I'll keep this very brief, as previous reviewers have covered it well. The same basic plot as "Mexican Spitfire" - man needs to secure a business contract while aunt tries to sabotage his marriage. The problem facing this movie is that the title character - Carmelita - is practically a supporting role. The main focus is on the dual performance of Leon Errol as Uncle Matt and Lord Epping. It was a tired joke in the first film, yet now becomes even more prominent. Lupe Velez was the main attraction in "The Girl From Mexico", which is why it was spun off into a series in the first place. Why ignore Carmelita now? I'm hopeful that future films in the series return to Velez as the primary figure.
Add a Review
-
ELSQUARED13 April 2014
-
allentbone22 November 2020If this is the first Mexican Spitfire you've seen it can be puzzling. First, it seems like Lupe Velez is a supporting character in her own movie, and it's all Leon Errol. Second, it can be confusing if you don't give the film your undivided attention if it comes up on TCM. Not only does Leon Errol play a dual role as Uncle Matt and Lord Epping but the Uncle Matt character impersonates Lord Epping throughout much of the film. So if you are distracted from the film at home for a minute you can be asking yourself which character you are watching: Lord Epping or Uncle Matt's fake Lord Epping. It must have posed a special challenge for Leon Errol to create a version of Uncle Matt's Lord Epping that was not just his own portrayal of Lord Epping. The film is lively and funny but I am glad I got it on my PVR to watch again without distractions.
-
bkoganbing2 May 2018In this Mexican Spitfire movie Lupe Velez is unhappy that her husband Donald Woods has his mind on business more than her. We're never sure exactly why Woods wants to land an account from Lord Epping or what the deal is all about. But that's not central to the proceedings.
Leon Errol is the indulgent Uncle Matt and Lord Epping and in the fast moving plot Uncle Errol has to pretend he's Lord Errol which causes all kinds of confusion. The whole cast winds up in Reno where Lupe because Woods has been preoccupied has gone to pretend to file for divorce. Things get fast and furious as they always do in the Mexican Spitfire movies.
I'm agreeing with the other reviewer in that Errol's dual role got more attention than Lupe. But that's not a bad thing for me.
Lupe's and Leon's fans will be pleased. -
mark.waltz14 February 2014Utilizig the threat of a divorce to teach husband Donald Woods a lesson, Lupe Velez bites off more malapropisms than she can chew in this third installment of the RKO sit-com like series. Rubber-legged Leon Errol is once again the prankster minded Uncle Matt and his nephew's eccentric boss whom Matt impersonates at Velez's urging in order to aid him in dealing with business rivals determined to out-wit him.
Likable in spite of its basic repeat of the same plot, the series remains a mild diversion in the classic studio age. It is no less memorable than any of the comic series of this era, if maybe containing a bit more slap-stick. Wise-cracks fly from Errol as Matt disguised as Epping to Matt's slightly shrewish wife Elizabeth Risdon who continues her campaign against Velez. The staff of the Reno hotel gets involved in the confusion with the poor house detective fighting double vision every time Errol appears. Of course, the series suffered from continuity issues and some bad dialog of the here we go again. But when it is wrapped up in a harmless package, it is easy to forgive its flaws. -
Mozjoukine6 May 2003This third film is virtually a re-make of MEXICAN SPITFIRE paraphrasing many of the original gags (of Hayes "Elizabeth should have married him in the first place" "Well she didn't pick up the first place. She ran out of the money.") and orchestrating more bogus Feydeau entrances and exits by hard working Errol in his dual characters.
Woods tries hard to convince us he's a light comedian and Velez is not attractively filmed. Talented people like Elizabeth Risdon and Cecil Kellaway are wasted.
The production is smooth though the lack of exteriors makes it a little odd. It's not even particularly amusing as it's predecessor had been -
For no good reason at all, Carmelita (Lupe Velez) runs off to Reno to divorce husband Dennis (Donald Woods). Actually, she just wants to threaten the divorce so Dennis will beg her to come back. At the same time, Dennis is once again trying to get a contract with Lord Epping (Leon Errol) and this time he's got competition. So needless to say Uncle Matt (also Errol) will be impersonating Lord Epping again.
Another Leon Errol starring vehicle. Oh, this is a Mexican Spitfire movie supposedly starring Lupe Velez? Well, it's easy enough to make that mistake seeing as how Leon Errol plays more than one role in the movie, gets all the funny bits, and has the lion's share of the screen time. I'm not the biggest fan of Lupe Velez but there are plenty who like her shtick and watch her movies for HER, not an old (albeit amusing at times) vaudevillian.
The biggest flaw with this movie is that it is pretty much just a retread of the last movie, with a virtually identical plot. The only big changes are that Dennis has competition for Lord Epping this time, Carmelita goes to Reno instead of Mexico for a divorce, and Lord Epping's wife shows up. Dennis' aunt is still trying to break up his marriage and his ex is still interested in him, despite her humiliation at the end of the last movie. Most of the gags in this one fall flat if you have seen the last film. If this is your first Mexican Spitfire movie, it might play better. -
deschreiber16 June 2016This is the first Mexican Spitfire movie I've seen, and I found it great fun. Lord Epping is a howl--yes, probably a vaudeville standard for Leon Errol, but a very good one. The sputtering, the exaggerated English accent, the little comments made under his breath, the funny walk (Monty Python was right about how far a funny walk can take you in getting laughs), what's not to like? As for Lupe Velez, this is the first time I've seen her, and I understand completely why her first appearance in an earlier movie led to a series of follow-ups. She's pretty, and with all her comedic turns you can hardly take your eyes off her. She definitely left me wanting to see more of her. People are right her to say that she plays a secondary role to the Errol characters in this movie, but if you haven't seen her before, it just may leave you looking for more. I'll certainly tune in any time I see another Mexican Spitfire movie playing. I'm glad I discovered this one. Simple, farcical comedy, but an amusing way to spend an hour or so.
