Mexicali Rose

When this film begins, Happy Manning (Sam Hardy) comes home to his beloved wife, Mexicali Rose (Barbara Stanwyck) only to discover she's a no-good tramp who's cheating on him. Soon they are divorced and Happy soon travels to see his ward, Bob, at college--where Bob is a star football player. Later, Bob gets married and brings home his new bride. Guess who the lucky girl is....Mexicali Rose! And it appears as if she is either doing this to get back at Happy or get her hands on Bob's gold mine...or both! After all, Rose is a bad girl...a VERY bad girl!

Of course the notion of Bob marrying the exact same girl is ludicrous. However, it needs to be put into some context. During this Pre-Code era, there were a lot of films that portrayed women as gold-digging tramps and this film fits in nicely with such films as "Red-Headed Woman" and "Baby Face". So audiences of the day would have found the idea of an incredibly manipulative and evil woman very acceptable...though the exact circumstances must have even made folks laugh a bit back in 1929. Plus, it's really inexplicable that Happy wouldn't immediately tell Bob about Rose. What's also a BIG surprise is how Happy takes care of all this and how the movie ends. It certainly is NOT something you would expect!!!

Overall, I'd say that the film has a cheap look about it and is basically a B-movie. The ending especially seems just tacked on and strange. It's not a bad film but it certainly is obvious that Stanwyck isn't yet a big star and she's doing her time in Columbia Pictures' B unit.

By the way, if you pay close attention to the Mexican folks in this film you'll realize that many of them are just folks painted dark! It's pretty obvious and very, very sad. After all, it wasn't like Los Angeles had any shortage of Chicanos who could have appeared in the movie...yet they dumped paint on folks instead. This isn't much different from the silent film days where D.W. Griffith routinely painted white guys black...and then often portrayed these 'black' men as savages!! And, having one of these Mexicans billed as 'Loco the halfwit' is not exactly sensitive!!

Sam Hardy runs a gambling joint just over the Mexican border. He's married to Barbara Stanwyck, and crazy about her, but while he's out of town visiting his ward, William Janney, she steps out on him. He throws her out, but she comes back, only now she's married to Janney.

It's an early and earthy pre-code movie, directed by Erle Kenton for Columbia. There are some nice aspects to it, especially Stanwyck at her pre-code depth. However, the sound system is still unfamiliar enough to Kenton that he lets the actors have their heads, and they talk loud and emphatically, making sure their words are clear against the background hiss. Stanwyck has a few quiet moments that presage her coming mastery of screen acting, but the movie's strength is that it is so open and shocking about sex.

In a few years, Joe Breen would shut down overt sexuality in the movies. That would mean less frank handling of subjects when appropriate, but also clamp down when not. Eventually the writers and producers would adjust to the new dicta, and learn that a wink and a nod can be even more titillating than nudity, and that putting one past the censors was an art in itself

In her second sound feature Barbara Stanwyck is still struggling to find her acting chops. Showing more of her derrière than her talent in Mexicali Rose there are a few hints this woman would become one of film's all time great seductresses.

Down Mexico way old Happy Manning has carved out life for himself running a casino. Loved by the locals for his generosity he's smitten with wife Rose (Stanwyck) a full time flirt and adulterer. When he catches her fooling around with his head croupier he sends her packing and keeps the croupier. When she does return it's with his younger brother Bob as her latest victim.

Mexicali Rose demands a lot of amnesia on the part of its characters as Rose roars back into town expecting everybody to play dumb around her character transformation or getting Bob up to speed. Yet the man-eater turned wide eyed innocent is soon duping Bob and back at the casino playing the seduction game.

This would be Stanwyck's last defenseless little girl role before embarking on a half century of strong women roles that would arguably make her the finest film actress of the 20th Century. What is missing is the maturity and professional seasoning that would begin in her next film Ladies of Leisure and be fully evident by Baby Face (33). In Mexicali Rose she's no Phyllis Dietrich but there are clear signs she was the girl capable of filling that fatales shoes.

According to Axel Madsen's biography of Barbara Stanwyck this third film of her's and first for Columbia Pictures was one she hated. It's far from her worst film but it definitely is mediocre.

Nevertheless we see some flashes of Stanwyck as a temptress in training, a bit of a preview of her bad girl roles later on for which she won such acclaim.

Stanwyck is married to Sam Hardy owner of a casino in a Mexican border town. Hardy gives Babs the heave ho when he catches her stepping out. Back up north Stanwyck meets William Janney who specialized in callow youth roles and he's one naive football hero who gets the facts of life taught him.

Hardy seems determined to keep his kid naive for reasons I can't explain. But he gets he shock of his life when Janney brings Stanwyck in tow as his blushing new bride.

The plot really makes no sense and Stanwyck gets no direction. Still for Stanwyck completists, a must.

This early talkie is a benchmark for really understanding the amazing range Barbara Stanwyck had as an actress. Fans of her other films of this period know and expect her to be cast as the poor but honest underdog, "doing the right thing". What a departure from that formula her Rose Manning is.

"Happy" Manning, Rose's husband, opens the film by returning to his Mexican hotel/casino. Warmly welcomed, he greets friends and staff. Upon entering his room, [the 22-year-old Stanwyck gives a dazzling, introduction close-up] he presents wife Rose with a diamond anklet. "Oh, you put it on, Happy" smolders Rose. He does, and notices his wife's legs are bruised. Rose then pulls her dressing gown past her knees, blaming a dressing table that needs moved. When "Happy" obliges, he discovers a tie that belongs to the casino manager. Confronting the pair, he correctly surmises his wife's transgression and tells her to leave. At this point, Rose's syrupy denials peel off like the veneer on cheap furniture. "I've been kicked out of better places than this." "Happy" keeps his remorseful Joe at his job and Rose disappears, explained away by newspaper clippings.

The main body of the film begins when "Happy"'s young ward, Bob, arrives for a honeymoon with his new wife, Rose! Stanwyck then provides a jaw-dropping dual character that is just outrageous by any era's standards.

I initially voted 7 for this film as it IS short (my copy 59 mins) and suffers from decomposed stock footage of a football game. Several days after viewing it, I told a friend familiar with Stanwyck's Capra-guided "Ladies Of Leisure" and "Forbidden" about it. "Oh! I've GOT to see that", said she. I realized, then, that this film is really unforgettable. Today I came back to raise my vote to 8. Refreshingly frank, Barbara's 2nd talkie and her third film is something that all should enjoy.