The Gaucho

Having finally read Jeffrey Vance's marvelous biography DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, it made me realize that roughly half of his 1920s action-adventure films are available in recently restored editions. THE MARK OF ZORRO, THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, THE BLACK PIRATE, & THE IRON MASK have been given the deluxe home video treatment they deserve. What about THE THREE MUSKETEERS, ROBIN HOOD, DON Q, SON OF ZORRO, and THE GAUCHO? Concerning the last title only this 2001 Kino release was available for awhile but now it's been withdrawn hence the high price.

According to Vance, the original film was color tinted with two Technicolor sequences featuring Mary Pickford as The Virgin Mary. This Kino version is in pretty good black & white but the speed transfer is a trifle too fast. Nevertheless it's good enough to show that THE GAUCHO, Fairbanks' penultimate silent film, is actually one of his best. It's only 96 minutes long, has the 44 year old Fairbanks in peak athletic form performing some truly marvelous stunts, and features a star making performance from the 17 year old Lupe Velez. It also gives us a darker, more amoral character than Doug ever played before or would play again.

Set in an unspecified time before the turn of the 20th Century, the movie tells the story of "The Gaucho", a devil-may-care bandit who leads a large group of men and who does as he pleases. His story is juxtaposed with the "Girl of the Shrine" who is clearly patterned after Bernadette of Lourdes. She resides in the City of the Miracle where years before she was restored to life by a vision of the Virgin Mary. The Gaucho comes to rob the city but is mystified by the young woman while engaging in a dalliance with a young villager (Velez). A tyrant, Ruiz, seeks the city's gold and sends his troops to conquer the city and dispose of anyone standing in his way. Add a contagious leper, a religious conversion, and a cattle stampede finale and you have the most intriguing movie Fairbanks ever made.

Also on this Kino release is Fairbanks' strangest film ever, the bizarre 1916 comedy THE MYSTERY OF THE LEAPING FISH in which he plays "Coke Ennyday" an outrageous parody of Sherlock Holmes who shoots up constantly and drinks cocktails composed of gin, laudanum & prussic acid! Fairbanks intended it to be a spoof of William Gillette's 1915 feature SHERLOCK HOLMES but that reference is lost on modern audiences. The drug usage is not. This print of FISH is the best I've ever seen even better than the one on the Flicker Alley FAIRBANKS set.

So Flicker Alley, The Cohen Group, Kino Lorber, and whoever else out there who specializes in silent film restorations, take note! It is time that THE GAUCHO be given the deluxe treatment that it deserves so that new generations of silent film aficionados can enjoy the movie the way that Douglas Fairbanks intended. Producer Fairbanks never scrimped on production values and he would be dismayed at the many, cheap public domain copies of his films out there...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

He is feared by men and adored by women - but only one woman will tame him. He acknowledges no creed, but only One Faith will claim him. No jail shall hold him or treasure elude him. He is South America's greatest bandit and soon the fate of the Andes' most venerated shrine will be in his hands. He is THE GAUCHO.

Douglas Fairbanks was at the pinnacle of his fame when he made this wonderful adventure film. His buoyant on-screen charm is matched only by his superb & graceful athleticism. He is secure in his position as one of the very greatest of cinema legends.

Lupe Velez makes a fiery & beautiful love interest as the Mountain Girl, flirting or fighting with Fairbanks at every twist of the plot; Nigel De Brulier as The Padre & Eve Southern as the Girl of The Shrine are saintly in their supporting roles. That's Mary Pickford in a cameo as the Virgin Mary. And once seen, who can ever forget The Victim of the Black Doom?

The sets and the special effects shots - using glass mattes - are exceptional. The very long City of the Miracles set is one of the finest ever created for a silent film.

This is typical 20's Fairbanks, when he was making his grand epic swashbucklers, with typical over-complicated plots. The character reminds me of the first Zorro, but this guy is harder, and nastier (even after his miraculous reform). Fairbanks was also in his mid-forties when he made it, which explains his fined-down, but still very buff, appearance.

The plot is a mythical Argentina (with a tango thrown in to define the place, but it could take place anywhere, including Zorro's Early California. Fairbanks does wear an exotic costume, though.

Lupe Velez' Mountain Girl is the real departure. She is feisty, for one, and swashes every bit of buckle that Fairbanks does. These sort of characters are usually the one who DOESN'T get her man; here, it is with great satisfaction that she does--a woman ahead of her times!

As Douglas Fairbanks biographer Jeffrey Vance has noted, "The Gaucho" is different from the action star's swashbucklers he'd been making since "The Mark of Zorro" (1920), citing the film's shift from the prior ones' boyish adventurism to more mature themes of sexuality and spirituality. Once again, Doug, this time as the Gaucho, saves a community from a dastardly villain, but this storyline becomes secondary to his religious conversion. Initially, the Gaucho isn't the perfect hero, either, although Doug still seems to perform stunts effortlessly (thanks in part to undercranking the camera and some quick, even sometimes choppy, editing).

