Gesta heroica

Cheesy melodrama set during the time after the fall of Battista in Cuba. While the film has a man shot in the airport for crimes that a never specified this film seems to be a starting point for Hollywood's fixation with tin pot Latin American dictators/despots. In this film the bad guys are the supporters of Battista and the law abiding guys are working for the Castro Government. The only thing missing is a rally for Che. Not a very good film the acting is surprisingly wooden. I had a lot of good memories of Cameron Mitchell but this film made me question my recollections. The film was obviously shot on sets and very little location work is done. The dialog is uninspiring, and unlike other films of this era this film is not much fun to watch.

Story-line is fresh, even after all these years. Mitchell is OK, the lady is not too good, the bad-guy 'Fernando' is well acted. Set construction is B-grade, with several goofs. Script and dialog are a little better than you would expect. Simple action scenes are on par for this kind of movie. Overall production is about what you would expect for a B-grade movie. Some real shots in/near Havana add a special touch to the film. Trying to protect Castro from pro-Baustista forces seems a bit odd these days, but probably spot-on for 1959. The cast all seemed to work together well.

Good, rainy-day film.

Steve Dagget (Cameron Mitchell) goes to Havana to find out what happened to his friend from Miami, Hank Miller (Logan Field). The overthrow of Batista had just occurred and is the background for this story, wherein Dagget tries to find Miller but runs into ex flame Monica (Allison Hayes) who is now a night club singer and is being taken care of by a wealthy Cuban Fernando Ricard (Eduardo Noriega). Dagget's search for Miller gets him involved with the police who apparently now are defending the new government from being overthrown and retaken by the old order. This is all fairly interesting because at the time this film was made Castro had not yet been declared enemy number 1 by the US. Poor Dagget just wants to find his friend, but Miller had been used by the loyalists because he had expertise they needed, and now that they were done with him, he needed to be liquidated. Miller shows up one evening as night is closing in in a Havana beach house and Dagget, Monica, and him relive there old times together back in Miami. The film seems too stagey at first and would be easy to just turn off, but given a good half an hour to develop, it kicks into gear later. Directed by the super prolific Edward Cahn, none of whose movies I've ever seen before, but the titles sound pretty good.

From 1959, Pier 5, Havana, stars Cameron Mitchell and Allison Hayes, directed by Edward L. Cahn.

Mitchell, pre-nose job, plays Steve Daggert, who comes to Havana to search for a friend, Hank Miller (Logan Field) who disappeared during the recent revolution.

No one wants him around, including his ex-girlfriend (Hayes) now divorced from Miller. Items found belonging to Miller indicate he is dead.

Upon investigation, he finds a movement afoot to overthrow Castro and put Batista back in power, perceived in the film as a bad thing. Well, that point of view changed.

Done on the cheap, though it seems to include footage from Havana. The end is exciting. Mitchell does his usual solid job.

Hayes, a B movie star in the '50s, has her own channel on YouTube. She was beautiful with a knockout figure and unfortunately died young.

Well the revolutions did end in 1959 when castro took over Havana and it is sureal to see hollywood root for castro then batista in this melodrama. The film is very cliche and you get to see how cuba was like in this year because this was the last year cuba was free. I recognized some of the places in this film cause coincidentally I have been to cuba before. I recognized the nacional hotel. The plot of the film caught me off guard and thought that his soilder body was part of the bay of pigs invasion but no that wouldnt come till next year. This fillm is a skip unless ur into cuba and cuba-usa history. Viva cuba!!!!!