nick-1001

You learn NOTHING about the great singer Beny Moré; leaves you wondering WHY DID THEY MAKE THIS TERRIBLE MOVIE???? And the production values are on the level of the Mexican classic "Juana la Cubana". But,nevertheless, the music is great, a few of the dance sequences are fun, and seeing the aged "Rumberas" Ninón Sevilla and Rosita Fornésbadly act a la John Waters is worth the price of admission... This was, apparently, a Cuban/Mexican production and, while purporting to be "about" Moré, it is really a melodrama about the making of a biopic and a pretentious study of the actor selected to portray him. A disaster all around.

Starred the great Pedro Infante and created the archetype "Pepe el Toro", the urban working class hero. It was an attempt to depict and dignify with some degree of reality the working class poor of Mexico City, several years before the more sophisticated (and pessimistic) Los Ovidados was made. Featured the young Katy Jurado as the neighborhood tramp and Carmen Montejo as the dying sister. Co-star Blanca Estela Pavón was killed shortly after filming the sequel "Ustedes los Ricos", and Evita Muñoz, the little girl, is still known today as "Chachita", her name in the movie. This is the best known and beloved film in all of Mexican cinema, not unlike "It's A Wonderful Life" is in the USA. A film that while melodramatic, holds up today and is artfully done, and must be viewed with an understanding of its social context.

The best known in a series of lurid "Rumbera" films, a genre peculiar to Mexican Cinema which combines noir and musical numbers, and usually takes place in the underworld of nightclubs and gangsters. Starring Cuban actress Ninón Sevilla and directed by Alberto Gout who directed her in other similar films with names such as "Perdida" and "Sensualidad". Over the top photography and acting has to be seen to be believed. The image of the star in her "pineapple hat" is memorable. A campy stage show was created in the 1990's based on the film and is still running today in Mexico City. The great Andrea Palma appears in her later, matronly, manifestation as the "madam".