Mexico, circa the later part of the 19th century (or thereabouts): A
villain called Capitan Thunder (Victor Varconi) terrorizes a little
village, robbing stagecoaches, rustling cattle, and of course having women
kidnapped for his own amusement. Yet for some teason the Capitan's
reputation is somewhat impeccable for always keeping his promises. The
Capitan though has laid his eyes on a very special girl, Ynez (Fay Wray),
who when he visits her though doesn't die from fright but charms him to
lure him into a trap. He sees right through her game but is impressed by
her courage and attitude - so he lets her boyfriend Juan (Don Alvarado)
capture him and collect the reward so he can marry Ynez ... but then the
Capitan manages to elegantly evade execution. Morgan (Robert Elliott), a
rustler the Capitan knows who poses as an honourable citizen, is madly in
love with Ynez, and the Capitan has promised to always help him. As the
Capitan always keeps his promises, he invades the wedding of Ynez and
Juan, has his men take Juan hostage and forces the local chief of
police/justice of peace (Charles Judels) marry Ynez to Morgan. But since
he has also made a promise to Ynez to look after her, he then takes Morgan
aside and shoots him dead - which makes Ynez not only a widow free to
marry Juan after all (on which the Capitan insists) but also a rich widow
... A film that falls between a few too many stools to really
succeed - some of it is a romance, some of it clearly comedy, then there
are action/western parts ... and the whole thing is not properly held
together by a coherent story ... just like its main character, the
Capitan, alternates between ruthless bad guy and loveable rogue, womanizer
with a hint of rapist and utter gentleman. On top of it, Victor Varconi
seems to be unsure how to play him, cunning or just comical, and all too
often, he hams it up. As for the overall acting of the movie, it's still
pretty much rooted in the silent era, as everybody (but Fay Wray)
shamelessly overacts as if there was no dialogue to carry the story. The
silent era feel is only heightened by the many title cards of course. All
that said, the film is not a total trainwreck, it at least moves along at
a steady enough pace and is light-footed enough to make one forget several
shortcomings. But that said, the film isn't perfect (or even fairly good)
by a longshot either.
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