And, this time, the girl pursues and tries to rescue him. Lupe Velez, as the easily-jealous, not damsel-y at all Mountain Girl, matches and sometimes exceeds Doug's exuberance. At one point, she tackles a guy and beats him up, and she likewise experiences a religious conversion. Usually, these type of religious pictures, complete with faith healing, a magical fountain and superimposed Virgin Marys would bore the hell out of me. I shudder at the thought of a film where the Girl of the Shrine, with her vacant expressions-supposedly alluding to spiritual superiority-were the protagonist.

But, Doug exudes charisma, his smile is contagious, and the religion, at least, slows his rollicking down for a moment. Otherwise, the guy is non-stop motion; he only sits down to briefly strike a pose and a match for his also-fervent cigarette smoking. Plus, The Gaucho does include the usual fare of Doug as the hero of the oppressed, defeater of dastardly villains. There's no sword fighting, but he does use a whip, performs some horse riding tricks, jumps all over the place and uses his wits to overcome large armies, including the climactic cattle stampede. The sets are also grand, per usual. Doug and his merry band of gauchos even help move one of them.

Douglas Fairbanks wrote, produced and starred in this unusual and entertaining movie at the height of his career, and the guy sure was in his prime: you'll never find him looking as virile, athletic and sexy as he does here. Sight unseen I assumed that The Gaucho would be another escapist swashbuckler flick, cut from the same cloth as Doug's earlier vehicles and aimed primarily at boys, but it proved to be a real surprise, a combination action/adventure/morality tale with a heavier atmosphere and a darker sensibility than any other Fairbanks film. Whether or not its oddness comes as a pleasant surprise is up to the individual viewer, but for my part I enjoyed the change of pace and appreciated the filmmakers' boldness in attempting something so off-the-wall.

How is The Gaucho different? For starters, Doug himself is different. Based on what little I knew beforehand I figured the title character would be an essentially decent bandit chieftain, a pseudo-Hispanic Robin Hood complete with a new band of Merry Hombres, once more pitted against the wicked forces of authoritarian rule. And in fact that's pretty much what he is, but he's also a flawed character who must mature in the course of the story, thus presenting a challenge for our leading man, who, as even his most dedicated fans admit, was never the most nuanced of actors. Here Doug is still very much the star of the show, but he's playing a decidedly selfish man who doesn't seem all that interested in avenging injustice or fighting for the peasantry. The Gaucho is no Robin Hood: he's cocky and arrogant, and in the early scenes his self-confident machismo is emphasized to the point of obnoxiousness. Like many a silent movie hero the Gaucho has a trademark physical gesture, a one-handed cigarette lighting trick, but once he's exhibited this bit two or three times we begin to roll our eyes and feel he's just begging to be taken down a peg or two.

It's also noticeable that, all of a sudden, Doug is attempting to fill the dance shoes of the recently departed Rudolph Valentino. When he played Robin Hood or the Black Pirate Doug's attitude toward his leading lady was more respectful than passionate, but the Gaucho represents the most maturely sexual character Fairbanks would take on in his screen career. Doug's tango with Lupe Velez is as steamy as any sequence he ever played, even incorporating a hint of S&M when he lashes his partner to himself with a sharp twirl of his bolo. These early scenes suggest that our protagonist -- who has apparently already won the day, and has everything he needs to be happy -- must be riding for a fall. This is where the story's moralizing kicks in, as the Gaucho is compelled to recognize that there are forces at work in the universe even greater than himself.

A pronounced element of religious mysticism is introduced in the prologue, when a gravely injured girl on the brink of death is visited by an apparition of the Virgin Mary. The girl is healed, whereupon she herself heals a dying baby. (The Virgin is played by Fairbanks' wife Mary Pickford, with a gravity that is unfortunately somewhat undercut by her bizarre, spinning halo.) This dollop of Hollywood Godliness, usually the province of Cecil B. DeMille, is interwoven throughout, and some viewers may find the going a bit sticky. Personally I didn't have a problem with it, perhaps in part because the 'religious' sequences are presented with such straightforward earnestness; and perhaps because, if ever a hero needed to find God, it's this one.

Where matters of taste are concerned one might also question the introduction of the subject of leprosy into the scenario. The condition is identified only as the 'Black Doom,' but from the context it's perfectly clear what disease was being represented. Whatever your response, Fairbanks deserves credit for sheer moxie, and for attempting to stretch the boundaries of what was considered permissible in an adventure film. He could have played it safe and re-worked Robin Hood, or cranked out another Zorro sequel, but he took a risk, and all things considered I feel he pulled it off. And it's worth noting that the story's heavier material is counterbalanced by more typical scenes of rowdy play and athleticism. Fairbanks the canny showman also gives us two spectacular sequences: in the first, a house is dragged from its foundations by a team of horses, and later there's an amazing cattle stampede that looks quite fearsome and dangerous. The Gaucho also gives us the young and wildly sexy Lupe Velez, who takes a far more active role in the proceedings than most of Doug's other leading ladies.

All told it's a helluva show, and well worth seeking out. It may not be for all tastes, but no one can call The Gaucho a routine swashbuckler. I would include it with Douglas Fairbanks' most entertaining and accomplished works.