Riding the California Trail

While he Cisco Kid is avoiding the law, his travels take him to California where they still honor the old world ways

Gilbert Roland and Frank Yaconelli come across a senorita who is about to make a most unhappy marriage. Ahead of her times she has something of a social conscience and wants to do good works with her inheritance. Those around her don't see things her way.

Roland is charming and pleasant as always. He's one of those players who makes the viewing time so pleasant.

"Riding the California Trail" was one of six Cisco Kid films made by Monogram starring Gilbert Roland for the 1946/47 season. It's one of the weakest of the series with a minimum of action.

The story involves a scheme by local rancher Don Jose Ramirez (Martin Garralaga) to marry off his niece Delores (Inez Cooper) to Raoul (Ted Hecht) in order to get their hands on her inheritance from her father. Cisco (Roland) and "Baby" (Frank Yaconelli) ride into town and become involved.

Cisco becomes enraptured with the beautiful Delores, also known as "The Angel of San Lorenzo" because she gives her money to the poor and also plans to do so with her inheritance. Cisco also romances saloon dancer Raquel (Teala Loring) who is also involved with Raoul to obtain information. And that's basically it.

Save for a short uninspired fist fight and two poorly staged sword fights between Cisco and Raoul, that's the only real action in the film. Cisco spends most of his time romancing the ladies which I'm sure would have not gone over too big with the Saturday matinée crowd.

Roland again plays Cisco as the love'em and leave'em bold caballero who also smokes and drinks tequila (a no-no for "B" western heroes). Garralaga, who had played "Pacho" in an earlier series with Duncan Renaldo, again plays a weak willed villain. Hecht didn't impress me as the chief villain.

In several films in this series, the name "Cisco Kid" is clearly dubbed in and the "The End" title looks an awful lot like that of Paramount Pictures. Was this series begun at Paramount as a non-Cisco Kid series. I haven't been able to find out if this was the case or not.

Where's Harry Woods and Charlie King when you need them?

In this outing as the Cisco Kid, Gilbert Roland is in a small town, where heiress Inez Cooper is set to marry Ted Hecht as her dead father's wishes. Roland thinks there's something fishy about it, and pretends to be a member of a friendly family from San Francisco.

Roland is the epitome of cool here, from the way he bogarts his cigarettes, to the tilt of his sombrero, It's plain why he maintained his standing as a performer in demand for six decades, from the 1920s, when he was one of several Valentino imitators, to the 1980s, when he was still playing a Mexican outlaw. Frank Yaconelli is along to offer a turn as a bloodthirsty and girl-shy companion. If the ending is a bit abrupt, Roland makes it worth watching all the way through.

If you are looking for an exciting action-adventure film, then you might want to keep looking. That's because this film is probably the least action-packed one you can find. Through so much of the film, Cisco (Gilbert Roland) either is making eyes at women or very, very slowly and leisurely evading the law. It's actually funny to see the posse chasing him and he actually stops to chat up a pretty señorita! The plot involves Cisco romancing and discovering that a rich young lady has a jerky uncle who is planning on stealing her inheritance.

Some deficits of this film are many people (especially the ladies) who don't sound the least bit Mexican (though they play Mexican characters), a slow and uneventful plot and a total lack of energy. On the plus side, the film is pleasant enough...and Cisco's sidekick is quite funny (especially during the sword fighting scene). Watchable but not at all distinguished.