Follia messicana

OK, if you haven't seen "42nd Street" or "Footlight Parade" or the first few Gold Diggers movies, this is probably not where to start. OTOH, if you have those virtually memorized (and many do), there is much here to enjoy.

The moguls of Old Hollywood were gambling men not only in their work, but at play as well. They had an abiding interest in horse racing, which accounts for the preposterous number of pictures set at the track which seldom made money but made the "suits" happy.

The horrified WASP establishment froze out any participation by movie folk in Los Angeles area race tracks, so the high rolling execs founded a track of their own across the border in Agua Caliente. So there's some documentary interest here in seeing where the Hollywood elite went to play and, more importantly, bet.

It's tough to put together a musical where She can barely sing or dance and He not at all, but this movie manages it. Plenty of crackling Julius Epstein dialog is kept moving briskly by Lloyd Bacon, one of the better straw bosses on the Warners prison farm.

Edward Everett Horton, more assertive here than with Fred Astaire, Glenda Farrell, Leo Carillo and Luis Alberni keep the proceedings airborne, and Hermann Bing hits a lifetime peak of sublimity trying to spell "rhododendron" through his gargling Austrian accent. How Judy Canova got into all this I don't know, but her cameo leaves quite an impression. I also brood about Dolores del Rio jumping off the high diving board in platform wedgies. Aren't you supposed to be barefoot for that?

There's only one musical hit, "The Lady In Red," and if you've ever seen Bugs Bunny in drag, you already know it. For those who OD'd on platinum blondes in other Busby Berkeley production numbers, they're all brunettes here. George Barnes and Sol Polito turn in some gorgeous camera work, and Orry-Kelly outdoes himself with some of the costumes.

This is a fun, feel-good picture that was made in a hurry and turned out a lot better than it had to be. It's good for smiles, and maybe a lot more.

Like the much better *Flying Down to Rio* from several years before, this movie left me wondering what audiences saw in Dolores del Rio. She wasn't particularly attractive, and the bathing suit scenes don't show her to have had a particularly good figure. In one of the big dance numbers, "La Muchacha," she shows that she can dance, but not spectacularly so. She remains a mystery to me.

The best things in this movie, for me, were the two big dance numbers - though the ones in *Flying down to Rio* are much better - and Edward Everett Horton. Pat O'Brien, whom I've enjoyed in other movies, doesn't make for much of a romantic leading man.

In general, it's a problem when you make a dance musical in which one of the leads, O'Brien, can neither dance nor sing, and the other, Del Rio, doesn't shine in either. We spend the movie assuming that we will see Del Rio in a spectacular dance number that will show how mistaken O'Brien's character was in submitting a negative review of her New York appearance without having attended her performance (he was too drunk at the time), but that's not the case. She dances in *La Muchacha*, but not in a striking way.

Yes, the movie is full of negative stereotypes of Mexicans, but then, most of the characters are stereotypes. There just isn't much to this movie, other than the two big Busbey Berkeley-staged dance numbers.

Pat O'Brien, part time critic and full time boozer, gets pulled away to Caliente in Mexico by his friend Edward Everett Horton to avoid getting married to gold digger Glenda Farrell. But it's out of the frying pan into the fire.

Dolores Del Rio has a Spanish dancing act that O'Brien savagely panned one night after attending her performance stewed to the gills. That hurt her career and when she sees him on her home turf, she's going to get a little vengeance. She and father/manager Leo Carrillo.

Of course if you can't figure out where this plot is going by now, you haven't seen too many old films. But the plot is just an excuse to string together four Busby Berkeley numbers, including the big hit that came out of the film, The Lady in Red.

Dolores Del Rio, what a beauty she was. Hard to believe anyone could have panned her dancing. She sang beautifully as well. When she got her first big break in American cinema in the silent version of Ramona, she recorded the title song and even though the screen was silent, her record sold quite a bit, such was the allure she conveyed.

Of course Pat O'Brien was his usual fast talking promoter, though slowed down a bit due to hangover. He didn't contribute anything musical here, but he's always a pleasure to watch.

Phil Regan did some vocalizing including the elaborate Muchacha finale number. The DeMarcos danced, Wini Shaw sang, and Judy Canova in her screen debut reprised a hillbilly version of The Lady In Red to a flustered Edward Everett Horton. It was quite a funny moment.

In Caliente is not the best of the Busby Berkeley Warner Brothers musicals, but it's still good entertainment.

Caliente was a stylish resort destination for the film community in the 1930's, and this film attempted to capitalize on that exotic fact for movie audiences. Very little of the film takes advantage of its sultry locale, however. The film is mainly concerned with Rita, a beautiful Mexican dancer, who is infuriated after Larry, a theater critic, savagely pans her dancing after failing to catch her act! She sets out to show him, and of course they fall in love. There is a good supporting cast, especially Edward Everett Horton as his usual nervous fussbudget. The two musical numbers were staged by Busby Berkeley. "The Lady in Red" is sung by a chorus of studio cuties and by the wonderful Wini Shaw (and a novelty chorus or two is sung by the delightful Judy Canova, doing her "country hayseed" character). The "Muchacha" number is one of Berkeley's typical sprawling numbers and makes good use of Dolores Del Rio's beauty and horses riding up a staircase! Pay attention to Del Rio in the scene at the pool. She wears what's believed to be the screen's first two-piece bathing suit. Just one look at her stunning beauty will make you long for the days when Hollywood was known for goddesses like Del Rio, Dietrich, Lamarr, Garbo, etc.

Larry MacArthur (Pat O'Brien) is a hard-drinking fast-talking magazine editor. His publisher Harold Brandon Shanghais him to Mexico to sober him up and escape his gold-digging girlfriend Clara. He is about to run back home to marry the three-time successful gold-digger. Brandon recruits Mexican dancer Rita Gómez (Dolores Del Río) to seduce MacArthur although the men seem to have forgotten that MacArthur had written a scathing review of her. She certainly hasn't.

Busby Berkeley did the big musical numbers. This showcased Mexican entertainer Dolores Del Río to the American audience. I do like the starting premise. I just wish that she does more to get back at MacArthur. The possibilities are endless. She could get embarrassing photos of him. She could steal all his money. She could leave him stranded in the desert. It's endless. So she gets to whip him once. First, it's not that imaginative and it's a bit violent. It needs to be funnier.