THE GAUCHO (1927) Tavern dance scene

THE GAUCHO was Douglas Fairbanks' adventure story produced in 1927, starring Lupe Velez as a Mountain Girl who falls for the Gaucho (Fairbanks.) The two light up the screen in this fun dance of courtship, inspired by Fairbanks' use of the South American bolas. What are bolas? From the 2019 edition of "Douglas Fairbanks: The Fourth Musketeer," co-author & niece Letitia Fairbanks writes:
"Charles Darwin visited the pampas of Argentina when the Gaucho, or native cowboy, was at the height of his glory. That was in 1831, when Darwin, then a young naturalist, went along with others in a scientific expedition on the H.M.S. Beagle. In the recollections of his experiences in The Voyage of the
Beagle, Darwin took particular interest in the bolas, a missile made dexterous use of by the Gaucho, and which Douglas Fairbanks employed with great effectiveness in his next picture, The Gaucho.
The boleadoras, or bolas, used by the pampas cowboy, was made with three leather thongs tied together in the form of a Y, the ends fastened to stone or metal balls about the size of apples.
“The balls can be thrown fifty or sixty yards,” wrote Darwin, “but with little certainty. This, however, does not apply to a man on horseback, for when the speed of the horse is added to the force of the arm, it is said that they can be whirled with effect to the distance of eighty yards. . . . The Gaucho holds the smallest of the three (weights) in his hand and whirls the other two around his head; then, taking aim, sends them like chain-shot revolving through the air. The balls no sooner strike any object, than, winding around it, they cross each other and become firmly hitched.” The bolas could be used to stop a cow or a horse, or even a man, with immediate effect."
From page 209, "Douglas Fairbanks: The Fourth Musketeer," by Ralph Hancock & Letitia Fairbanks. Copyright 2019 Estate of Ralph Hancock & the Ella Letitia Fairbanks Smoot Family Trust, published by Roman & Littlefield, ISBN-13: 978-1493039920