The Llano Kid

December. 08,1939      NR
Rating:
5
Trailer Synopsis Cast

Lora Travers is the only person who can identify hold-up artist The Llano Kid and she persuades him to come in on a scheme with her and her husband. They have been searching for the long-lost son of a rich Mexican widow and they get the Kid to claim it is him. All goes according to plan until greed and jealousy raise their heads.

Tito Guízar as  Enrique Ibarra aka The Llano Kid
Gale Sondergaard as  Lora Travers
Alan Mowbray as  John Travers
Jan Clayton as  Lupita Sandoval
Emma Dunn as  Doña Teresa
Minor Watson as  Sheriff Robert McLane
Chris-Pin Martin as  Sixto
Glenn Strange as  Henderson
Harry Worth as  Dissipated Mexican
Gertrude Astor as  Saloon Hostess

Reviews

Invaderbank
1939/12/08

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

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Rio Hayward
1939/12/09

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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Freeman
1939/12/10

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

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Juana
1939/12/11

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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stryker-5
1939/12/12

On the Texas-Mexico border, some time in the 19th century, a romantic highwayman named The Llano Kid is busy robbing stagecoaches. A husband and wife team of adventurers, John and Loretta Travers, are searching for Enrique Ibarra when their stagecoach falls victim to The Kid's depredations.Enrique Ibarra is the lost heir to a vast fortune and a latafundia estate south of the border. The Travers pair will prosper if they can find the missing man. But wait - The Llano Kid is handsome, charming, latino and about the right age ... now, if he could be persuaded to pose as Enrique...This pleasant little Paramount horse opera is based on an O.Henry story. Tito Guizar, a sort of Errol-Flynn-from-the-barrio, plays The Kid with charm applied with a trowel and a singing voice pitched at alarming heights. The part of Lora Travers is taken by Gale Sondergaard. Lora is a 'bad lot', the beautiful but wicked lady who loves The Kid in vain. We can tell that she is a fallen woman because she always has a drink in her hand. She even flirts with The Kid before her husband's eyes. The contrast between Lora and the virginal Lupita Sandoval (Jane Clayton) could not be more extreme.The outdoor scenes show the majesty of the southern Rockies to great effect. Composition is tight all the way through, and the saloon is decorated with some unusual and interesting murals.And yet this attractive film has more than its share of glitches. The focus is lost twice, the worst case being in the saloon when The Kid walks towards the camera. Errors like this should not have survived the editing process. Would a sheriff (Minor Watson) really convene a 'court' in a saloon, empanel a jury and try a murder? When Lora is asked to identify the robber, everyone conveniently ignores the outrageously elaborate costume that The Kid is wearing - and wore for the hold-up. Once The Kid has been cleared, why does he confess to the sheriff? Why offer such a hostage to fortune, for no conceivable benefit? If the Ibarra family are so severely Old Hispanic, how come nobody bats an eyelid when The Kid and Lupita are found together in the chapel, late at night, unchaperoned? And no self-respecting madresita would allow herself to be carried bodily into the house by a man with all the servants watching, as Dona Teresa (Emma Dunn) does here.Finally, all is resolved and The Llano Kid completes his transition into Enrique Ibarra. The future is secure. There will be no looking back.

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