Wed 25 Nov 2015
A Western Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: THE RETURN OF THE CISCO KID (1939).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[4] Comments
Musings by DAN STUMPF on:
THE RETURN OF THE CISCO KID. Fox, 1939. Warner Baxter, Lynn Bari, Henry Hull, Cesar Romero, Robert Barrat, Kane Richmond, Chris-Pin Martin and C. Henry Gordon. Written by Milton Sperling. Directed by Herbert I. Leeds.
I’ve told the story before, but…
The little Repair-and-Sale shop where I bought my first typewriter had a framed photo of Warner Baxter on the wall, signed “Thanks for everything, Warner Baxter†and a typewritten note beneath it to the effect that the owner of the shop once loaned then-salesman Baxter $100 to go to Hollywood and get started in the Movies.
The typewriter purchase was in the late 1970s, and I doubt that anyone then much noticed the photo nor remembered Baxter as the guy who told Ruby Keeler, “You’re going out a youngster, but you’ve got to come back a star!” much less as the actor who won an Oscar for playing the Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona (Fox, 1929.)
In the years following Old Arizona, Fox shuffled Baxter into a number of Gay Bandido roles, including a reprise of Cisco in 1930, but in 1939 they apparently toyed with the idea of a series of B-features around the character and launched it with The Return of the Cisco Kid.
That this was intended as a B series was clear from the assignment of director Lederman and writer Sperling, who spent most of their time working on things like the Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto series. And though Return is done with the customary Fox gloss, the lack of ambition is evident throughout, particularly in some of the worst fake-riding-past-back-projection scenes ever committed to film.
Baxter himself looks a bit tired and tatty to be dashing about as O. Henry’s Robin Hood of the old west, and his romancing of Lynn Bari (a B starlet if ever there was one) has a rather pathetic edge to it, particularly as she prefers the younger Kane Richmond for story purposes. In fact, when Fox launched the Cisco series proper later that same year, they promoted Cesar Romero to the lead — more on him later, but now on to the Plot.
It’s Western Plot #A-5: heroine & father (Henry Hull, feasting on the scenery even more than usual) swindled out of their ranch. Fortunately they cross paths with Cisco and his pals Lopez (Romero) and Gordito (Chris-Pin Martin) a sort of 2-man Hispanic Defamation Society: dirty, lazy, dishonest and greasy, fleeing criminal pasts in Mexico for more promising prospects here in the U.S. “Where perhaps,†Cisco muses, “I weel become the Presidente!â€
Okay, we’ll just let that one pass uncommented-on. Suffice it to say Cisco takes a hand, there are fights, chases, merry badinage, clever trickery and a surprising lack of gunplay for a B-western. And an ending that rather surprised me so I’ll throw in a
WARNING: IF YOU THINK YOU MIGHT WATCH THIS MOVIE OR REMEMBER THIS REVIEW, STOP HERE!
Robert Barrat is the heavy in this one, a dishonest Sheriff, callous swindler and something of a tough guy — he beats a young Ward Bond in a fair fight and challenges Cisco to duke it out at one point — so when the two have their last confrontation one expects a bit of conflict.
Only it doesn’t happen. What we get instead is that Cisco warns Barrat to leave his friends alone, and Barrat promises to do that if Cisco stays out of his territory. The deal is struck, there are press releases, smiling photo-ops, and Cisco rides away to further adventures.
And that’s it. To western fans accustomed to the cathartic conclusions typical of the genre, it may come as something of a disappointment, and it certainly caught me off-guard, but on reflection I rather think I’ll remember this one long after other B-westerns have faded from recollection.
November 26th, 2015 at 3:49 pm
I’ve always found it amusing that someone won an Oscar playing the Cisco Kid or that the same year Ronald Colman was nominated playing Bulldog Drummond.
I preferred Baxter as Joaquin Murieta in IN OLD CALIFORNIA to his Cisco.
It’s ironic that in the O Henry story The Kid is a sociopathic Anglo killer who shoots Mexicans for sport and escapes the Texas Ranger after him by dressing as a woman while his girl dressed as the Kid dies while trying to divert them. Not exactly the Robin Hood of the Old West.
November 26th, 2015 at 5:24 pm
Has anyone ever written an article about the transformation came about, how the Cisco Kid morphed from a blue-eyed killer into the fellow who showed up in IN OLD ARIZONA? Was that the first film in which the Robin Hood idea came used? (I’ve never seen it, alas.)
Correct me if I’m wrong, but not much seems to be known about the early silent film, THE CABALLERO’S WAY (1914).
November 26th, 2015 at 7:18 pm
My guess would be the silent did the same thing since the character has little in redeeming quality in the story other than a little charm.
The Cisco Kid is suggested by Billy the Kid, who despite his much exaggerated reputation as a great guy beloved by the Mexican population, was known to use them and Indians as target practice and actually killed many more than 21 people though generation after generation of historians ignore that as they do his youth as a male prostitute to continue the romanticized version of Darlin’ Billy.
As for the Robin Hood of the Old West I think that may have been a tag line for the ads for the Baxter film and may even be on the posters. Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and just about every low life outlaw of the period who had a decent publicist in the popular press was compared to Robin Hood at some point. It was far from original.
Likely Nace and the other Rangers had given Porter a more nuanced view of Billy the Kid and his career of murder than the popular books about him by friends like his biographer, Pat Garrett, and his literary friends.
The story is actually important to biographers of Porter since the Texas Ranger Captain in the story is based on Lee Nace, the Ranger that arrested Porter in San Antonio, Texas on the New York embezzlement charge that sent the author to Sing Sing, and was so kind and accepting of him during the long extradition period that Porter never forgot his kindness. Nace was a famous Ranger Captain and model for the Ranger’s in Porter’s Western tales (Lester Dent appropriated the name Lee Nace for his character as well).
Dan, I got the impression you intend to review one of the Romero titles so I hope you also do one of the Gilbert Roland ones.
As for the ending of this one I wonder if they decided Baxter was just too out of shape for a believable fight scene even with a stunt double? The Crime Doctor films were devoid of action in much the same way because the hard drinking Baxter could barely do scenes that required talking walking and sitting by that point. Likely those riding scenes are so bad because Baxter could no longer sit a horse.
November 26th, 2015 at 8:20 pm
David I reviewed the Gilbert Roland Ciscos here:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=6041
Mike Nevins and Gary D. Keller wrote the definitive book on the Cisco Kid: “THE CISCO KID; American Hero, Hispanic Roots” (Bilingual Press, 2008) and I recommend it highly.
The Cisco films are no doubt the best work Cesar Romero ever did, and they have their moments — A jailbreak in THE GAY CABALLERO patterned after Billy the Kid’s break from jail, even to gunning down a deputy in the street below; Mary Beth Hughes as a sadder/wiser dance hall gal once romanced by the Kid in RIDE ON VAQUERO — but overall I just couldn’t find enough there to sustain a review.