Serenade in Rio

"Latin Lovers" is a tough movie to love. After all, the main character, Nora (Lana Turner), is very rich AND very arrogant. Through much of the film she seems to think she is entitled due to her money...yet she also is worried a man might want her for her money. Oddly, despite this, she is uninterested in marrying her long-time boyfriend (John Lund)...who is even richer than her.

When the boyfriend goes to Brazil to play polo, she follows and soon is smitten with Roberto (Ricardo Montalban). She worries he, too, wants her money. And, when she tells him she's loaded, he's thrilled...futher convincing her that all men want is her cash, not her circa 1953 hot bod.

In addition to Nora acting dumb and annoying through much of the film, the two men in her life aren't exactly prizes either--though you still often wonder WHAT they see in her! This is because Nora OFTEN gets angry and huffy and is as pleasant as a lion with a toothache. So, with some unlikable characters all you have left is the nice MGM gloss...which this one has in spades.

This is highly entertaining fluff. Lana Turner looks lovely, so it is probably carping to comment on her limited acting ability. Ricardo Montalban is suitably macho. The film is saved for me by the other actors with John Lund showing a deft comic touch and making his character more than one dimensional, which it surely would have been had the earlier choice, Michael Wilding played the role. Louis Calhern steals most of his scenes as Montalban's grandfather - the fact that he was only 25 years older apparently bothered no one. There are some nice touches in the writing and the costumes and cinematography are beautiful. All in all there is plenty to enjoy.

There is enough music in this film-minus the big name singers and dancers of the era-to make it a must-see musical. Although at times her hair looks like actual platinum, Lana Turner appears in so many mind-bogglingly gorgeous outfits that her wardrobe alone makes the movie worth watching. Then there is Ricardo Montalban in perhaps the sexiest (especially for those who remember him as Khan in Star Trek) film role of his career as a leading man, his singing voice dubbed by one Carlos Julio Ramírez in "A Little More of Your Amour." My favorite lines from that song: "Your samba is a stand-out, but I wish that you would hand out a little more of your amore." Turner is gorgeous throughout, and Montalban equals her sexiness on every level. Next-to-the-best treat: the great Rita Morena as the jealous Brazilian who stands in contrast to the excesses of wealth on display in the film. Bonus: Jean Hagen (of "Singin' in the Rain") as Turner's sidekick.

This one is much more fun than its inevitable detractors might lead you to believe. The cast, including Jean Hagen (who almost stole the show with her unforgettable Lina Lamont in "Singin' in the Rain"), Louis Calhern strutting his elegant stuff as a superannuated Brazilian, a very young Rita Moreno, the handsome John Lund once again playing a stuffy moneybags (as he did a little later in "High Society"), and Dorothy Neumann who gets some of the best of Isobel Lennart's cleverly scripted lines (with digs at psychoanalysts and their patented brand of voodoo.)

The story is pure Hollywood dream manufacture but it's so handsomely mounted and lushly photographed by that master of the color cameras, Joseph Ruttenberg, that objecting to it prompts the inevitable question, "Why in the heck did you watch it if you weren't in the mood for something with no relationship whatsoever to the real world?" Lana looks gorgeous and Helen Rose had the inspiration to dress her only in black and white and combinations thereof, contrasting her more than strikingly against the ultra-lush Technicolor trappings. She gets to do an ultra-smooth samba with her co-star Ricardo Montalban, who had the good fortune to step in as a replacement for the originally cast Fernando Lamas, whose real-life romance with Luscious Lana had very publicly come to a rocky impasse. Mervyn LeRoy, who had the distinction of mentoring Lana in the earliest days of her Hollywood ascendancy, directs with that machine-tooled efficiency that a vehicle of this kind must have if it is going to come anywhere near to a suspension of disbelief. With all of the first-class elements that Miss Turner was traditionally surrounded during her days as M-G-M's reigning boxoffice beauty, this is the kind of escapism that is, perhaps lamentably, a thing of a very distant past. When you're feeling benign, this one is fine!

Beautiful blonde Lana Turner (as Nora Taylor) worries men may want her because she is worth $37 million dollars. She is engaged to handsome blond John Lund (as Paul Chevron), who is worth $48 million dollars. It sounds like a good match, but Ms. Turner is still worried. When she was poor, a greedy boy stole all her marbles, she tells her analyst. Both Turner and Mr. Lund go to picturesque Brazil, where he plays polo. Turner wears expensive clothes and meets muscle-glistening Ricardo Montalban (as Roberto Santos). They are mutually attracted. Turner decides to hide her $37 million estate from Mr. Montalban, because she (now) thinks men are not interested in marrying beautiful and wealthy women. Honest. This story is as silly as it sounds. However, it is worth watching to see how the crew at MGM could pull out the big guns; in this case, for Turner and Montalban. The production always looks great.

***** Latin Lovers (8/12/53) Mervyn LeRoy ~ Lana Turner, Ricardo Montalban, John Lund, Louis Calhern