In Old Arizona  (1929)

Theatrical Release Information:
In Old Arizona

Although it tends to lure the viewer into slumberland when seen today, In Old Arizona is historically important as the first sound western to emerge from a major studio (Fox Pictures). Director Raoul Walsh was supposed to have done double duty in the film as one of the leading men, but an injury during production (which cost him the use of one eye) forced him to relinquish his role to Edmund Lowe. Irving Cummings took over as director and received sole credit, though much of what Walsh had already shot remains in the film. 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. His performance was overripe even by 1929 standards, but it was considered impressive enough to win him a "Best Actor" Academy Award. 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 can't be trusted as far as she can be thrown, and she 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"). On a purely technical level, In Old Arizona made remarkable strides in the field of exterior sound recording, cleverly camouflaging the microphones with rocks and shrubbery. Many film historians have reported that the sound of sizzling bacon was used in one scene as a vital plot motivator, but no such scene exists; these historians were probably thinking of another early-talkie western, Billy the Kid, in which the sheriff coaxes Billy out of his hiding place by frying a pan of bacon and eggs. There is no argument that In Old Arizona was a landmark film, but it was far from a good film; even so, it was a hit, spawning a cottage industry of Cisco Kid "B"-films and TV episodes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide