In Old Arizona
“100% All-Talking”
About In Old Arizona
The Cisco Kid robs a stagecoach in Arizona. Sergeant Mickey Dunn is ordered to bring him in dead or alive for a $5,000 reward. They meet in a barbershop, and Dunn does not know the man in the chair. The Kid's lover, Tonia Maria, begins an affair with Dunn when he promises her the reward. The Kid listens, unseen. Tonia writes Dunn to come that night and catch the Kid before he rides. The Kid substitutes a letter saying that he will be wearing her clothes while she escapes in his. Dunn shoots the figure in the Kid's clothes. It is Tonia. Farther off, the Kid says her flirting days are over, and that she can settle down, and he rides away.
Cast & crew
More about In Old Arizona
Winfield Sheehan produced Tom Barry's script from O. Henry's "The Caballero's Way" for Fox. Raoul Walsh started as director and as the actor cast as the Kid; a jackrabbit through his windshield cost him an eye, he quit acting, and Irving Cummings finished the direction. It premiered in Los Angeles on December 25, 1928, and opened generally on January 20, 1929.
Themes
Background
Fox released it at Christmas 1928, less than two years after the first features with recorded dialogue. Sound equipment was still mostly bolted down indoors. This company took it to Utah parks and the California desert.
In film history
It fixed Warner Baxter's Cisco Kid, a bandit who sings a little and wins by letting a sergeant shoot the wrong person, as a character Fox could repeat.
Making
Walsh's injury moved both the lead and the direction. Cummings took over the outdoor dialogue scenes that Fox was selling as proof a Western could be heard as well as seen.
Look
Arthur Edeson and Alfred Hansen shot the dialogue in Bryce Canyon, Zion, the Mission San Juan Capistrano, and the Mojave, instead of on a backlot street.
Technique
The first major Western with recorded dialogue, and the first feature-length talkie photographed outdoors.
Music
All-talking. Baxter does some incidental singing in character. No separate composer is credited.
Preservation
The Academy Film Archive accessioned a print in 2004. The film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2024.
Notes
- Warner Baxter plays the Cisco Kid, Edmund Lowe plays Sergeant Mickey Dunn, and Dorothy Burgess plays Tonia Maria.
- Baxter sings a little in the part. The picture is one of the sources of the later singing-cowboy figure.
- It was the first major Western recorded in sound, and the first talkie shot outdoors.
- J. Farrell MacDonald, Henry Armetta, Frank Campeau, and Tom Santschi are in the supporting cast.
- At the 2nd Academy Awards Baxter won Best Actor. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Cummings), Best Writing (Barry), and Best Cinematography (Edeson). The Broadway Melody won Best Picture.
- The Academy Film Archive added a print to its collection in 2004.
- Fox kept Baxter's Cisco Kid going in later features, including The Cisco Kid (1931).
- The copyright expired and the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2024.
Awards
- Academy Award for Best Actor (Warner Baxter)
Scenes
- Dunn shares a barbershop with the Cisco Kid and only learns the name after the man has gone.
- The Kid stands where he can hear Tonia promise herself to Dunn for the $5,000.
- Dunn fires at the rider in the Kid's clothes and kills Tonia. The Kid, already away, says she can settle down.
Influenced by
- O. Henry's story "The Caballero's Way" (1907)
Influenced
- The Cisco Kid (1931)
