A Message to Garcia

Elbert Hubbard's famous essay on how Lieutenant Rowan of the United States Army delivered a message to Cuban rebel general Garcia from President McKinley was embellished to an action adventure story with some horrible casting. I'm betting the real story of Rowan's journey through Cuba was far more interesting.

The horrible miscasting of Barbara Stanwyck as a Cuban senorita is the main problem. She who adopted a nice brogue for The Plough And The Stars and Union Pacific probably would have made it worse had she talked with an accent in A Message To Garcia. I'd like to think that Darryl F. Zanuck in one of the first features of the newly formed 20th Century Fox Studio would have tried for Dolores Del Rio.

I'm sure Zanuck laid out some big bucks to Louis B. Mayer for the services of Wallace Beery. I agree with another reviewer that someone who had spent 10 years in Cuba living hand to mouth as Beery's character had, would have picked up some working knowledge of Spanish. But Beery was good box office back then and Zanuck was no fool that way. What there is of the picture he steals from John Boles playing the real life Lieutenant Rowan and Stanwyck playing a fictional senorita with whom he has a romance.

A Message To Garcia is a nice, but feeble attempt to tell the story of a most intriguing espionage tale.

President McKinley -- body by Dell Henderson, voice by John Carradine -- orders Lieutenant John Boles to deliver a message to rebel General Garcia that the US will begin a war against Spain, and cooperate with him. Along the way he is pursued by German spy Alan Hale, and picks up as aides Cuban rebel Barbara Stanwyck and US Marines deserter Wallace Beery.

The last two are inventions for the movie. Beery plays a variation on Long John Silver, and Miss Stanwyck is as hot as a jungle. Neither did the real Lieutenant Rowan head down to Cuba as a stoker carrying a letter. He traveled comfortably with an oral message. That, however, would not have made an interesting movie, and producer Raymond Griffith and director George Marshall lay it on thick.

What will surprise most people, given his fallen reputation, is how good Boles is: simultaneously intrepid, inventive, naive, and romantic. It's romantic piffle as history, a staple of the moom pitchers, but a lot of fun.

"A Message to Garcia" has the sort of insane casting that was not very uncommon during Hollywood's golden age. Think about it--Barbara Stanwyck plays a Cuban woman! And, Wallace Beery plays an American living in Cuba for ten years...which sounds plausible except that he knows almost no Spanish at all!!! What was the studio thinking?! Surely they could have gotten some folks more suited to these roles! And, surely Stanwyck could have at least tried to put on some sort of non-American accent!!

This film is set in the period just before the Spanish-American War in 1898. The President of the US has sent an emissary (John Boles) to Cuba on a secret mission to deliver a message to the leader of the Cuban rebel army led by General Garcia. The problem is locating the guy. After all, it's not like Garcia wants anyone to find him--otherwise the Spanish army would have quickly captured him! Once in Cuba, Boles is assisted both by Stanwyck and Beery during a long trek through the jungle. Oddly, folks seem to die several times during this journey--only to amazingly appear later in the movie! Pretty weird! Overall, this is a dopey movie. Surprisingly, its best aspect is Beery's broad acting because he does bring some energy and humor to the film--two things otherwise lacking in the movie. A rather limp film in most ways--surely the studio could have done better.

By the way, after writing this review I listened to Robert Osborne (of Turner Classic Movies) talk about this film. Apparently it was a bomb at the box office--reviewers and the public just wouldn't accept Stanwyck in such a ridiculous role! I would rank this one up there with John Wayne as Genghis Khan and Clark Gable as the Irish leader, Charles Stewart Parnell, or Katharine Hepburn as a Chinese woman in "Dragon Seed". It's a film she clearly should have been ashamed of, as she was the worst thing about it.

.. from 20th Century Fox and director George Marshall. Lt. Andrew Rowan (John Boles) is on a secret mission from President McKinley to deliver a message to Cuban revolutionary General Garcia. Rowan enlists the help of local scoundrel Dory (Wallace Beery) and vengeful plantation owner's daughter Raphaelita (Barbara Stanwyck) to find the reclusive revolutionaries, all the while being hunted by the Spanish government forces led by German Dr. Krug (Alan Hale).

This is a highly-fictionalized account of a real incident during the Spanish-American War. Boles is passable as the heroic lead, and he gets some good scenes near the end when he's being tortured. Stanwyck isn't exactly the first name I'd think of when casting a Cuban girl, and she really doesn't do anything to make that more believable other than use a few Spanish phrases and maybe darkening her hair a little. Beery plays the same boozy, disheveled slob with a heart of gold that he played so often. I'd heard this was awful, so maybe that tempered my expectations enough that I didn't mind it so much. Hale is effective as the villain.

This was an interesting recounting of the real-life events around Lieutenant Andrew Rowan carrying a message from American President McKinley to General Garcia in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. He did so under grave peril and withstood many hardships while alluding Dr. Ivan Krug who's mission it is to stop him. Along the way he enlists the help of a native Cuban Raphaelita (played by the gorgeous Barbara Stanwyck, who my one complaint...didn't even attempt a plausible Cuban accent-I love her though, it is more of an observation) and an AWOL marine who is a bit of a con artist living by his wits in Cuba.

This was a wonderful docu-drama, although I am not sure how accurate as they cross a river crawling with alligators by bopping them on the head with a stick. Either way it was a fun film to watch and Barbara Stanwyck is gorgeous and at her lovely prime in this film...so I say give it a view.