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Glamorous thriller of the gun-ruled border, filmed entirely against nature's own backgrounds- the one show you won't want to miss!
Mexican-bandit Montero and his deaf-mute sidekick Coloso are being pursued through the sand-dunes of southern Arizona by lawman Bob-Cat Manners and his posse. Montero has intentions of robbing the bank owned by skinflint Lucius Perkins, but is sidetracked by the attractions of singing-teacher Helen Wardell. He learns that Perkins has marital designs on Helen and holds the mortgage on her ranch. But Helen is in love with Bill Howard. Perkins offers Montero money to kill his rival.
I wasn't bothered by this one nearly as much as I probably should have been. In fact, I found it to be enjoyable, i.e. in a cringey kind of way. Chief among its sins is the astonishingly racist portrayal by Rod La Rocque as Montero, the most stereotyped Mexican you've ever seen... even worse than Speedy Gonzalez. His accent is perfectly ghastly -- cartoonishly broad and heavily accented -- as is his manner. Here's the thing, though. His attempts to be funny actually end up being funny because of how off-the-mark the performance is!
Secondly, for a western purportedly about the pursuit of a wanted criminal, there's no action here, except for a few scenes of horseback riding. It's a…
As it's a early talkie western, it really is a talking western, with Rod La Rocque bursting out one cringy line after the other. Becomes humorous because of it, but it's not good. At least not from a writing perspective. One can cut it some slack with the rest, but anything that tries to add comedy as far as dialogue goes was terrible. And that goes double for James Donlan act as comic relief!
Mexican outlaw Montero (Rod La Rocque) is traveling through Arizona and being pursued by lawman Bobcat (Walter Long) but that doesn't stop him from trying to romance the beautiful Helen (Doris Kenyon).
I'm not a fan of CGI but I think great directors know how to properly use it without it being distracting to the story. I say that because I feel the same way about early sound movies. Good directors knew how to use the new technology but there were many who just weren't comfortable with it. Director Lambert Hillyer started off with low-budget Westerns and would eventually make films like DRACULA'S DAUGHTER but I think it's fair to say he wasn't quite use to the new process here.…
