La Cucaracha

It's pretty lightweight, but "La Cucaracha" is fun to watch, and it is not without a couple of clever touches to go with the colorful setting, the likable characters, and the simple story. The early Technicolor still looks pretty good, and it has held up better than the sound (as the other reviewers here have mentioned, the sound is sometimes a bit muddled). It also has a good energy level and an upbeat feel to it.

Steffi Duna stars as a café singer in love with the dancer who also performs there. She becomes worried when a visiting impresario considers taking the dancer to the city to give him his big break, so she makes plans to disrupt his visit. Duna works well in the part, since she is attractive in a mischievous sort of way, and she makes the simple character believable. Paul Porcasi, so often cast in tiny parts, gets a chance to play a larger role here, and he is well cast as Martinez.

The story is somewhat predictable, but pleasant, and it has some funny moments. The whole movie works pretty well for a short feature of its era and genre.

Well worth finding a copy; the first live-action 3-strip Technicolor film is very pretty to watch (note in particular the beautiful blues in some of the costumes), is well-timed, and has a funny set piece in which the pompous theatre owner gets a well-deserved commupance from the fiery lady. The only problem is that the sound quality of the Roan DVD, which I have, was not very good, and made it very difficult to understand some of the dialogue. I probably would have given this a higher rating than the 7 I gave it, if the sound quality had been better. All the same, I recommend it.

I sought this out because I'm on a quest to understand the influence of Spanish-speaking filmmakers. I'm really impressed with the current crop wherever they live. Surely there's a literary tradition of folding behind this: Cervantes, Borges, Cortazar...

Now this isn't quite a Spanish film, it is by gringos and only references Spanish idioms. But it is interesting nonetheless.

It is the first film made with the three strip Technicolor process, so it is an audition of sorts. And the audition is for color and spice, if you will.

So the story centers on an audition and on spice, both wrapped in Spanish trappings. That allows our performers in the show within the show to be colorful, especially with greens and blues. Very nice.

The fellow that has to be pleased has an encounter with the girl who we are to receive as sexy. He blushes and a subtle red light is used on his face. Pretty good. The folding here is that the judge in the on screen audience likes the "color." And we are meant to as well.

Then there's a bit with two warring numbers, one the title song that mentions marijuana.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Señor Martinez, a famous theater owner, visits a local café in Mexico because of its reputation for good food and to audition the famous dancer who performs there.

Martinez tells the café owner that if the dancer is as good as he has heard, he will offer the dancer a contract to perform in his theater.

The café's female singer hears about this and is determined that he won't leave the café without her.

First full color live action film. Odd that they'd choose this topic.

Also odd that it came from Pioneer Pictures and not a big studio.

It's an interesting curio and not much more.

In fact, as a short, it feels like a feature and it's horribly directed.

The use of color is just OK but the entire production was out of focus.

Not sure if that's just the copy or if it was like that originally.

La Cucaracha (1934)

** (out of 4)

This Oscar-nominated film is rather short on story, which takes a backseat to the studio's use of Technicolor. The film tells the story of a Spanish singer (Steffi Duna) who is worried that her lover/dancer (Don Alvarado) is about to be taken away for a bigger gig so she goes out of her way to ruin his meeting with the producer (Paul Porcasi). This short is certainly very hit and miss because while the story is rather bland, the performances and look of the movie are top notch. I really enjoyed the visual look of the film and the print quality is still strong enough to show off the rather good looking colors. Just take a look early in the film at a greenish colored cape, which just looks marvelous. I also enjoyed all three of the main characters due in large part to the fun performances with Duna really sticking out with her beauty and charm. With that said, the story is pretty weak and the movie goes by at a snail's pace.