IN OLD ARIZONA (1928)
Direction: Raoul Walsh and Irving Cummings
Cast: Edmund Lowe, Warner Baxter, Dorothy Burgess
Screenplay: Tom Barry; from O. Henry's (aka William Sidney Porter) 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way"
Oscar Movies, Pre-Code Movies
Warner Baxter, In Old Arizona
TIRED IN THE SADDLE
What makes Irving Cummings and Raoul Walsh's In Old Arizona (barely) watchable decades after its highly successful initial release is its sheer bizarreness. Technically, the picture, billed as the first outdoor talkie, is of interest solely as a museum piece. Despite the use of the American Southwest's wide-open spaces as background, In Old Arizona is really not that different from other statically framed, slow-moving, and poorly acted films of the period. From a thematic standpoint, however, this racy Western is a must-see because of its in-your-face pre-Production Code sensibility, which allows murder to go unpunished and offers dialogue containing numerous risqué double entendres.
The plot itself, adapted by Tom Barry from O. Henry's short story "The Caballero's Way," is quite simple:
The Cisco Kid (Warner Baxter) is a twisted Robin Hood of the Arizona desert who robs the rich to help his poor, greedy self. In this bowdlerized version of O. Henry's ruthless bandit of the American Southwest, the Kid also happens to be a childlike character who likes to joke around with the guys, tease his pursuers, and make love to a spicy Mexican woman. That last habit turns out to be quite dangerous, for the señorita in question, the trampy Tonia María (Dorothy Burgess), is nothing more than a heartless double-crosser.
Despite all the expensive gifts the Kid brings her, Tonia just can't resist a man in uniform. And really, who can blame her? The problem, however, is that Tonia María's man of the moment is Sergeant Mickey Dunn (Edmund Lowe), a cavalry officer who wants to capture the Kid dead or alive.
Not surprisingly, Tonia decides to help the new object of her affection. But the Kid — code name: El Conejito (Little Rabbit) — is ready with a few deadly tricks of his own.
As mentioned above, In Old Arizona is at its best when flaunting its pre-Code humor. For instance, in one curious exchange dripping with gay innuendo, Sgt. Dunn and the Cisco Kid caress each other's strategically placed guns while discussing their remarkable size. (A toned-down version of this sequence was later used in Howard Hawks' Red River.) But if some of the lines and situations are quite clever, most of them are lost in the translation from screenplay to screen thanks to the generally dismal performances of the three leads.
Despite fierce competition, top-billed silent-film veteran Edmund Lowe is the most amateurish of the trio, with newcomer Dorothy Burgess and her grating pseudo-Mexican accent coming a close second. Lowe's overall blandness also badly damages the credibility of the story, since it's hard to believe that the saucy Tonia would give the dull Sgt. Dunn a second look, let alone risk her life to assist him. (I should add that either Lupe Velez or Raquel Torres would have been infinitely more believable as Tonia.)