Baron of the Sacramentos

This hokey post-Civil War western traces the rise and fall of a callow cowboy. When first met in New Orleans, Bart Young is a law student prone to playing practical jokes, who has a yen for land that approaches obsession. He goes to New Mexico with a plan to buy up old Spanish land grants around Santa Fe from their Mexican holders. Once there, however, he falls in love with the daughter of powerful land-grant proprietor Antonio Montoya and in a few years is Montoya's right-hand man and son-in-law. After a lawyer swindles Montoya out of his land, Bart and Antonio concoct a scheme to rebuild their fortune by securing a rich grant that will allow them to become the self-styled barons of the Sacramentos. Melodramatic and unsurprising, Blakely's tale is diminished by both its grandiose tone and his sophomoric protagonist's reliance on tiresome gags and practical jokes. (Oct.)