Movie Review: Don Ricardo Returns (1946)

Synopsis: Years after being Shanghaied and held prisoner on a ship, Don Ricardo returns to 1830s California and learns his cousin, Jose, arranged for him to be both kidnapped and murdered. Believing Ricardo is dead, Jose has laid claim to Ricardo's ranch and has his eyes set on Ricardo's love, Dorothea. With his skills with a sword deteriorated and needing proof of his cousin's deception, Ricardo disguises himself as a peasant and pairs up with another man, Lugo, who once saved him when he was a boy.

Who's in it? The movie stars Fred Coby, Lita Baron, Paul Newlan, Anthony Warde, David Leonard and Martin Garralaga.

Review: I added Don Ricardo Returns to my library a few weeks ago because I am a big Zorro fan and this movie was written by Zorro author Johnston McCulley. Unfortunately, while there were some similarities to The Mark of Zorro and other Zorro-related films, this did fall a bit short of my expectations.

I am going to start out by saying there were things I did like about this film. The main one was I absolutely loved Ricardo's (Coby) love interest, Dorothea (Baron). She was a strong, female character who arguably was Ricardo's equal with a sword, with the movie even going as far as to have her be the one to train him back into fighting shape. This, for me at least, made their romance seem more genuine because she wasn't just some damsel in distress he needed to save.

My main issue with the movie is it was honestly kind of dull. Other than Ricardo and Dorothea's sparring matches and a couple early fist fights, there isn't a whole lot of action throughout. Even the final battle between Ricardo and Jose (Warde) was a bit bland or, as I think is the best way to describe it, polite. I think the Ricardo/Dorothea swordfights had more intensity and suspense than a battle to the death between two cousins and that's even after Jose attempted to cheat by having his henchmen interfere.

I also thought the movie did a poor job establishing Ricardo as a hero. All we really know about him is he was wronged by his cousin and is seeking to reclaim his land. There is nothing that indicated he was necessarily any better than his cousin as a person. 

Sure, he claimed he treated his farm workers better when he was the one in charge. However, I noticed he made sure to keep his real identity a secret when living amongst those farm workers - a clear indication they didn't like him enough to be trusted. Plus, at no point during the course of the film did he even remotely suggest he thought of them as his equals. It really did make it harder to root for him than it probably should have been.

Final Opinion: The similarities to Zorro are there but Don Ricardo is a poor imitation. This movie just isn't as fun to watch as a result.

My Grade: C-

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Here are some reviews of other movies from 1946:

Movie Review: Shadow of a Woman (1946)

Movie Review: Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946)

Movie Review: House of Horrors (1946)

Movie Review: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)