The Trumpet Blows

I enjoy George Raft's films but will be the first to admit that his acting range was pretty limited. If you wanted someone to play a smooth and handsome dancer, he was great. The same is any film where he played a gangster...he was great. But otherwise, Raft was pretty limited. In "The Trumpet Blows", inexplicably, Raft plays a Mexican...and he seems about as Mexican as an order of Chop Suey!

The story begins on All Saints Day (commonly referred to as The Day of the Dead) in Mexico. Pancho (Adolph Menjou) is visiting a grave that supposedly he's buried within long ago! Let me explain. Many years ago, Pancho was a wanted bandit. But he faked his death and settled down to a life of respectability. Now, after visiting his faux grave, he and his buddy (Sidney Toler) head to pick up Pancho's brother, Manuel, on the train. It seems that Manuel was in the United States getting an eduction...and he inexplicably lost all trace of his Mexican accent in the process!

Soon after his arrival, Pancho tells his younger brother that he has picked out a good bride for Manuel. Unfortunately, Manuel soon falls for a woman that Pancho is smitten on...and Manuel then does what any decent brother would do...he runs away to become a bullfighter! What's next? Plenty!

What follows is very poorly written....a bit soap opera-like but also with a lot of plot elements...perhaps too many...and too many which just didn't make much sense. I enjoyed watching the film but will quickly admit that Raft, though nice looking and looking Latin, sounded all wrong for the part AND the writing was at best fair. Still, as I said, I enjoyed it and see it as a flawed time-passer.

THE TRUMPET BLOWS ...and so does the movie but it can also be amusing, especially if you like the stars. Manuel Montes (George Raft), a New York-educated Mexican (hence the accent), comes home to his brother Pancho's (Adolph Menjou) ranch and finds himself being set up for an arranged marriage but before that can happen, he falls in love with fiery dancer Chulita Valdez (a sultry Frances Drake) not knowing she's his brother's intended. In order not to cause a family rift, Raft runs off to become a famous matador and the usual complications ensue (a goring, Pancho revealed to be a notorious bandito, Manuelito denouncing Chulita) before things come to a head in a Mexico City bullring.

Frances Drake does a hot rumba and except for a brief spin around the dance floor, she doesn't do it with George -but since this is Pre-Code (albeit the tail end), she does spend the night with him. It's preposterous nonsense for sure and Mexican accents come and go but Georgie looks cute in his matador suit and yes, of course there were Latino actors in Hollywood at the time but, again, Paramount found a project for its star and not the other way around (Raft isn't billed above the title for nothing). Other Hollywood "exotics" in the offbeat (to say the least) cast include Sidney Toler & Katherine De Mille.

Adolphe Menjou used to be a feared and respected bandit, one who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Then he faked his death and now is one of the most respected ranchers in his part of Mexico. He is about to marry Frances Drake, when in walks his brother, George Raft, who doesn't know where his brother got his money. Being brothers, they quarrel about many things: who is the braver, who is to marry Miss Drake. Raft wins the second argument, and to win the first, he heads off to Mexico City to become a great matador, at which Menjou scoffs.

Director Stephen Roberts keeps things mostly light, even the bull fighting scenes, making this movie into one of fraternal competition rather than anything more substantial. That part is pretty good. Of course, casting Raft as a Mexican seems a bit odd, but then Ricardo Cortez spent his silent film career as a Latin too, and he was originally Jake Kranz, and like Raft, from Manhattan.... although almost certainly a different neighborhood.

'The Trumpet Blows' deserves some credit for sheer nerve, just for casting Adolphe Menjou, George Raft, Sidney Toler and Edward Ellis as Mexicans. Credulity is strained even more by casting Menjou and Raft as brothers.

Menjou is Pancho Montez, a former bandito (clearly based on Pancho Villa) now living in the town of Corrales under the alias Pancho Gomez. He hopes to marry the beautiful dancer Chulita (wot, no last name?), played by the beauteous and classy Frances Drake.

Pancho's brother Manuel has been living in the USA (which explains Raft's accent), but now he comes to live with Pancho. Big brother Pancho has a wife all picked out for Manuel, but the latter prefers Chulita. I was expecting the brothers to fight over Chulita. Instead, when Manuel learns the truth, his respect for his brother compels him to leave town to give Pancho a clear field.

Manuel goes off to Mexico City and, with laughable ease, he becomes a big-league matador. Meanwhile, the police have finally caught up with Pancho. When Manuel learns of this, he rushes back to aid his brother.

This movie is seriously compromised by the fact that most of the actors are not remotely believable as Mexicans. I especially loathed Nydia Westman, whose twittering voice and smirking face are invariably annoying but who is here more annoying than usual because she's so implausible as a Latina. Al Bridge, whom I usually like, is unbelievable here as a gravel-voiced Mexican constable.

Katherine DeMille (Cecil B DeMille's adopted daughter, who may genuinely have had some mestiza blood) is plausible, and Frances Drake is superb. Sidney Toler's facial bone structure is really weird: he never quite looks plausible as a caucasian (even though he *was* one), and never quite looked right in Chinese makeup as Charlie Chan. Here, as a mestizo, he looks flat-out ridiculous. I haven't seen so many fake Mexicans since John Garfield, Spencer Tracy, Sheldon Leonard and Frank Morgan donned sombreros and serapes for 'Tortilla Flat'.

The script and direction in 'The Trumpet Blows' aren't bad, but would have been vastly more effective if this film had been cast with genuine Latino actors. That's not political correctness: I'm just being pragmatic. No movie with Nydia Westman in it will ever get a perfect 10 rating from me, but the other actors work hard in this one. As for George Raft in matador drag ... did somebody mention 'bull'? I'll charitably give this one 6 out of 10.

They don't make movies like this any more. Maybe it's just as well, though it's amusing enough, in a 'time capsule' fashion. Adolphe Menjou, George Raft, and Sidney Toler are as unlikely a trio of Mexicans as you're ever likely to see, but then these were the days when you could cast Humphrey Bogart as an Irish stablehand (Dark Victory) and people would accept it. Not a bad timekiller, though you wouldn't want to watch it more than once.