The Gay Caballero

This, the fourth episode in Twentieth-Century-Fox's B series of the Cisco Kid, has Cesar Romero pretending to be dead, aided by a grave and a man who claim to have killed the Kid. The story is well done -- Fox's B unit was probably the best among the majors at this period -- and Edward Cronjager's usual excellent cinematography -- lots of process shots and a tremendous number of basic two-shots -- is handsome without being intrusive.

I am mildly surprised that the Fox Movie Channel is running these amusing little second features so freely -- an attempt by them to run some Charlie Chan movies a couple of years ago raised a lot of fuss about stereotypes: one would not, of course, wish to show movies that implied that an ethnic Chinese man would automatically be the smartest person in the room, or that his U.S.-born children would act like American kids.

The Gay Caballero is none other than O'Henry's famous Robin Hood of the west, the Cisco Kid. Cesar Romero is playing the Cisco Kid here and once again he and his faithful companion Gordito are there to help a lady in distress. In this case the lady is Sheila Ryan come here from the United Kingdom with her father C. Montague Shaw to buy the ranch of Janet Beecher which is in great debt.

But Beecher is a proud woman and she ain't giving the ranch up even if it means killing and robbing Shaw and Ryan.

What brings Romero and sidekick Chris-Pin Martin to the situation is hearing rumors that he's dead and later finding a grave to attest to that. It was Edmund MacDonald, Beecher's foreman who 'killed' the Cisco Kid. Naturally Cisco himself is going to stick around to see who would kill him and why.

The Gay Caballero is enjoyable cinema made possible by the personality of Cesar Romero as the Cisco Kid.

The Cisco Kid movies all start with the same premise: the Cisco Kid is presumed dead, so the real Cisco Kid is free to start over without the reputation of being a murder, bandit, and thief - even though he was never any of those things to begin with. In this one, Cesar Romero and his faithful sidekick Chris-Pin Martin travel to a town that's already out to get them. The Cisco Kid (in memory) has been accused of stealing land, but of course Cesar is innocent. Without revealing his identity, he tries to prove his innocence, get the girl, and keep his pal out of jail.

Chris-Pin actually gets a love interest in this installment, which is very cute. He tries to emulate his mentor by using some of the same lines and tricks, but they blow up in his face. He's not Cesar Romero, after all. You'll also see Sheila Ryan as Cesar's love interest, and Janet Beecher as a tough ranch owner with an interesting arrangement with the law: At suppertime, she welcomes anyone to her table. The back door to her house is always open, and any criminal or wanted outlaw can share her food without fear of arrest - even if the sheriff has a place at the table, too! Her house represents sanctuary, but once an outlaw leaves her house, it's every man for himself!

This cute series always follows the same pattern, so if you've gotten hooked on following the Cisco Kid and Gordito from town to town, you won't want to miss The Gay Caballero.

Straying far from the original character of O. Henry's Cisco Kid, this movie has Cesar Romero portraying the title character as more of a rogue bandido/Robin Hood with a touch of whimsy. Blame the scriptwriters for that, since it was only the name "Cisco Kid" that appealed to them, as they turned the originally Anglo Kid into a Mexican.

Having been in films for a number of years, Cesar Romero might have thought that his assignment to B movies to be a demotion, but after all, contract players had to do what they were told. He would soon be playing opposite 20th Century-Fox's biggest female stars, Betty Grable and Alice Faye, in those Technicolor extravaganzas.

The remainder of the cast is comprised of veteran character actors, plus Sheila Ryan (another 20th contract player) as "the girl" (you know there always has to be a "girl"). You also get to see an early Robert Sterling, as the boy who gets the girl.

Since the film runs only about an hour, one can't expect too much substance. There are the typical Western plot elements—greedy landowner, robbery, holdups, guys in jail—all the goodies crammed in to make the formula work. Nevertheless, there are worse ways to spend an hour.