La Fiesta de Santa Barbara

Pete Smith worked for the shorts division of MGM and often narrated how-to films. Well, I cannot stand the guy's narration, as it comes off as very self-satisfied...and annoying. Smith makes jokes, most of which fall completely flat and the notion of less being more never occurred to the guy! Because he narrates this short, it clearly knocks off a few points...especially when he speaks Spanish in a rather dopey and insulting manner.

The film is a self-promotion film, the type MGM often filmed in color during this time. The purpose was to highlight a variety of their stars and thinly veil it in a visit to Santa Barbera for a yearly festival. During the course of the film, you see cameos by Warner Baxter, Harpo Marx, Ted Healy, Judy Garland, Gary Cooper*, Gilbert Roland, Leo Carillo, Robert Taylor, Andy Divine and many more. Several were likely chosen because of their Mexican-American heritage (Carillo and Roland) and no doubt Baxter was chosen since he'd already played The Cisco Kid in several films. The most interesting cameo to me was Ida Lupino, as this was before she became a star and underwent a HUGE makeover. In fact, you can't even recognize it's her until they say her name.

The overall film is extremely colorful (since these shorts were among the few pictures MGM made in full color), festive and plot less. For the average viewer, they'd be a bore but for old time movie fans they are a great opportunity to see many of your favorites.

*I have no idea why Gary Cooper keeps appearing in these films, as he worked mostly for Paramount and Columbia Studios. Maybe he just liked hanging out with the MGM starlets.

This film short came up on my DVD with Me and My Gal. This film is about Santa Barbara and their annual festival. It's an all star cast but you wouldn't know it because there are just so many people and not enough time to get to all of them. The music was average. The fiesta part was really to show Santa Barbara and the annual tradition to the world out there in color. I was surprised to see it on the DVD. While you get only a glimpse of the major stars, you do try to find out what is going on. There doesn't seem to be a story or a purpose to it. The colors are great because it's in color and not black and white. Maybe TCM would air this short in between longer movies. But I just didn't get it what it was all about. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention to it.

Fiesta de Santa Barbara, La (1935)

*** (out of 4)

As the titles says, this short shows us the Fiesta of Santa Barbara but the story of this is just hogwash since the real reason to see this short is due to all the famous stars. Warner Baxter, Ida Lupino, the Garland Sisters, Edmund Lowe, Robert Taylor, Harpo Marx, Pete Smith, Buster Keaton, Gary Cooper, Jim Thorpe and countless other stars make cameos here so this cast alone makes this worth watching. Shot in Technicolor and received an Oscar nomination.

If you're interested in seeing this short then Turner Classic Movies shows it quite often.

Louis B. Mayer actually splurged for color in this Pete Smith short, La Fiesta De Santa Barbara. The short revolves around MGM's recreation of the famous celebration in Santa Barbara, California with a number of MGM's contract players and others making a brief appearance.

Seen in the audience are such luminaries as Robert Taylor, Gary Cooper, Gilbert Roland, Edmund Lowe, and a whole lot more. In her only film appearance with her sisters, Judy Garland appears with them under her real name of Frances Gumm singing La Cucaracha.

Highlight for me is Andy Devine fighting a couple of guys in a bull's costume as per the Hispanic tradition of the Fiesta. Capping the whole thing off in the end is Leo Carrillo riding in something very much like the native costume he wore when playing Pancho on the Cisco Kid. This is real though for Leo Carillo actually was a descendant of the earliest settlers in California.

It's a pleasant enough short, especially for those who like to stargaze.

One of the most pleasant surprises of this early 3-strip Technicolor short was that a ballet dancer that appears here was named Maria Gambarelli! I half wondered if Blake Edwards was naming the character played by Elke Sommer in A Shot in the Dark after this now-forgotten performer (though the spelling of the Sommer character's surname was actually Gambrelli). I watched this on YouTube mainly to see an early Judy Garland appearance as we watch her in profile with her two older sisters singing "La Cucaracha". That was the highlight for me which otherwise showed some dances (like that of Ms. Gambarelli) that were enjoyable and some lame comedy between Andy Devine as a great bull-fighter (yeah, right!) and Buster Keaton as a bull owner who provides one that is obviously a man in animal costume. Only funny part of those two is when they cry-with Buster providing handkerchief to "bull"-during the sad part of "La Cucaracha". Also lame was seeing Ted Healy without his stooges dealing with a crasher who keeps mistaking Healy for other movie stars. (Healy himself didn't know Zeppo had left The Marx Brothers since he puts "Four" between "The" and "Marx"!) Speaking of a Marx, it was interesting seeing Harpo without his wig though he is wearing a hat to hide his bald head. Also interesting was seeing Ida Lupino among the cowgirls in the beginning though I also recognized Toby Wing from her part in Murder at the Vanities last year (at least when announcer Pete Smith identified her). Oh, and Smith himself wasn't funny with his wise-guy narration. Other famous stars you may or may not recognize are also in cameos and not all are M-G-M contract players either! So with all that said, La fiesta de Santa Barbara is worth a look for anyone curious about Judy Garland's early film appearances or the early use of 3-strip Technicolor.