The Gay Desperado

In a rather bizarre opening scene, a room full of Mexicans are at the theater watching a gangster film. It's odd because all the men have huge sombreros (hats) on--making it practically impossible for anyone to see the film. Suddenly, a fight breaks out and Leo Carrillo's gang takes on the rest of the audience. In a panic, the theater owner has Chivo (Nino Martini) take the stage and begin singing, as he has an amazingly beautiful tenor voice. The fight stops almost immediately, as everyone (especially Carrillo) is in love with the voice. I usually hate this sort of singing, but I also was amazed--he was that good.

Afterwords, Carrillo announces that Chivo MUST join his gang--or else. Given little choice, Chivo agrees and the next thing you know, Carrillo and his gang take over a local radio station and force everyone to listen to Chivo's operatic stylings! As the gang makes a getaway (after all, the police are coming), the come upon two young people and kidnap them (one, by the way, is a young Ida Lupino, who plays Jane). Chivo is smitten with Jane and makes an amazingly awkward play for her--it's a scene you just have to see to believe.

In the meantime, Carrillo goes in search of an American bandit, Butch. Carrillo mistakenly thinks that American bandits are like the ones featured in gangster films and wants Butch to teach them how to act like these film crooks! So how does all this get resolved? Does Chivo get to leave the gang? What about Lupino and her now ex-boyfriend? And does the gang become more Americanized--with gang members who act more like Jimmy Cagney and Edward G. Robinson? Tune in yourself to this silly yet strangely enjoyable B-movie.

Pluses are Nino Martini's amazing voice, cute supporting characters and a light and silly atmosphere. Minuses are Nino Martini's almost constant singing--a little went a very long way. In addition, the script is basically fluff. Enjoyable fluff, but still fluff.

This is, as others have pointed out, a lovely film in many ways.

I particularly enjoyed seeing the Tucson, AZ landscape as it was some 80 years ago. This appears to have been filmed in the area in which Columbia Pictures built a whole 1860s town for the movie "Arizona." On a personal note, I can look eastward from my back yard and recognize the mountains and the terrain that has been preserved as a county park.

The correction I need to make is the use in various reviews of the Spanglish non-word "bandito" (created to rhyme with the product name Frito) in every place where the correct word, readily found in any Spanish dictionary, would be "bandido."

This is an excellent film for all the reasons cited in other reviews. However, it is interesting to note that the film could also be interpreted as a social critique of what might be seen as materialism or American values. By so exaggerating all the characters to the point of absurdity, Mamoulian creates a space where this sort of critique can "pass" as zany humor. Yet notice that the Mexican "bandidos" are the only honorable people in the whole film; they live by a code of honor whereas neither the American gangsters NOR the American lawmen could care less what is right and wrong. Also, the American tycoon's son who gets kidnapped is a despicable human being and a spoiled brat - he assumes his daddy's money can buy him out of any trouble and cannot conceive that some things have no price. Finally, the bandidos defend not only the concept of honor and giving one's word, but they also celebrate the inherent value and beauty of art (music). In short, this reviewer believes there is a lot more to this movie than might first be apparent.

This film is one of the hidden gems of the 1930's Hollywood studio system. It is a wonderful operetta buffo, a delightful parody of all those Mexican bandito westerns and American gangster films of the early decade. The Mexican stereotypes are a bit painful but they are deliberately exaggerated for this comedy about a Mexican bandit who wants to learn real outlaw lessons from the American gangsters seen on the movie screen. The in-joke is that when we finally do meet those gangster, led by perennial heavy Stanley Fields, he is surrounded by other racketeers that look and act exactly like Edward G. Robinson and George Raft. And that is only one of the numerous little in-jokes in this film. Director Mamoulian's visual style and camera, his use of set-ups and shadows, of bandits riding against the evening sky, is so remarkable that the New York Film Critics gave him the Best Director Award for 1937. The script is witty and as fast paced as any Howard Hawks, especially the inter-play between Carrillo and Harold Huber in what must be his best Hollywood role. He and Mischa Auer as a mute Spanish Indian are delightfully. A real gem produced by Mary Pickford's United Artist company.

This movie is funny whenever Leo Carillo and Herbert Huber are together onscreen. Interesting to hear Ida Lupino before she completely lost her British accent. Mischa Auer has a subdued role--that was a disappointment. Note that Butch and his gang is made up of Hollywood gangster-actor look-alikes.