Main Cast: Warner Baxter, Edmund Lowe, Dorothy Burgess, John Farrell MacDonald, Henry Armetta, Fred Warren
Release Year: 1929
Country: US
Run Time: 95 minutes
Plot
Warner Baxter, sporting a black mustache and a musical-comedy Mexican accent, stars as the Cisco Kid, the "Robin Hood of the Old West" created by O. Henry. Edmund Lowe co-stars as Cisco's "friendly enemy" Sgt. Mickey Dunne, the role that was originally to have gone to Raoul Walsh. Both men are madly in love with dusky beauty Tonia Maria (Dorothy Burgess), and in fact Cisco is so "far gone" that he composes a song in the girl's honor (actually, "My Tonia", first heard during the opening credits, was written by Fox studio tunesmiths Lew Brown, B.G. DeSylva and Ray Henderson). Alas, Tonia ends up betraying Cisco to Sgt. Burke. But the crafty, cold-blooded Cisco arranges for Tonia to be killed in the trap set for him (this plot resolution is faithful to O. Henry's original conception of the Cisco Kid, who wasn't really meant to be a "good guy"). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Irving Cummings - Director, Raoul Walsh - Director, Louis Loeffler - Editor, Lew Brown - Songwriter, Buddy G. DeSylva - Songwriter, Ray Henderson - Songwriter, Arthur Edeson - Cinematographer, Tom Barry - Screenwriter, O. Henry - Short Story Author
In Old Arizona is a 1929Western film, directed by Irving Cummings and Raoul Walsh, nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film, which was based around the character of the Cisco Kid in the story The Caballero's Way by O. Henry, was a major innovation in Hollywood: it was the first major Western to use the new technology of sound and the first talkie to be filmed outdoors. The film made extensive use of authentic locations, filming in Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park in Utah and the San Fernando Mission and the Mojave Desert in California. The movie was released on January 20, 1929 (wide); (Dec. 25, 1928 Los Angeles Premiere).
Raoul Walsh was set to direct and star in this film, but had to abandon the project when a jackrabbit jumped through a windshield of a jeep he was driving and cost Walsh an eye.
