Beau Bandit
About Beau Bandit
Montero and his deaf-mute partner Coloso are driven across the Arizona dunes by Bob Cat Manners and a posse. Montero means to rob the bank of the miser Perkins, then meets singing teacher Helen Wardell. Perkins wants Helen himself and holds a $3,000 mortgage on her fiancé Howard's ranch. He recognizes Montero as a wanted man and offers him money to kill Howard, while planning to let the posse take the bandit unpaid. Montero only pretends to kill Howard, traps the posse, collects the blood money, and, with Perkins sitting as justice of the peace, forces him to marry Helen and Howard.
Cast & crew
More about Beau Bandit
Lambert Hillyer directed. Wallace Smith wrote the screenplay from his story "Strictly Business," published in Hearst's International-Cosmopolitan in April 1929. The working title was Strictly Business. William LeBaron produced for RKO Radio Pictures. Jack MacKenzie photographed it. Archie F. Marshek edited. Shooting began 9 December 1929. RKO copyrighted it on 2 March 1930, the release date, as LP1179. Sound is RCA Photophone. The running time is 71 minutes.
Themes
Making
RKO started the picture in December 1929 and had it in theaters by the first week of March.
Look
Jack MacKenzie shot the dune chase and the town in black and white for RCA Photophone.
Preservation
A print circulates. Wikimedia Commons holds Beau Bandit (1930).
Notes
- Rod La Rocque plays Montero. Mitchell Lewis is Coloso. Doris Kenyon is Helen Wardell.
- Walter Long is Bob Cat Manners. Charles Middleton is Perkins. Tom Keene is in the cast as the young fiancé.
- Wikipedia calls the outline a loose Robin Hood story: the bandit takes the miser's money and spends the trick on the couple.
- A Wikimedia file of the feature runs 1 hour 4 minutes 44 seconds.
- It is a Pre-Code Western.
Scenes
- Perkins offers Montero cash to kill Howard, then tips the posse.
- Montero holds the posse and makes Perkins, as justice of the peace, marry Helen and Howard.
Influenced by
- Strictly Business (Wallace Smith story, 1929)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Beau Bandit (1930).webm)
