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.

The few reviews for this film are all over the place--with scores of 2, 4, 7 and 8. Some described it as "dreadful" or "weak" while others called it "richly entertaining"! With such divergent views, I had no idea what to expect. After watching the film, I thought the everyone was being way too kind to this terrible film. Now to a degree you might want to cut the film some slack--after all, it was one of many films in the early days of sound that came up short. Film dialog and acting did improve greatly by just 1932. However, even for 1930, this film was truly craptastic.Apparently there was some sort of confusion among the actors. While the film is supposed to be set in Mexico, many of the supporting characters speak with what sure sound like Italian accents! It's the early days of sound movies, so perhaps they still didn't have voice coaches to help the actors--and they sure needed it here because even the Mexican accents were often pretty poor. As for the leads, Fay Wray sounded better than I expected but oddly, the pudgy and Hungarian Victor Varconi was Captain Thunder. The end result sounded a bit like Bela Lugosi and Pancho from the Cisco Kid series put together.As far as Varconi's look, it was pretty interesting. Because the film seemed to be a ripoff of The Cisco Kid films, they tried to make him look like this character. IN OLD ARIZONA, the first sound Cisco Kid film, had just won the Oscar for Best Picture and I think CAPTAIN THUNDER was Warner's attempt to cash in on the series' success. However, dressing Varconi in an outfit EXACTLY like The Cisco Kid's did not produce the same effect. Instead of a tough lover like Warner Baxter or Cesar Romero, he looked more like an accountant dressing up as The Kid for a costume party! I just can't imagine women back in 1930 swooning for this guy! This, combined with the accent, doomed Varconi to a second-rate performance (at best).By the way, although Varconi was bad, El Commandante Benito Ruiz (Charles Judels, who was Dutch) was by comparison even more dreadful--his acting and accent. My daughter and I tried to figure out WHAT he was supposed to be--she thought German, I thought idiot. Please don't get mad at me for making fun of the bad acting--they're all dead by now (as are their mommies) and I'm not hurting their feelings.

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.