South of the Rio Grande

The earliest 30's westerns usually had better production quality than those made a few years later. Quite often the scripts were interesting because they had not yet recycled everything. Even though the basic plot of Columbia's South of the Rio Grande is nearly the same as 90% of all old westerns, there are some nice changes that make this movie unique. The story is about the Mexican Rurales and one man in particular, Sergeant Carlos Olivarez played by Buck Jones.

Seeing Buck Jones as a Mexican Rurale is not hard to accept. He is just a "movie" Mexican instead of a "believeable" Mexican, as are most of the cast. At the time South of the Rio Grande was made many actors played parts outside their own race or ethnicity, but few were able to do it successfully. If one disregards the degree of authenticity in Jones' portrayal of Sergeant Olivarez and concentrates on the spirit of the character, there is a good movie here. Not taking any old western too seriously, I was pleasantly surprised by South of the Rio Grande. Buck Jones was a good actor, and the production quality of this movie made him look better than he did in other movies. Obviously there was enough of a budget to set up good shots on good sets.

The crossed paths of the characters stands out and separates South of the Rio Grande from other westerns. There are love interests, friendships, and trusts that drive the characters. Carlos is attracted to Ramon's sister. Ramon is attracted to the woman who ruined Carlos' brother's life. The bonds of Carlos and Ramon's friendship is put to the test. With the exception of the villain Clark and Senor Ruiz, the characters in this movie express a lot of emotions that rarely come to the forefront of a heroic western. The "cowboy stuff" of chases through the desert and gunfights were all carefully placed to keep the movie exciting, but the emphasis was definitely on the characters.