Por Uns Olhos Negros

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.

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.

Several characters in this film make it difficult to like. The worst of these is the leading man (Pat O'Brien). He is very abrasive, rather mean-spirited, fast-talking and an alcoholic! In fact, there's really little to recommend this guy. Additionally, Leo Carillo plays a guy who is a cheat and a thief. With characters like these, it's hard to understand what was going through the writer's mind when they created this bizarro film.

"In Caliente" begins in New York. Larry McArthur (O'Brien) is awakening from a bender and this friend and business partner Harold (Edward Everett Horton) marvels that the drunk writes his theater reviews without even going to see the performances! You assume it's because he's an alcoholic jerk and soon he's drunk again--dead to the world after drinking a bottle of whiskey. Harold is concerned about Larry's self-destructive life as well as his upcoming wedding to a gold-digger (Glenda Farrell) he barely knows, so he whisks the unconscious Larry to a resort town in Mexico, Caliente, to dry him out and get him away from this girl. Unfortunately, Rita Gomez (Delores Del Rio) is there performing--and Larry savaged her some time ago in one of his reviews. Naturally, he also never saw her in person and he truly deserves her to destroy him--which she plans on doing. However, over time they start to fall in love with each other--though I have no idea why. Why would he love her--she's not a whiskey bottle! And, he is just nasty and a drunk--and what sane woman would want that?! For comic relief, we have Horton, though he isn't really used well here. His role is more serious than usual. Also, Leo Carillo plays Rita's uncle. As I mentioned above, he's pretty much a thief and this alone is supposed to make him funny--it didn't.

In addition to the romance and comedy, there is a lot of music and dancing--particularly later in the film. These production numbers are the typical Busby Berkeley sort of thing--where the dance numbers are too large for a stadium, let alone a nightclub! One number in particular is notable. "The Lady in Red" is a shockingly risqué number--with very sexily clad ladies who look much more Pre-Code than what you'd expect in 1935 when things were SUPPOSED to be much more sanitized. Oddly, however, the sexiness and beauty of this routine is pretty much ruined when Judy Canova inexplicably enters and begins singing like a slow-witted hillbilly....in Mexico! Huh?! Interestingly, the song morphed into a HUGE and very long production number that lasted a whopping 20 minutes--too long, much too long for my taste.

So, we have unlikable characters, alcoholism, musical numbers that are too long and comedy that isn't very funny. Overall, a complete misfire and waste of talent. See it if you must, I think pretty much everyone in the film did better films than this.

A typical fast paced Pat O'Brien movie that includes the alluring Deloris De Rio, the normally befuddled Edward Everett Horton, Leo Carrillo - popular 1930s talent, and much music and dancing. Watch for Judy Canova doing a great scene as "the Lady in Red" with Edward Everett Horton!!

One error that is repeated in both the IMDb cast listing and a number of viewer comments, is that the "Sally" De Marco in this film is actually "Renee" De Marco (Tony's second wife/dancing partner). Sally didn't start dancing with Tony until 1941, this film was made in 1935! Also, Sally and Renee had very different dancing styles, with Sally always having a most exciting and polished performance. I suspect because Sally had been a ballet dancer and had a very intense stage presence – plus she was quite beautiful. Renee was a good solid dancer, but typical smooth Ballroom dancer, not flashy but very, very smooth. Sally's performances, in comparison, would cause you to watch in awe.

All in all a very entertaining, albeit sort of "whacky", movie to watch!! Don't miss it!

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.