The lavish adventure extravaganza, filmed at the height of Fairbanks' box office clout, was directed by F. Richard Jones with a running time of 115 minutes.

"[3] Vance also considers it a "daring departure, the film is an effort of unanticipated darkness in tone, setting, and character.

It has been replaced by a spiritual fervor and an element of seething sexuality the likes of which has never been seen before in one of his productions.”[3] The disreputable leader of a group of bandits, El Gaucho, is thrust into the role of hero after an even more cruel local strongman, Ruiz, takes over the Andean village that El Gaucho and his men have used as their base.

But after regaining the town for his selfish uses, El Gaucho has a showdown with the Padre and undergoes a spiritual transformation when confronted with the holy powers of a sacred shrine.

The nickname for the sports teams of the University of California-Santa Barbara is The Gauchos in honor of Fairbanks' acting in the eponymous film.