The Girl from Monterrey

I would love to sit down with a group of Mexican-Americans to see this film. That's because Armida's dialog and acting seem right from the Frito Bandito school of acting and I'd love to watch the reactions on this audience in order to see them looking on in horror! Yes, her acting is THAT silly. However, despite being a second-rate Lupe Valez wannabee, her shtick was also quite entertaining. Bad, but entertaining.

The film begins with Lita (Armida) singing in a Mexican night club. Soon, her brother (Antonio Caruso) arrives from America and announces he's a prize fighter. She is at first furious (and she is through MOST of the movie) but then relents when she sees he has no trouble 'knocking peeeple down', as she puts it. They both come to America together where they find it relatively easy moving up in the boxing rankings--mostly because EVERYONE you see fight other than Caruso appears to be LESS talented in boxing than either Wally Cox or Billy Barty! In fact, I have never seen a boxing film with such horrible boxers in all my life and Armida would have probably been more convincing in the ring. Oddly, of all the no-talent 'fighters', the worst clearly was Jerry (Terry Frost)--who is supposed to be the champion!! Eventually, the brother, 'Okay Baby' Valez is going to meet the Champ in the ring--which is a problem as Lita is now head-over-heels for Jerry and she can't stand to see either of them lose. Throw into this mix a BAD girl (Veda Ann Borg) and you've got the makings of a clichéd and often very silly film. However, despite being bad, it also is oddly likable. I don't really know why, but the film did keep my interest to the end and so it couldn't be 100% bad! By the way, although Caruso got rather low billing, he was one of the stars in the film. Also, you might recognize him as 'Bela Oxmyx' from the "A Piece of the Action"--one of the funnier episodes of the original "Star Trek" series. Also, fans of Laurel & Hardy would also be happy to know that Edgar Kennedy is in the film, and he's pretty good in his role as a boxing promoter.

Club singer Armida is surprised to learn little brother Anthony Caruso is now a boxer with a contract with Edgar Kennedy. She heads east with them to train him. She also gets a job singing in a night club and begins a romance with boxer Terry Frost. When Frost becomes champion of his division, the boxing commission decrees he must fight the number one contender, Caruso. She doesn't care for this. But how will she react when she discovers that Frost's manager, Jack Larue, has set Caruso's girlfriend, Veda Ann Borg, to make sure Caruso is out of shape and lose the match?

Armida puts a lot of energy into her role, and sings the distinctly poor songs she is given well. However, second-billed Kennedy is utterly wasted; an opportunity to let him do his slow burn is ignored. Neither does director Wallace Fox give him a chance to let his very real acting come out. Neither does he let cameraman Marcel Le Picard shoot the fight an an interesting manner.i

Fox was the brother of the far more interesting director, Edwin Carewe. I regret to say he never directed a movie that impressed me. He spent his career directing B westerns and similar fare for Poverty Row companies -- this was for PRC. He directed 88 movies the big screen before spending the last few years of his career on TV oaters. He died in 1958 at the age of 63.