In Old Arizona (1928)

David · #1 05-29-2008, 12:46 PM

I watched IN OLD ARIZONA (1928) with Warner Baxter, co-directed by Raoul Walsh. This was the first version of the Cisco Kid story I've seen. I never thought I'd say this -- about anything -- but the story is dated (pleasant & humorous though it may intermittently be). The film is certainly dated: it's stagy & the performances (such as they are) are paced to silent film styles -- weirdly long pauses, grotesquely large gestures & inflections. The "grammar" of movement & vocal delivery in sound film was so new that it hadn't been mastered yet; isolated noises -- of cows, of bells, of boots on dirt -- come out of nowhere. Sometimes scenes are half over before you're interested enough to register what they are (as when Cisco rides through the camp of Mexican families & tosses them some coins). In this version, Cisco Kid is a Robin Hood type of bandit. He gets romantically shafted at the end, & his plan is of the "This'll hurt me more than it hurts you" variety. His last line is the amusing zinger -- it must be in the O. Henry story.

According to IMDb, some of the footage with Raoul Walsh in the lead was left in the final film.