Fighting Caballero (1935) starring Rex Lease, Dorothy Gulliver, Earl Douglas, George Chesebro, Robert Walker, Hal Taliaferro directed by Elmer Clifton Movie Review

Fighting Caballero (1935)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Fighting Caballero (1935) starring Rex Lease, Dorothy Gulliver, Earl Douglas

Caballero for Lease

Pat (Dorothy Gulliver) arrives in the town of Gold Center under the pretence she is there researching insects when in truth she is secretly investigating the murder of her mining engineer. Also in town secretly are agents Joaquin Flores (Rex Lease) and Pedro (Earl Douglas) who are masquerading as Mexicans. When someone shoots out the tires on the car that Pat is being driven in Joaquin sees what happened and comes to her rescue, ending up flirting with her as he gives her a ride back to town. Later on Pat heads to her mine where she uncovers a counterfeiting operation but finds herself in danger from the counterfeiters. Fortunately Joaquin is on hand again to come to her rescue; the question is will he like Pat enough to tell her who he really is.

The biggest compliment I can pay "Fighting Caballero" is that it is an effective little time waster from a bygone era which doesn't have a great deal going for it when watched now almost 80s years after it was made. It is a simple enough movie with a damsel trying to find out what is happening to her mine and ending up in distress only to be rescued by the laid back Joaquin. That is it, just a 1930's b-movie western of sorts with some familiar faces, some action, some flirting and nothing you won't have seen in other movies from the era.

But at just 65 minutes "Fighting Caballero" isn't very long and director Elmer Clifton keeps things skipping along at a decent pace so there is often a moment of action or humour. In fact the humour is where the movie is at its best with an amusing scene surrounding the voting for the town's mayor with him wearing all his official hats to vote numerous times and so end up being re-elected.

What this all boils down to is that "Fighting Caballero" is really a nothing movie from the 1930's, a typical b-movie western of sorts which trades as much on humour as it does action. But if you are interested in old movies it skips along nicely with plenty of smile moments.


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