Captain Thunder

Welcome to 1930. Talkies are one year old and studios are continuing to experiment madly with all kinds of plots, all kinds of screenplays, and all levels of acting competence. In this film we get broad elements of slapstick and mushy love scenes, and, because it's pre-Code, a little skin deliciously displayed (Fay Wray being happy to oblige). You'll see early on that this film turns out to be way too rough-hewn, and its slapdash construction will not be successful: audiences don't want to watch a mess. The only person really trying to make it all work is Ms. Wray; she practically owns the screen every time she appears, even with her awful accent. If you find yourself attracted to her work -- as I have become -- this flick's worth a quick watch.

A delightful museum piece with lots of uproariously phony Spanish talk and inane chatter, accompanied by an appropriately wheezy music score. All the acting is marvelously hammy. Mind you, Mr Varconi does tend to out-stay his limited welcome to the point where he starts to get on your nerves, but no-one will complain about Fay Wray. Admittedly, she can't act for toffee, but she is a fine figure of a young lady, and she does makes a gorgeous entrance in her slip.

And would believe this tosh is directed by the great silent metteur en scene, Alan Crosland? He gets few opportunities here for pictorial scope, though admittedly there are some nice visual touches. As for the story, it's all that you might expect from an imitation Cisco Kid, with a plot twist that would certainly do credit to O. Henry himself.

Nonetheless, Crosland's overall contribution does not exactly shine. He had not lost his touch, but was doubtless overawed by the technical requirements of early sound recording. One suspects that this film was actually made before and not after "Viennese Nights", which is a much more accomplished (and far more expensive and expansive) production.

Captain Thunder (1930)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Early talkie has Victor Varconi playing El Captain Thunder, a Mexican bandit who causes as much trouble as he can but he'll always keep his word. The bandit goes from one form of trouble to the next until he meets and falls for a lady (Fay Wray). I had heard some incredibly bad things about this film but it didn't turn out as bad as I had feared, although this is still one of lesser films I've seen from this era. Director Crosland is best known for THE JAZZ SINGER and other films from that era including DON JUAN and OLD SAN FRANCISCO and I must admit that I've never been a big fan of his work. That trend continues here but to be fair I'm not sure how much blame should go towards him and how much on the screenplay. Even as I write this I can't be certain to what this film was even trying to do. I'm going to guess it was meant as a low-budget version of THE CISCO KID but I'm still not sure if the title character was suppose to be a good or bad guy. Either way he is 100% annoying and it doesn't help that the first time we see him he's pretty much trying to get laughs by harassing women. Wray, playing a Mexican woman, doesn't earn many acting stripes but she did have KING KONG coming in a few years. She certainly looks great, which at least gives the viewer something to do in the film.

Back in 1930, the studios thought that audiences wanted operettas and more operettas. They didn't. So, by the end of 1930, movies that were operettas were quickly converted into regular movies, without the singing. Judging by the plot, and the actual existence of a fairly decent musical score (not common in early 30s Warners pictures), this would appear to be one of those quickly converted movies.

Without the songs, the movie is both rather short and horrible. There really is only one good scene: the very pretty Fay Wray makes her entrance in a slip, because the daring bandit Captain Thunder, upon robbing her stagecoach, stole everyone's clothes. (There was some reason given, but I just don't remember it.) Wray, herself, plays a Mexican senorita with the expected amount of hot-bloodedness. Captain Thunder, alas, being middle aged with a receding hairline and advancing second chin, has far less sex appeal than King Kong. Thunder, himself, overacts unamusingly, and is only surpassed in this by the bad actor playing the commandante who never can seem to capture Thunder. Talking scenes go on and on and on and are filled with overwritten attempted comedy, or the sort of dialog that only a Lena Lamont could do justice to. If there were any action scenes, I must have slept through them.

Don't be tempted by the Fay Wray starring role. Avoid this, and save the hour and a half in your life for a second viewing of King Kong.

It's definitely a period piece, but old does not equal classic. Maybe you can get some pleasure from this film, which has some of the most amazingly bad dialog imaginable. You wonder whether this was intended as a western, or a comedy, or a clown show. At times it seems to veer into a vaudeville routine. You may see certain ideas which evolved into other (much better) westerns, such as Zorro and the Cisco Kid. This was pre-Code (1930), so we have a stagecoach robbery in which the only passengers (two females) have their dresses stolen, leaving them in their slips. This would probably have benefited from being a silent film. Some title cards would have relieved the need to listen to the horrible dialog. Beware!