Bandido do Deserto

Gilbert Roland is the Cisco Kid, in the third of his six appearances in the role for Monogram, and Frank Yaconelli is Baby. Cisco has become a fighter for the rights of peasants in this outing of the series, against the local baddies who would steal their land. Being Gilbert Roland, of course, he is also a lover, particularly of Margorie Riordan, who is the most Irish-looking Mexican beauty I've seen in a while.

20th Century-Fox was getting out of B production in this period, and they sold their series to Monogram, including the Charlie Chan properties and this one. Monogram decided to make it a singing western of sorts, with three pretty good musical numbers, including the inevitable "Cielito Lindo". Roland swaggers his way through the role with his usual macho gusto.

The Cisco Kid and his sidekick Pancho's travels take them South Of Monterey where our old west Robin Hood comes across a cheating tax commissioner in cahoots with the commandante of the pueblo garrison to bilk property owners out of their land.

Gilbert Roland and Frank Yaconelli find the robberies of the tax money attributed to a mythical silver bandit. And Roland fits that bill.

Tax collector Harry Woods also has designs on commandante Martin Garralaga's sister Marjorie Riordan. She's not having so Woods is a cheat ad a lech.

There's another female in the cast cantina singer Iris Flores. She nearly gives Cisco away. They had history and Flores also sings some nice songs.

A good Cisco Kid outing.

Arturo and his sister, Maria, are an odd casting choice, as he has a very strong Mexican accent and she has none! Carmelita might just be the stupidest supporting character, as repeatedly she says the wrong thing and has trouble reading her lines. Such are the characters you'll find in this installment of the Cisco Kid franchise from poverty row studio, Monogram Pictures. Like most of Monogram's films, this one features poor writing, acting and a slow and leisurely pace. Don't look for too many exciting moments in this film--you just won't find any.

The film is about a gang of thieves who just happen to be the sheriff and his friends. So, while many crimes are quickly solved, those involving the gang are suspiciously unsolved. So, it's up to the Cisco Kid to come to save the day and expose Arturo and the rest for the scum that they are. In other words, it takes a bandit to catch a bandit.

If you liked the older Cisco Kid films with Warner Baxter and Cesar Romero, the Monogram films just can't compare. My advice is just stop watching them when the franchise switched to Monogram--they just didn't seem to care if the films were well made or not.