Holiday in Havana

This is the first Desi Arnaz movie sans Lucy that I watch and all I have to say is WATCH IT!I was really impressed with Desi Arnaz's presence and one-liners here when Ricky Ricardo wasn't even around yet.There's a lot of great musical numbers and songs throughout the movie that make you shake the maracas and wanting more. Great songs, romance and a bit of comedy make this a great experience. Desi looks his best and Mary Hatcher is a beautiful girl and their chemistry goes through the screen. Finally this movie gives Desi the credit he deserves for once.This movie should be remastered and released in DVD sometime in the future, since I'm afraid my tape is going to wear out!

Carlos Estrada (Desi Arnaz) is a struggling musician and when the story begins, he is a busboy with a band made up of a few friends who play on their spare time. A big music festival is coming and he hopes to do well...once they find a female vocalist for the band. Soon a woman tries to get Carlos to hire Lolita (Mary Hatcher, who seems about as Cuban as Mantan Moreland) but Carlos makes a dumb assumption that she's some sort of diva and he rejects her. Later, he meets sweet Delores...who is perfect for the band. Little does Carlos know that Delores IS Lolita! Other complications arise, however, and it looks doubtful if the band will be able to compete.

The best word to describe this film is 'fluff'. It's nice and agreeable fluff...but fluff nonetheless. Arnaz's singing and acting are fine but the script doesn't give him a lot of meat...a chance to show he is star quality.

By the way, this is Desi's last project before he produced and starred in "I Love Lucy". In hindsight, this was probably a pretty good career move!

With a title like "Holiday in Havana", you might expect one of those overlit Fox Technicolor spectacles with Carmen Miranda mugging it up in the numbers. What you have is a black-and-white Universal Studios type of effort which looks like it requires a central comic. Instead, you have a bunch of decent supporting comics like Sig Arno, Minerva Urecal and Leon Belasco. Director Jean Yarborough was fine when directing cut-glass farce with Abbott & Costello. However, dealing with people like Ann Doran, who could do well with a line, the comedy timing limps.

What pulls this movie up is the music. The music is lively, mostly Latin and just the sort of thing I grew up with: not only the sort of thing that Desi Arnaz would later use on "I Love Lucy" but the Wall-of-Sound dizzy drive that Tito Puente would command. Desi Arnaz gives a surprisingly nuanced performance and Mary Hatcher as the ingénue is very charming, even if she is made up to look like a juvenile Rita Hayworth.

Very entertaining from start to finish. Arnaz oozes an Elvis like sex appeal during the musical numbers. Makes you wonder how his career would have played out if not for something called I LOVE LUCY.

Dance, Ricky, Dance!

Finally, Desi can shine without being weighed down by the supremely untalented Lucille Ball. She could make a Pumpkin Pie taste like a Rice Cake. Her acting skills are on a par with Lili Tomlin and Jane Curtain. Anchors all, bringing down their co-stars with the weight of a large Carnie size boat.

Go see this movie.

See Desi dance!

He Rhumbas the night away.

This latin lover puts the spice back in spicy.

Holiday in Havana is like a fabulous festival for my VCR. It likes this movie so much that I can't seem to eject the tape. Apparently Panasonic gives this movie 2 gigantic thumbs up.