| Under the Pampas Moon | |
| Director: | James Tinling |
| Producer: | Buddy G. DeSylva |
| Story: | Gordon Morris |
| Cinematography: | Chester A. Lyons |
| Studio: | Fox Film Corporation |
| Distributor: | Fox Film Corporation 20th Century Fox |
| Runtime: | 78 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
Under the Pampas Moon, also known as The Gaucho, is a 1935 American Western film directed by James Tinling and starring Warner Baxter and Ketti Gallian.[1] Baxter plays an Argentine gaucho. Rita Hayworth also had an early role in the film. The film has been cited as a "ludicrously dated essay into South American caricature".[2]
The womanizing gaucho Cesar Campo lives a carefree life on the Pampas. However, when a plane lands nearby he meets an attractive French singer and her unscrupulous fiancée who is so impressed by Cesar's horse that he arranges to have it stolen to enter in a horse race under a false name. Cesar pursues them to Buenos Aires and after a flirtation with the French singer and a series of culture clashes in sophisticated hotels and restaurants he rescues the horse and returns home.
Fox Film Corporation was run by Sidney Kent from 1930 to 1935. The company was in near bankruptcy in early 1935. It was not making enough money on its films but Sol Lesser Productions made a contract to make films with Fox Film. While on 20th Century Pictures' side, it was making way more gross on the box office than Fox studios. On May 31, 1935, following the making of Fox Film's Under the Pampas Moon, Kent announced that the two companies intended merging. Eventually, the same day, they merged to form their biggest success, 20th Century-Fox.