY CAVALIER. Monogram Pictures, 1946. Gilbert Roland, Martin Garragala. Nacho Galindo, Ramsay Ames, Helen Gerald, Tristam Coffin, John Merton. Screenplay by Charles Belden, based on the character created by O Henry. Foreword by Sidney Sutherland. Directed by William Nigh.
— the Cisco Kid
Gilbert Roland rides onto the screen as the Cisco Kid in this B Western and does so with a good deal more romance and less action than you might expect.
Cisco had been around ever since the story by O Henry whose original character is a far cry from the charming Mexican Robin Hood we know and love.
The original Cisco was a sociopathic Anglo Billy the Kid type hunted by a brave Texas Ranger captain (based on Lee Nace the Ranger who arrested and befriended William Sidney Porter in Texas for embezzlement). In the story the Kid uses his Mexican girlfriend to escape the Ranger having her ride away on his horse in his clothes and to be killed by the Ranger while he escapes on her horse in drag.
By the time Cisco came to the big screen, he was a charming but still ruthless Mexican bandit played by Warner Baxter, who managed to take home the first Academy Award playing the part in 1929 (Ronald Colman was nominated as Bulldog Drummond that year) in In Old Arizona.
Over the years Cisco was a handsome Cesar Romero (mostly playing himself), the beloved Duncan Renaldo of television fame, Jimmy Smits in a made-for-television movie, and the dashing and dangerous Gilbert Roland.
Roland my be billed as the gay cavalier, but there is nothing light or happy about him. There are a few rueful or slightly sinister smiles, and he romances some beautiful women, but his Cisco all in black is almost noirish dark, driven, and haunted as well as philosophical.
Roland, debuted in the silent era and went from leading man to character actor over his career, but as Leonard Maltin once wrote, no movie was ever worse for his presence, and here as a dark and sardonic Cisco he brings something new to the character.
The film opens with Cisco on a hill top standing with his hat off beside a cross. It is the grave of his father. As his fat friend Baby (Nacho Galindo) explains to one of the gang, Cisco’s father was the most powerful man in California at one time, and now Cisco to atone for his father’s sins and so the old man can rest, has become a Robin Hood stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.
I don’t think any other film ever gave Cisco an origin story.
Meanwhile Don Felipe (Martin Garragala), a poor ranchero, is marrying his daughter (Helen Gerrald) off to wealthy gringo John Lawton (Tristam Coffin) though she loves a poor Mexican boy. What no one knows is that Lawton and his man (John Merton — a bad guy surprise surprise) are criminals planning to use Don Felipe’s estate as a base and have already held up the money gathered to build a new church and blamed the Cisco Kid for the crime.
That doesn’t sit well with this Cisco. He determines to find whoever imitated him and stole the church money, and once he knows it is Lawton to play Cupid for the young Juan and Don Felipe’s daughter.
Meanwhile Cisco finds time to romance the older and much more attractive daughter, Ramsay Ames.
There is a raid on Lawton’s hideout to steal the money back for the church, and a well staged duel with swords between Coffin and Roland, but little boys must have been squirming in their seats on Saturday mornings as this one unreeled. On the other hand, adults may have enjoyed a more mature Western done with some actual charm and a charismatic lead who could actually act.
Leonard Maltin’s axiom stands. Like anything else he was in, no movie was ever worse for the presence of Gilbert Roland, and many, like this one, far better for him being in it.
May 20th, 2020 at 3:53 pm
The series gets a little lighter, but not much, and eventually Chris-pin Martin shows up as Pancho, but there is nothing like an “Oh, Ceesco…” moment.
They remain fairly well made for Monogram, with decent scripts that tend to show Anglo’s (the Romero films usually have Cisco romancing and helping Anglo against Anglo) taking advantage of poor Mexicans and offered a rare exception to the evil Mexicans, comic opera caballero’s, and peasants in so many Westerns of the time.
Later films usually list a credit for Roland contributing to the script, and it shows in the intelligent dialogue and interesting romantic scenes (which include some strong female characters Hispanic, French, and Anglo) that are much better than you would expect in a Cisco Kid movie. This Cisco also rides with a gang of bandits that he uses sparingly and is no where near as much of a loner as the other Cisco Kids.
This series is almost completely different from the Romero or Renaldo takes on the smiling Robin Hood. Roland is much darker, more serious, his romantic scenes not light or playful but with actual sexual tension. Nor is a Portugese like the Romero Cisco who mentions at least once every movie he is not Mexican but European, and thus it is okay for him to romance Anglo women (the Romero films are fun though, high budget for B films and have secondary leads like Dana Andrews).
Roland’s Cisco is a complex man, not a cartoon do gooder or a kid’s hero, a proud, dangerous, intelligent, and interesting man with his own moral code he holds well above the law.
May 20th, 2020 at 4:40 pm
That’s quite an overview of the Gilbert Roland series, David. The only Cisco Kid I knew as a kid was Duncan Renaldo, but you’ve convinced me that I ought to go back in time just a little more. It sounds like it will be worth the trip. Thanks!
May 21st, 2020 at 12:07 pm
Re The Cisco Kid.
Anyone other than Warner Baxter. Roland suits me, but Romero was, as he usually is, loads of fun. As for Renaldo, ‘Up the Diablo.’
May 21st, 2020 at 9:54 pm
Barry,
The Romero films are great fun despite Cisco being Portugese, Renaldo was wonderful. I was lucky enough to meet him once and he was everything you expected.
Roland’s take is somewhat darker and more complex than others on the same character is all and much more decidedly Mexican.
May 22nd, 2020 at 5:54 pm
Roland’s Cisco is my favorite, as noted here:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=6041
May 22nd, 2020 at 7:03 pm
I seem to have forgotten that post. Sorry, Dan, but thanks for the nudge and reminder!