Last Night Tina and I were among many who attended the third film evening of the 2009 Leo Carrillo Film Festival...  

Which is leading me to once again blog about the great work that is being done at the Leo Carrillo Ranch in Carlsbad, California!

I have blogged several times about Leo Carrillo:  his ranch, his 40 different Cisco Kid comic books from Dell Comics, his role as Pancho in the 156 episodes of the Cisco Kid TV series, and over 90 films that he had a either a major or character role in.

However, what Tina and I enjoy most is walking the grounds of what remains of the Leo Carrillo Ranch, also known as 'Rancho de Los Kiotes', and attending the Leo Carrillo Film Festival each year!

This Film Festival Season was cancelled earlier, but then with a $5000 donation from an anonymous member-donor in partnership with the City of Carlsbad and The Friends of Carrillo Ranch Inc, it was brought back.

Thanks to that donor there were lots of others out there on the lawn last night to watch the 3rd night of the 2009 Leo Carrillo Film Festival!  Approximately 200+ persons gathered and watched another episode of The Cisco Kid that ran before the 1932 re-make film of Broken Wing that starred Leo Carrillo, Lupe Velez, and Melvyn Douglas. The original film was released in 1923. 

The above photos show the opening credits of The Cicso Kid TV Show. An episode of Leo as Pancho in that TV series is shown each Film Festival evening before the main feature.  The nice thing for the younger members of the audience is that the TV show was originally filmed in color, even though it was originally aired for black and white TV sets!  The series ran for 156 episodes from 1950 to 1956.  Leo started portraying Pancho when he was 70 years old!  Leo passed away a few years later in 1961 at the age of 81.

As I've stated here in my Blog before, it is really 'special' to sit under the stars at Leo Carrillo's Ranch and watch his TV Show episodes and then films he that played in.  That's because the Film Festival audience is actually sitting near the pool and cabana where Leo and his family used to entertain their guests, mostly from Hollywood, who would travel down to the ranch that once comprised the Eastern area of Carlsbad that we now live in!  Matter of fact Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon there at the ranch many years ago!  It is really nice that so many people have worked over the years to keep this little bit of local history 'alive' for the current generations to enjoy!

The film last night was pretty funny, a Paramount flick with Lupe Velez as the love interest.  Leo was great in the role of Captain Innocencio Dos Santos.  It was a love triangle story with actor Melvyn Douglas as pilot Phil Marvin who comes crashing in to become the 'King of Hearts'.  You'll have to watch the film to see what went on in this love triangle film... I'll just say that Leo was great in the role, a leading one for a change, and just wouldn't 'shut up' during the whole film.   I could see why he was 'typecasted' during most of his years in films.  He played variations of that role so well, especially in this film.  This film was among 700+ films that Paramount sold in 1958 to Universal for TV rights distribution.  

BTW, the Ranch hands also cooked hot dogs and had popcorn and candy to eat while watching the TV show episode and film for those that didn't bring food!  At the top right of this post is a placard showing the 'Carrillo Combo' for $4.00 for those that didn't bring a picnic dinner.  Of course Leo used to be a chef at his parties he would throw at the Ranch in earlier years, which is why I am publishing the picture of him on the placard here! 

There will be two more weeks of the 2009 Leo Carrillo Film Festival should you be in the Carlsbad, California area, September 26th (Saturday), and then back to a Friday night on October 2nd!  The September 26th evening will be a special 'Phantom Of the Opera' showing of the 1943 film. 

Which reminds me that I want to mention the below organizations before closing out this blog post...

For more info on the Film Festival or just to learn about the ranch, check out the web site at:  http://www.leocarrilloranch.org/

Also, don't miss out on seeing what the Friends of Carrillo Ranch Inc have done, and take a look at possibly joining them and / or donating to their worthy cause at:  http://www.carrillo-ranch.org/ !

And Thank You to Gerry Streff, Archivist @ the Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park, who emailed me after his 'Google Alerts' alerted him of my blog post.  I appreciate the kind words about my earlier blog post from last week!