Sombrero

A bizarre but thoroughly entertaining tamale pie of a movie focusing on the lives of various peasants in a Mexican village. Typical of Hollywood films in the '50s, there are several anglo actors playing Mexicans, but at least Ricardo Montalban (playing Pepe Gonzales!) is the real thing. And he's got charm TO BURN! As difficult as it is to believe, Rick Jason is possibly more handsome than Montalban - and certainly taller at 6'4". In his autobiography, Jason mentions that Montalban became concerned during the filming when Jason seemed to be stealing the scenes in the rushes.

I don't recall seeing so many beautiful stars assembled for a single film: Pier Angeli, Yvonne De Carlo, Cyd Charisse, Vittorio Gassman. Wow! That's reason enough for tuning in, but there's other stuff to treasure as well, such as the flamenco dance by Jose Greco, which is as spectacularly good as the dance number with Cyd Charisse is spectacularly bad.

What were MGM thinking of in making this film ? The opening proudly proclaims how thankful the studio is in letting them make it in Mexico, but what on earth did the Mexicans make of the end product ? Hysteria runs throughout the film culminating with a completely mad dance on the top of a mountain. Three interlinking love stories try to make sense of this nonsense and despite a cast of fine actors no one really has a chance to shine. Only Rick Jason ( see him preferably if you can in ' The Wayward Bus ' ) gives what I call a performance, and poor Vittorio Gassmann lags a little behind. As for the women it is a total waste. Cyd Charisse dances one of her worst dances ( in choreographic terms ) and fights with bad dialogue. Pier Angeli is underused and so is Yvonne de Carlo. Nina Foch has a truly nasty scene with a blind man who is dying and melodrama of the worst sort comes to the fore. I am not surprised it was a flop. I hope the Mexicans asked for their money back at the cinemas. A disgrace to film making. A 4 for the actors who presumably had to attend the premiere.

I don't understand why it shows such a low rating of 5.4 for this movie on this page. I saw it in the movie house way back in the 1950;s when I was a teenager and I remembered it over the years. Its a adorable funny/tragic story that keeps on your mind for years to come. And so many well know actors playing great parts. I give only one movie 10 stars and I give Sombrero 9 stars. Watch it, you will be glad you did.

This is a wonderful, enjoyable film with a retinue of fine actors having a lot of fun in an entertaining story set in Mexico. The tale is wonderfully Mexican with cock-fights, inter-village rivalry, tragedy and mystery: Pepe (Richardo Montalban-- Mr. Rourke of Fantasy Island) loves the Mayor's (Thomas Gomez) daughter, Eufemia (Pier Angeli) but needs some success to convince her father he's a worthy candidate for her hand. Vittorio Gassman is the local rich boy whose family want him to marry an appropriate girl from an appropriate family, Rick Jason is the third compañero in love with a gypsy girl (Cyd Charisse). Wonderful performances by the lovely Nina Foch as the set-aside sweetheart, the great Andaluzian Gypsy dancer, Jose Greco, the ever-lovely bubbly Thomas Gomez, plotting Kurt Kaszner and a bit part with one of my fav's, Alfonso Bedoya who doesn't say "We don' gotta chow you no stinkin' batches." Alas, no video for this fine, fun film, so you'll have to catch it on the late show. Check out especially, Ricardo Montalban, Rick Jason and Vittorio Gassman singing the lively, "¡Eufemia!" ¡Realmente macanudo!

Paying mind to the ever growing South American market MGM made this trilogy of love stories in Mexico of the romances of three guys from the same small village. Sombrero is kind of like Three On A Match or if you will a film from a rival studio that came out around the same time, 20th Century Fox's Three Coins In The Fountain.

Vittorio Gassman is the son of Walter Hampden the local Ben Cartwright of the area and he's married to Nina Foch in a loveless union. It was one of those arranged deals, Gassman really loves Yvonne DeCarlo a poor peasant girl, they've had a thing going since they were kids. He's got himself some bad news, one of those unnamed Hollywood diseases that might make him go any time. Sounds awfully like an aneurysm.

Incidentally Foch got a career role in this one and the best performance in the film. The woman really spits fire in this part.

Rick Jason falls for Cyd Charisse the sister of matador Jose Greco who treats her like a possession. Some serious hints of unrequited incest here. Charisse longs to break free and love the guy who's a happy go lucky sort who sells candy at the Corrida. The gypsies provide a solution.

The comedy comes from Ricardo Montalban and his pursuit of Thomas Gomez's pride and joy Pier Angeli. Gomez is from a neighboring village and they've got a feud with where Montalban comes from. Nobody from that place is marrying his little sugarplum. There are some chase scenes rivaling the Keystone Cops.

A nice trilogy of romances from Mexico with a great ensemble cast for Sombrero.