Directed: Irving Cummings

Year: 1929

Nominated: Best Picture, Best Director – Irving Cummings, Best  Actor – Warner Baxter

Won: Best Actor – Warner Baxter

Plot in 25 Words: A very camp bandit is betrayed by the woman he loves. He gets revenge in a deadly manner and loves to rob many more stage coaches.

In My Opinion: Well. I’m not a fan of westerns. Never have been. I hear western and all that comes to mind is that annoying rawhide song and the memory of Doris Day being very clumsy.

This wasn’t strictly speaking a true western because it had no cowboys or Indians. But it had bandits and stagecoaches so I’m sticking it in that genre!

I checked the Wikipedia page before viewing and I read the film was about a gay cowboy caballero. Fairly progressive for the time thinks I, and off I go with an open mind.

Until The Cisco Kid was shown to be in love with a woman I had no trouble accepting that plot. From his terrible drawn on mustache to the innuendo riddled barber shop scene where he and a lawman play with each others groinally placed guns.

This film was very cheesy but I found myself almost enjoying it for the badness. Every cringe worthy bit of dialogue was brilliant. My favourite being when Sgt Mickey Dunn agrees with the barber on what makes a woman beautiful. “Fat dames are old fashioned” – Nice!

The rubbishest (and therefore my favourite) part of the story came at the end. The Cisco Kid’s love had betrayed him, sold him out to her other lover – the Sgt. The Kid intercepts a note meant for the Sgt, a note detailing their escape so a trap can be laid for them and the Sgt can finally get his hands on the Kid (Phrasing!) He foils their plan in a truly dastardly fashion – he slightly changes it! He makes sure the Sgt sees a note which claims the outlaw will be wearing women’s clothes while his love will be wearing men’s clothes and riding away from the trail. And they fall for that.

It’s a very petty ending that would be fitting if it had been done a little smarter.

Star Performer: Edmund Lowe as the Sgt Mickey Dunn. Played the lawman as straight and law-abiding as he could. Did a decent job with some terrible dialogue. It’s a shame there was no Oscars for supporting actor/actress at this point as he would have stood a very good chance.

Overall: Not a terrible film but I’m very surprised it won a best actor Oscar. All I saw was a fair amount of posturing from Warner Baxter.