In Old Arizona was Walsh’s first talkie, a version of O. Henry’s “The Caballero’s Way”, and filmed entirely on location in Zion Country, Utah. Filming began with Walsh himself playing the role of Cisco Kid (with a Pancho Villa moustache and pronounced Spanish accent) and the results were reputedly sensational. But one night he was driving along a bumpy road in the Mojave Desert, when a jackrabbit, “mesmerised by the headlights, jumped and crashed through the windshield. He was rushed to a Salt Lake hospital, where his right eye had to be removed”. Or so the story goes. According to several versions, including that given by his friend, the writer Niven Busch, Walsh’s eye had been hanging out by a nerve and the doctor gave Walsh a bottle of whisky, which he sat calmly drinking in lieu of anaesthetic. (…) During Walsh’s absence from the film, Irving Cummings took over as director, and Warner Baxter was signed to play The Cisco Kid. A great deal of the early footage was still usable and Walsh returned in time to complete the picture.

Julian Fox, Films and Filming, June 1973