Lucky Cisco Kid

Cesar Romero as the Cisco Kid and Chris-Pin Martin as his bloodthirsty and funny sidekick Gordito find themselves in a town where the Cisco Kid is burning ranches and stealing payrolls, which is a surprise to them. In between making love to showgirl Mary Beth Hughes and helping out widowed Evelyn Venable and her son, Johnny Sheffield on their ranch, they investigate. Dana Andrews is an army sergeant trying to catch the Cisco Kid and Miss Hughes, and Francis Ford is the court clerk when Romero turns the law on its head in search of justice.

This episode in the B series concentrates more on comedy than earlier ones, and is indelibly helped by cinematographer Lucien Andriot's beautiful landscape and two-shot compositions. Andriot was born in Paris -- the on in France, not Texas -- in 1892, and was the cameraman on some French shorts by 1909. By 1914, he was lensing films for the Shuberts. Although he rarely got top assignments, his landscape photography made him a natural for westerns, and he peaked in the early 1930s when he was the cinematographer on THE BIG TRAIL. He continued working until 1962, when he did some TV work and lived until 1979.

The best story about Andriot is that one of the ladies complained that he wasn't making her look as beautiful as he had five years earlier. With Gallic charm, he admitted it, but noted "I am five years older."