Review of In Old Arizona

A pioneering western, the first "talkie" shot outdoors, which makes its soundtrack rather crowded sometimes. Like all great westerns, this one builds on an archetypal theme—in this case, a love triangle. By far the most attractive element of the movie is the twinkly-eyed charm and humour of the Cisco Kid (Warner Baxter), who carries the entire story. He is courtly, smart, funny, and well-dressed. The movie's always better when he's on screen. As his fickle girlfriend Tonia Maria, Dorothy Burgess is less convincing. She is a Latina vamp in the flouncing mode, unable to move through a space without holding her arms akimbo and looking over her shoulder, and tossing her pretty head, and wiggling her hips, and sashaying where a less attractive woman might just walk. Her fake Mexican accent is off-putting, too, though not as off-putting as the fake Brooklyn accent of the cavalry sergeant Mickey Dunne (Edmund Lowe) sent to capture the bandit. He says "goils" for "girls," and "poifect," and stuff like that. Lowe is a big man in a uniform, sort of a film history stand-in waiting for John Wayne to come along and play that sort of part without the sneering humour and waggling eyebrows. The sergeant is a caricature of western manliness, full of contempt for women and the other half of the formula, eagerness to spend time with them. Ironically, as he lures the Cisco Kid's fickle girlfriend Tonia Maria to betray her lover for the $5000 reward, he seems to be falling for her in earnest. Aware of her betrayal, the Kid spends a little time with her pointedly speaking of constancy. He has replaced the note she's sent to the sergeant with one warning they're planning to switch clothes for the getaway, and the sergeant shoots her. The Cisco Kid pauses to light a cigarillo. Looking back toward the hacienda, he quotes two lines from a song he'd been singing earlier: "Her flirting days are over, and she's ready to settle down." He turns and rides away into the night.