Sombrero

What were MGM thinking of in making this film ? The opening proudly proclaims how thankful the studio is in letting them make it in Mexico, but what on earth did the Mexicans make of the end product ? Hysteria runs throughout the film culminating with a completely mad dance on the top of a mountain. Three interlinking love stories try to make sense of this nonsense and despite a cast of fine actors no one really has a chance to shine. Only Rick Jason ( see him preferably if you can in ' The Wayward Bus ' ) gives what I call a performance, and poor Vittorio Gassmann lags a little behind. As for the women it is a total waste. Cyd Charisse dances one of her worst dances ( in choreographic terms ) and fights with bad dialogue. Pier Angeli is underused and so is Yvonne de Carlo. Nina Foch has a truly nasty scene with a blind man who is dying and melodrama of the worst sort comes to the fore. I am not surprised it was a flop. I hope the Mexicans asked for their money back at the cinemas. A disgrace to film making. A 4 for the actors who presumably had to attend the premiere.

Gave this a a 10 just because it was worth it to see how beautiful Mexico was. And let's face it, for Hollywood to film on location in Mexico the 50s is a rarity . The fact that Metro even bankrolled a movie set in Mexico is a wonder. Also this is probably the only film to my knowledge where Mexican actor Ricardo Montalban actually portrayed a Mexican instead of the what Hollywood considered the "acceptable" Latin lover, eg. an Argentinian polo player I.e. European.

This film is based on short stories by Josefina Niggli, whom I met when she was teaching at the Univeristy of North Carolina in Chapel Hill -- the plot outlined by the previous contributor is quite thorough, but does not mention the fine performance of Yvonne DeCarlo as Maria, of the River Road, and most especially does not mention the magnificent dance number performed by Cyd Charisse on a mountaintop in the rain -- unforgetable!!!

I don't understand why it shows such a low rating of 5.4 for this movie on this page. I saw it in the movie house way back in the 1950;s when I was a teenager and I remembered it over the years. Its a adorable funny/tragic story that keeps on your mind for years to come. And so many well know actors playing great parts. I give only one movie 10 stars and I give Sombrero 9 stars. Watch it, you will be glad you did.

This is a wonderful, enjoyable film with a retinue of fine actors having a lot of fun in an entertaining story set in Mexico. The tale is wonderfully Mexican with cock-fights, inter-village rivalry, tragedy and mystery: Pepe (Richardo Montalban-- Mr. Rourke of Fantasy Island) loves the Mayor's (Thomas Gomez) daughter, Eufemia (Pier Angeli) but needs some success to convince her father he's a worthy candidate for her hand. Vittorio Gassman is the local rich boy whose family want him to marry an appropriate girl from an appropriate family, Rick Jason is the third compañero in love with a gypsy girl (Cyd Charisse). Wonderful performances by the lovely Nina Foch as the set-aside sweetheart, the great Andaluzian Gypsy dancer, Jose Greco, the ever-lovely bubbly Thomas Gomez, plotting Kurt Kaszner and a bit part with one of my fav's, Alfonso Bedoya who doesn't say "We don' gotta chow you no stinkin' batches." Alas, no video for this fine, fun film, so you'll have to catch it on the late show. Check out especially, Ricardo Montalban, Rick Jason and Vittorio Gassman singing the lively, "¡Eufemia!" ¡Realmente macanudo!