Welcome to Daily TWiP, your daily dose of all the holidays and history we couldn’t cram into The Week in Preview.

It’s amazing to consider how much film technology has developed in just the past century. Today in 2011, entire movies are created using nothing but computers. Today (Jan. 20th) in 1929, however, the poster advertising the film “In Old Arizona” bragged that the movie was “100% all-talking.” “In Old Arizona” was the first major Western to be filmed with sound as well as the first “talkie” to be filmed outdoors.

The movie was shot in beautifully scenic locations like Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park in Utah and California’s San Fernando Mission and Mojave Desert. Instead of suspending their disbelief and pretending that a lightly sanded soundstage with a couple of cacti was the American West, audience members saw the stomping grounds of cowboys and bandits with their own eyes.

And what bandits and cowboys they were. “In Old Arizona” featured the adventures of the Cisco Kid (played by Warner Baxter), a character from O. Henry’s short story “The Caballero’s Way.”

The Cisco Kid, a dashing Southwestern bandit, merrily pursues a life of thievery, adventure, and romance while deftly eluding the clutches of Sgt. Mickey Dunn. Unfortunately for Cisco, Tonia, his beautiful Mexican love interest, is less than devoted, and makes a deal with Dunn to help capture Cisco so she can collect the bounty on Cisco’s head.

The film does not have a happy ending (at least, not for Tonia), with Cisco exacting a vengeful brand of justice before riding jauntily off into the sunset. Apparently, no one messes with the Cisco Kid and lives to tell about it.

“In Old Arizona” also helped establish the “singing cowboy” aspect of the Western genre with Baxter’s performance of “My Tonia.” Baxter won the second Academy Award for Best Actor ever awarded for his role as the Cisco Kid.

The movie itself received four other Oscar nominations for Best Director, Best Writing, Best Cinematography, and Best Picture. To this day, it’s considered a gem of the Western movie genre.

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– Teresa Santoski