Beauty and the Bandit1946

The Cisco Kid was a friend of mine. It was a long time ago. I was about four years old. The Kid was Duncan Renaldo, who would show up everyday on a flickering old black and white TV. Here, the Kid is Gilbert Roland, a somewhat forgotten figure today, who had a career that spanned six decades, from silent films right through the Television age. Roland was a smooth leading man who had a cool, laconic screen presence that rivaled Mitchum, or Ladd, or even Bogart. Roland's Cisco is a cool anti-hero, a Robin Hood of old California. The film itself is a routine Monogram B-Western, filmed somewhere in the San Fernando Valley, but the camera and lighting display the expertise of Hollywood filmmaking of the 40's, even on a low-budget picture. There is a low-key, shadowy atmosphere that suggests just a hint of Film Noir. A solid second feature from long ago, and fun re-introduction to a screen hero from long, long ago.