The TV prints of BEAUTY AND THE BANDIT did, indeed, have all references to the Cisco Kid and related matters (even in the credits) dubbed or blacked out. This was because at the time that these films were made available to TV, Gene Autry's Flying A Productions had the exclusive television rights to the Cisco Kid character. The movies could be shown on the home-screen, but not presented or marketed as being Cisco Kid stories or movies. Something similar happened with the TV show CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT when it went into syndication -- he suddenly became "Jet Jackson," because the original sponsor owned the Captain Midnight name and all rights therein.
Plot summary
In Old California, a young Frenchman transporting a chest full of silver travels by stagecoach to San Marino, to complete a complex business deal. The stagecoach is ambushed by a band of men whose leader, a mysterious bandido known as Cisco (Gilbert Roland),claims the silver is money that was extorted over a period of years from the poor people of California. The bandits take the money and escape, but Cisco stays behind with the Frenchman -- who, it turns out, is actually a lovely mademoiselle, Jeanne DuBois (Ramsay Ames). She follows him to the bandit's lair, where Cisco tells her he intends to return the stolen money to the poor people. The two rivals are irresistibly drawn to each other, however, and as a token of love Cisco offers to return the money to Jeanne instead. Now she must decide whether to complete her business deal, or to comply with Cisco's wishes and redistribute the wealth.
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No Blazing Action Here!
"Beauty and the Bandit" was part of Monogram's Cisco Kid series from 1946-47 starring Gilbert Roland as Cisco.
A young Frenchman is transporting a large amount of silver to by some land in California. Naturally, the Cisco Kid takes an interest. He steals a ride in the stagecoach carrying the young man and the loot. Cisco's gang holds up the stage and takes the money. Cisco returns to the coach and continues on the journey.
We learn that there is a land scam afoot. Doc Wells (William Gould) and Doctor Juan Valega (Martin Garralaga) are poisoning the feed for local farm animals thus causing them to die and resulting in the villains acquiring properties when the owners are forced to sell.
When Cisco and the young man arrive, to nobody's surprise (except for the cast members),the young man turns out to be the lovely Jeanne DuBois (Ramsay Ames) who is representing her father who has died. And that's about it. The greater part of the film has the womanizing Cisco romancing Jeanne and the local waitress Rosita (Vida Adams).
Roland again plays Cisco as a cigarette smoking, tequila drinking, love 'em and leave 'em caballero. He rides with a gang of banditos which includes a "Pancho like" character called "Baby" (Frank Yaconelli). Unable to conceal many of her charms, the lovely Ramsay Ames makes a rather unconvincing young boy.
The casting of Gould as the chief villain is somewhat of a mystery to me. He spends most of the time in an easy chair in front of a fire and was much too long in the tooth to make a convincing adversary for Roland. Normally when this happens in a "B" western, the villain has an able bodied hench man to fight his battles for him. Not so here. His partner is Garralaga who plays Valega as a wimpish, spineless foe.
In other roles George J. Lewis is totally wasted as the bumbling police captain and Glenn Strange makes an all too brief appearance as a singing sailor friend of Cisco's. Both would have made better villains than Gould and Garralaga.
No blazing action here folks. A disappointing entry in the Cisco Kid series.
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Zorro's Father Tries To Arrest Cisco
Gilbert Roland spends this episode of the Monogram Cisco Kid series frustrating evil-doing William Gould by chain-smoking and making love to a succession of lovelies, including Frenchwoman Ramsey Ames -- she spends the first quarter hour of the movie pretending to be a man. Being Gilbert Roland, he is remarkably successful in all these endeavors.
We're now in Old California, which may explain why Zorro's TV father, George J. Lewis is in this movie. He's a police captain who keeps trying to find and arrest Cisco.
Although the movie doesn't settle down to brass tacks until the last ten minutes, it's a fun, light-hearted romp for most of its length, and those last ten minutes are pretty scary. Gould is quite obviously a bad 'un, but he doesn't work too hard, spending much of his time sitting in a chair in a hotel, and a lot of the rest being a chuckling voice in the dark. Overall, it's a remarkably entertaining movie.