Rumba

George Raft is a dancer at a Havana night club. He meets super-rich Carole Lombard, and they start an affair. However they are both proud, touchy individuals, and she goes back home to marry Monroe Owsley. Or does she?

Produced to follow up the success of BOLERO, this musical drama uses the dance numbers as pauses rather than accede to the burgeoning style that the Astaire-Rogers unit was producing at RKO, as portraying the performers' emotions. Director of Photography Ted Tetzlaff shoots things in Dutch angles and Velez and Yolanda stand in for the two whenever possible. Miss Lombard's dancing in the earlier film had been rather elementary, so in this one, they delay it until the end, and have Raft and her twirling about each other in medium close-up.

Director Marion Gering took a break from Sylvia Sidney weepers to add this one to his resume. That's probably why Gail Patrick is so good in her role as Owsley's sister and Miss Lombard's best friend. Samuel Hinds also appears briefly as Miss Lombard's half-witted father, and does the job well, if that's a thing.

The team of George Raft and Carole Lombard who at the time this film was made were doing a little off set kanoodling had scored well in Bolero, so much so that Paramount decided another dance film was in order for them. Instead of in Europe like Bolero, Rumba takes place in Cuba and then New York City, taking advantage of the current dance craze sweeping the country.

Raft's a half Cuban, half American living down there because he fled the country to avoid some gangsters he'd run afoul of. He's dancing first with Iris Adrian and then with Margo, but rich heiress Carole Lombard sweeps him off his nimble feet.

Carole and George do a mean Rumba in the film as well. The ending here unlike Bolero is not as dramatic or tragic, but that in itself makes Rumba a lesser feature. Lynne Overman is around as a former newspaperman and Raft's manager. Overman is quite adept at creating a media frenzy for Raft, in fact his talents are what causes the climax to occur.

It's not as good a film as Bolero and the team of Raft and Lombard broke up off screen as well so no more films were made with the two of them. Still it's a pleasant enough film and a chance to see George Raft the dancer on screen.

If you didn't know George Raft (also known as the man who turned down Casablanca) got his start as a ballroom dancer, you've got to rent one of his early movies, in which he shows off his dancing skills. I picked Rumba because I thought any movie full of rumba dances couldn't be bad.

Well, the laugh's on me. This movie is really stinky. George Raft may be very handsome, and it's fun to see him flapping his legs during a few specialty numbers with the beautiful Margo, but if you're actually looking for a good movie, this isn't it. Carole Lombard costars as a society girl who accidentally annoys George by winning a lottery ticket he got swindled out of. Later when she sees him dancing at a nightclub, she likes the way he moves and asks for private lessons. That's about it. You can watch it if you want to, but have another movie handy for a double feature.

Joe is a dancer in Cuba with a chip on his shoulder. Diana is fascinated by this diamond in the rough. However, pride on both sides seems to thwart the union and Diana in despair returns to New York City and her less than exciting fiancé. Joe follows.

The main problem with this film is George Raft. His stone faced and monotone delivery mean that there is absolutely no chance for any chemistry to develop between himself and Lombard. And it is supposedly this magic between the two that propels them in and out of each others lives and causes both to risk their lives in the end to be together. The film is also weighed down by more that one overly long dance sequence. George Raft himself is an adequate dancer, but comes off as little more than a "dandy". He has non of the fire or charisma of say a Desi Arnaz, who truly comes alive with the spirit of Latin dance and rhythms.

Diana's father is here played by Samuel Hinds who also played the father in the Andy Hardy series. Monroe Owsley, who also co-stared with Lombard in the movie "Brief Moment", plays Diana's wealthy fiancé. His part here is considerably smaller, and amounts for the most part to "window dressing".

Carole Lombard does a good job here. If she had had a better leading man this film might even have been enjoyable. The production values and quality of the acting in general were actually pretty good. Supposedly George Raft was quite the ladies man in real life, and even enjoyed a clandestine affair with Lombard, but in this film he is a dud.

George Raft may have cut quite a swath through the women of Hollywood, but I'm afraid that, for me, his image will never recover the look of him in a girl's blouse. Yes, it's modeled on flamenco costumes, but with little ruffles covering him from neck to waist, George looks as if he has put his head through a little girl's petticoat.

The rest of Rumba is similarly anaphrodisiac. Carole Lombard, playing a bored socialite, looks half asleep, even in moments of fear and passion, and the dances, supposed to be Latin American sensual-sensational, are very mild stuff. In the final number, the chorus girls and boys seem to be getting it on far more than the two principals, who do a standard Astaire-Rogers dance, and needless to say it is mediocre.

The one, unexpected plus here is the Mexican actress Margo. Lovely, sensual, and sensitive, she is so much more womanly that Carole Lombard that only enforced patriotism would keep George fixated on the icy Carole.