A few months back I wrote a little about the release of “The Cisco Kid: Volume 1.” I got a little preachy in that review, but not so much about the series itself, but more so the debt of gratitude that I owed my parents for making me such a well-rounded person when it comes to entertainment. They helped me to have an appreciation for a wide variety of styles. If it hadn’t been for them I would have never heard about great westerns like “The Cisco Kid.” As it turned out, this was one of my Mom’s favorite shows, so inviting her over to watch the set with us was very gratifying as I could see some of the excitement she felt in her youth returning to her eyes. I was equally excited a few days ago when I saw that MPI Home Video was already releasing a second volume. That’s right, 20 more episodes of “The Cisco Kid.” I got my Mom on the phone again and set up some time for us to get together so she could watch them with us. She couldn’t get over to the house fast enough.

Now just in case, you’ve never heard of the series let me fill you in just a little bit. “The Cisco Kid” starred Duncan Renaldo as the title character and Leo Carillo as his faithful sidekick Pancho. Often going afoul of the law, it was their mission in life to right wrongs and seek justice when justice couldn’t be found by conventional means. Cisco was basically the ‘Robin Hood’ of the old west. Bandits and cattle rustlers had to be on the lookout when these two hit town.

“The Cisco Kid” ran from 1950 to 1956, turning out a total of 156 episodes. And as you might imagine that the acting reflected the styles of the time. There was the occasional over-acting that some younger audiences today might find silly, but again we can chalk that up to single-mindedness. Though the show utilized a lot of humorous interplay between Cisco and Pancho, it was also a little bit more violent than was usual for the time. Where most shows used to old ‘shooting the guns out of the bad guy’s hands’ routine, here the bad guys often actually got shot. The series also had the distinction of being one of the first TV series to be shot in color (even though most people didn’t even have color TVs then).

As it turns out, I ended up enjoying these episodes as much as the ones on the previous set, and there’s no doubt my Mom had a great time seeing it again after all these years. The series had a certain simplicity, so I could care less about the overacting. Most of the episodes were pretty good, but the two that stood out for me this time around were “The Will”, in which Cisco and Pancho try to prove the innocence of a young freight wagon driver, who had been sent away for a robbery he didn’t commit. Then ther was “Cisco Meets the Gorilla”, where an escaped carnival gorilla is used to commit robberies. This episode wasn’t so much good, as it is always cool to see that classic 1950’s gorilla costume!!

What I really found interesting however, were the strong Hispanic stereotypes represented here. It reminded me of how much times have changed. When I read that in 1980 Duncan Renaldo received a special Lifetime Achievement Award in which he was honored for providing a positive Hispanic role model for Americans, it led me to wonder how his and Carillo’s performances would be viewed today. We live in such a PC world nowadays, and thanks to the ‘Intellectually Challenged’ (re: stupid people) any stereotype is generally immediately met with picket lines and protesters. Of course, these are usually made up of the ‘Employment Challenged’ (re: lazy people) whom we shouldn’t be listening to anyway.

“The Cisco Kid: Volume 2” from MPI offers up 20 more half hour episodes of the series, with no extra features. I will warn those who might be interested in picking up the set not to expect a crystal clear transfer. Due to the age of the materials, there’s only so much that can be done to clean up the image. The picture is a bit hazy and there are a lot of imperfections that can be seen, but this in no way hampered my delight in watching the series. I know that there are some DVD ‘purists’ (see Intellectually Challenged above) out there who might be outraged that the image isn’t crystal clear and that the sound is not re-mixed in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and tweaked by THX. For shows like these I think they are just being a little too nit picky. I only mention it so that those of you who pick up the set already know what to expect.

Episodes:
Medicine Flats
Railroad Land Rush
The Will
Lynching Story
Medicine Man Show
Ghost Story
Bates Story
Black Lightning
Faded General
The Fugitive
Indian Uprising
The Raccoon Story
Sky Sign
Cisco Meets the Gorilla
Not Guilty
Rodeo
Marriage by Mail
The Iron Mask
Double Deal
The Steel Plow

Starring: Duncan Renaldo, Leo Carillo
Specifications: Full Screen, Color
Studio: MPI Home Video
Release Date: 5/25/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Cisco Kid - Collection 2 an A.