The Cisco Kid and the Lady (1939)

Pretty Good

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Cesar Romero made his debut playing The Cisco Kid in The Cisco Kid And The Lady. It should more properly be The Cisco and the two Ladies because he woos both Saloon entertainer Virginia Field and schoolteacher Marjorie Weaver in this film.It doesn't start this way, but Cesar Romero and his Sancho Panza Chris- Pin Martin come across a dying miner coming into file a claim with his infant son. Cisco rescues the infant and the dying man splits up the mine map three ways between Cisco, Gordito and Robert Barrat not realizing it was Barrat who shot him.Romero is fast on his feet in many way. This film features him doing the tango with Field, he started out as a dancer in show business. He does a nice job of balancing two women Field and Weaver until George Montgomery arrives on the scene as Weaver's fiancé from Kansas City. This film was one of Montgomery's earliest featured roles. And Romero has to keep his wits about him when dealing with Barrat who is a shrewd adversary.This film marked Romero's interpretation of the Cisco Kid as a gallant knight of the plains with an eye for the ladies. This is one cowboy who's not satisfied kissing his horse. Romero has charm to spare in keeping the audience rooting for him. After 75 years he still does.

I grew up with Duncan Renaldo as O. Henry's The Cisco Kid and and Leo Carillo as his sidekick Pancho, so watching toothy Caesar Romero in the title role and Chris-Pin Martin as his sidekick "Gordito," came as quite a shock. I have also seen Warner Baxter as the Kid, but for me, Renaldo will always be Cisco. This lighthearted romp, little more than a filler piece, has Cisco rescuing a baby and keeping the bad guys at bay. Very little action. Mostly, we watch Romero grin his way through a series of scenes, including a badly staged dance number that seems to go on forever. I am trying to remember if this Cisco Kid ever took his hat off for anything. This is a historic curiosity rather than a must-see. Future cowboy star and one of Dinah Shore's spouses, George Montgomery, costars.

The film begins with Cisco and Gordito (his sidekick) talking about the fact that practically every crime that occurs is blamed on the Kid and they are seen collecting yet another wanted poster for their collection. Incidentally, NONE of the posters look anything like him and obviously other bandits are running around calling themselves the Cisco Kid. What nerve! Soon, the plot begins to resemble a reworking of the classic THREE GODFATHERS, as the two stumble upon a dying man with a baby. Robert Barrat also arrives and unfortunately, it's all too obvious all too quickly that Barrat is a bad guy. Well, anyway, the dying man asks the three of them to care for the baby and be sure the little tyke gets the gold mine that is rightfully his. Then, he tears the map in three pieces and gives it to the three so they need to work together for the good of the baby. The three agree and the man dies. Only minutes later, through rotten parenting, the child is nearly killed by a stagecoach--and this REALLY looked like a dangerous stunt with a real baby! How they got away with this one, I'll never know.The rest of the film consists of the Kid chasing women, dancing and making love--all the while also trying to keep Barrat from killing him and Gordito. In the end, since it is a B-Western, everything is wrapped up very neatly and the Kid rides away to further adventures.Cesar Romero returns for the second time as The Cisco Kid and it is purely because of Romero's easy-going performance that it rises (slightly) above the ordinary. Otherwise, this film is essentially a B-movie Western with no surprises--like a Gene Autry film and the like. Not a whole lot of depth to the plot or characters, but still fun to watch as a simple time-passer.

Tall,dark, handsome and charming, Cesar Romero's Cisco Kid dazzles the senoritas and baffles the bad guys. With Cisco and Gordito looking out for an orphaned infant, it could have been called "Two Bandits and a Baby." There is action but minimal violence as Cisco outwits rather outfights his adversaries. Veteran Robert Barrat is on entertaining form as the boss bad man and an amusing supporting role goes to George Montgomery, star of some good Westerns in the 1950s.