Rose of the Rio Grande

In war-torn mid-nineteenth-century Mexico, the indigenous people suffer underneath the bootheels of their conquerors. But there is hope in the form of “El Gato”, leader of a group of singing, horse-riding vigilantes. They rescue rebel Don Jose de la Torre from execution by a firing squad, but his sister Rosita goes missing in the ensuing melee. Fearing capture, the girl pretends to be a dancer in a nearby cantina. Little does she realize that El Gato frequents the cantina in his other identity of wealthy ladies’ man Don Ramon de Paralta. Convinced that El Gato will soon come to her rescue, Rosita rebuffs Ramon’s advances, seeing him as a fop unwilling to get involved in the conflict. When the authorities arrive looking to throw Rosita in prison, Ramon must reveal himself as El Gato and save the beautiful girl from a fate worse than death.

Though Republic Pictures held the movie rights to Zorro in 1938, that didn’t stop creator Johnston McCulley from reworking one of his stories and selling it to Monogram Pictures, changing the name of his hero as well as his base of operations from 19th century Spanish California to 19th century Mexico. The studio even cast John Carroll, who played Zorro the previous year in Republic’s 12-chapter serial Zorro Rides Again (1937) as “El Gato”, a.ka. “Don Ramon de Paralta” (not Don Diego de la Vega.) Despite taking these cautionary actions, Monogram didn’t think twice about retitling the movie La venganza del Zorro when the time came to release Rose of the Rio Grande in Spain in 1946. Co-star “Movita” Castandea plays an exotic dancer/singer much as she did in Flying Down to Rio (1933) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). In the 1960s, she would marry the star of the Mutiny on the Bounty remake, Marlon Brando, and become the mother of his children Miko and Rebecca. Duncan Renaldo would later become instantly recognizable to an entire generation of kids for playing The Cisco Kid (1950-1956) on television.

BONUS: Monogram Bloopers: Frankie Darro, Boris Karloff, Jackie Cooper, Pat O'Brien and Monogram's biggest stars botch their lines in this hilarious collection of miscues. Includes bloopers from Rose of the Rio Grande.