Cuban Pete

Radio host Jacqueline DeWit hears a record recorded by some guy in Cuba called Desi Arnaz and insists on having him on her show. He does want to, so ad agency assistant Joan Shawlee flies down to Cuba, charms Arnaz and his orphaned niece Beverly Simmons, and the whole show go to New York. But Miss DeWit doesn't just want him on her show, she insists on singing with him, which means cutting the King Sisters.

That's the pointless plot of this cheap and fast (60 minutes) Universal musical. It serves merely to get you from one musical number to next, and some of them are pretty good. Ethel Smith plays the organ; the King Sisters sing "Cielito" translated into English; and Arnaz performs several of the numbers that he did on I LOVE LUCY, and those are the reasons to see this movie. I love the TV show, but Arnaz tamped down the energy on the musical numbers to appease the TV censors. Here he performs them with an energy that is often fiercely sexual.

The copy I looked at was in visually poor condition, even though the soundtrack was just fine. Miss Shawlee is surprisingly mild for anyone who knows her from her dimwits in Billy Wilder movies. Pedro de Cordoba has a small but charming role early on. It's not much of a movie, but when Arnaz is singing and dancing, it's very good.

Okay, I can't really review the movie too much but then again, there's not really too much movie to review. It's typical studio musical fodder (and pretty low-budget at that) with the plot serving merely to convey us from one musical number to another. But what numbers! The movie's sole reason for existence was to showcase the hot, new (1946) Cuban sensation...Desi Arnaz! We got glimpses of his act in 'I Love Lucy' reruns but here, we get to see just how hot he was.

My lasting impression of this movie is of Desi leading his orchestra through some wild, propulsive, Latin rhythm, Conga drum slung over his shoulder, sweat streaming down his chest and disappearing beneath his half-buttoned shirt, whipping his long black hair out of his eyes and yelling at the top of his lungs. He was, in short, a rock star! One can imagine why he would have been tempted to stray from Lucy...women were probably throwing themselves at his feet. This was one sexy guy! When you see the movie, feel free to fast-forward (I doubt this is going to find it's way to DVD) to the musical numbers. They're all you need to see but you'll probably want to see them two or three times.