What a terrible shame success didn't bring Lupe Velez happiness. -
JohnHowardReid12 May 2018Director: LESLIE GOODWINS. Screenplay: Charles E. Roberts, Jack Townley. Story: Charles E. Roberts. Film editor: Desmond Marquette. Photography: Jack Mackenzie. Art directors: Van Nest Polglase, Albert S. D'Agostino. Set decorator: Darrell Silvera. Costumes: Renié. Special effects: Vernon L. Walker. Music composed by Roy Webb, directed by Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Assistant director: Kenneth Holmes. Sound recording: Richard Van Hessen. RCA Sound System. Producer: Cliff Reid. Executive producer: Lee Marcus.
Copyright 15 November 1940 by RKO-Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Rialto: 29 October 1940. U.S. release: 15 November 1940. Australian release: 2 January 1941. 6,962 feet. 76 minutes.
COMMENT: Why is this one the best of the series? Well, it has a quite amusing script to begin with, and even more importantly the screenwriters provide some marvelous opportunities to the players, particularly Leon Errol, Charles Coleman, Tom Kennedy, Eddie Dunn, Frank Orth, Grant Withers, Jan Buckingham and Fred Kelsey.
As in Sees a Ghost, Errol has four roles, but unlike Ghost where his butler is cut from exactly the same cloth as his Uncle Matt, on this occasion his "man" is given quite a different personality-and what a joy it is! And what a pleasure also to find Errol and Coleman inter-acting so well. Here Coleman makes the most of one of his biggest roles. His scenes with Errol are absolutely side-splitting.
Tom Kennedy also has a couple of most amusing run-ins with Errol, and we really enjoyed Grant Withers' mastery of comic timing in his altercations with the star.
As for Jan Buckingham's wonderfully supercilious secretary, all we can say is that she makes her one brief scene impossible to forget.
This entry is full of wonderfully rib-tickling character sketches from start to finish. The pace never lets up. A pity Townley wasn't hired to jazz up some of Roberts' other scripts. -
estherwalker-347102 February 2021From previous reviewers, I read some complaints that this is essentially a repetition of the screenplay of the previous film(Mexican Spitfire) of this series of 8 comedies, starring the striking Lupe Velez(the Mexican Spitfire) and veteran stage and film actor Leon Errol. Superficially, this may seem true. But, I agree with reviewer JohnHowardReid that this is the most entertaining of this film series, at least of the 4 I have seen. In fact, it's one of the funniest film farces I've ever seen! Some reviewers declare that the first of the series : "The Girl from Mexico" is the best of the series. Certainly, that film most features Lupe, as the supposed lead character in the series, if that's what you want. But, with the introduction, in "Mexican Spitfire", of Leon Errol playing 3 characters: the very eccentric Lord Epping, as well as Uncle Lindsay, and Uncle's duplication of Epping, as well as a forth character: Epping's valet, in the present film, Errol became the de facto lead actor in generating comedy, with Lupe essentially being his sidekick.........In addition to the return of the main characters from the first 2 films, 2 new significant characters are introduced. These are : Skinner(Eddie Dunn), as a rival to Dennis Lindsay(Lupe's Husband) for securing the lucrative contract from Lord Epping for advertising his Scottish whiskey in the USA. Also, Lady Epping arrives from England some time after her husband arrives, and has a part in the hilarious shenanigans in the last part of the film. .............As in the first 2 films, Lupe and Errol, in any of his guises, usually team up to foil the others. Lupe, despite being 31, usually comes across as a hyperemotional teenager, laughing, hugging and with her occasional verbose temper tantrums. She was even more infamous for her emotional outbursts and shenanigans offscreen. Yet, she was very popular with movie fans, 4000 of whom filed by her open casket, when she ended her life at age 36.........Errol spent all of the era of silent films on Broadway, as an actor and director, especially for Ziegfeld's follies. As soon as talky films began, he abandoned Broadway for Hollywood, and appeared in many films in the '30s and 40s, probably mostly in minor roles, as I haven't noticed him in any films outside of this series. Unfortunately, I don't know if he invented his Lord Epping character before he got into this film series...............As in "the Mexican Spitfire", Lupe starts things off by going far away to apply for a divorce: this time to Reno. She was mad at husband Dennis(Donald Woods) because he was late to their first anniversary party. She wasn't sure if she would actually go through with this, or just scare him. It turned out that she did hire a lawyer to type up divorce papers. And, when Dennis later arrived to check up on things, the lawyer served him the papers. Yet, several times, Lupe claimed she didn't really file for divorce, and in the ending, they are holding hands as they disappear into their bedroom. Confusing! .............Eventually, the whole gang from NYC, as well as Lord Epping and his wife, arrive in the same hotel in Reno, for various reasons, and participate in the hilarious last portion of the film. See the film for details. (The film series is available on DVD, at Amazon, for instance). You'll have to keep close attention to figure out whether you are looking at the 'real' Lord Epping or Uncle's imitation! Enjoy!