Festa Brava

I've viewed this film over and over and my piano training says there's no trick photography in the scenes where Montalban plays Green's adaptation of El Salon Mexico. I'm sure the beat-up old piano is not the actual sound source, but Montalban is hitting all the right keys at the right time! His technique is well above average, and anyone who could even fake that well would have to be able to play well too. Yet there's no mention of musical skill or training in any of his bios, nor does he play in any later films. Can anyone shed some light on this mysterious aspect of the multi-talented Senor Montalban?

Twins who grow up to be Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban are born to Mexico's top matador Fortunio Bonanova and wife Mary Astor. Of course it's the father's dream that Montalban succeed him in the ring, but Ricardo is interested in music and is a pianist and composer. But Esther's something of a tomboy and she likes showing off in the bull ring every now and then. That is the basis for the plot of Fiesta which introduced Ricardo Montalban to the American cinema.

Though Esther takes only a small dip in the water and barely gets wet, Fiesta is a decent enough film for her even though her specialty is not really promoted. What's really promoted is Cyd Charisse who plays Montalban's girlfriend and who does some fine dancing. Also promoted is a piano concerto by Aaron Copland, Montalban's masterpiece which convinces music maestro Hugo Haas that Montalban belongs behind a piano not in front of a bull. When he's in the latter position his head's just not in the game and that can be fatal for a matador.

Since Fiesta is classified as a musical I was disappointed that John Carroll who plays a scientist and is courting Williams was not given a song in the film. Doubly disappointed because in another Latin role in Rio Rita Carroll did get to sing in that opposite Kathryn Grayson. He had a good baritone and should have sang more often in films. Possibly a number for him was cut.

Though it's hardly in the front rank of Esther Williams films, Fiesta is a good programmer for MGM and for her as well.

When "Fiesta" played in Tampa, more local Latinos went to see Montalban than the film or anyone else in it! This was because Montalban was a well known star from the many Mexican movies that played locally.

However, in Mexico he was a serious actor while in Hollywood he was a "latin lover". In his first years more time was spent making him into a musical star than giving him time to display his acting talent.(He had to loose his hair to be taken seriously!) The movie was a vehicle for Esther Williams sans swimming pool (except for one brief scene) but it was Montalban and Cherrise's dancing that made it a hit. This was odd because Montalban was never in musicals in his native country. He sang -well he carried a tune- but actually danced quite well in order to creditably partner Cherrise and later on Anne Miller.

The one dramatic scene -in which Montalban who wants to be a composer and not follow his father's footsteps in the arena - that shows off Montalban's acting. He is in a wayside saloon and on the radio he hears his composition...actually Aaron Copelands "Fantasia Mexicna"..and goes to a piano and interprets with passion, vigor and sensitivity his composition.

An entertaining film and a great vehicle to feature Montalban. Too bad that his early cinematic years did not allow him to display his serious acting ability. Oh well, "That's Hollywood"...Ay Caramba!

Leonard Maltin's mini-biography of Cyd Charisse contains a very accurate piece of text: "the producers saw to it that she made the maximum impact in the minimal amount of screen time." In FIESTA she has a painfully small role (roughly fifth or sixth billed in the credits), but when it comes time for her to do what she does best, she does not disappoint. The irony, of course, is that she more closely appears Latin (with enhanced Hollywood makeup) than does Esther Williams- and Williams has the dubious distinction of playing the twin sister (!) of Ricardo Montalban. This, of course, is not something to blame on the actors; it's simply one of those MGM premises you have to buy/accept right off the bat. Montalban's debut film shows him off very nicely as a passionate would-be toreador whose first love is composing music. The family seems to be socially prominent and the outdoor set pieces and colorful costumes enhance the south-of-the-border atmosphere quite nicely. But the highlights are undoubtedly from Montalban and Charisse playing young lovers who pause every fifteen or so minutes to dance: first in a sort of group flamenco in a local salon set to the music of "La Bamba," then in a rapturous formal duet (him in black suit and Mexican hat; her in a multi-tiered white gown). MGM must've liked them together as they paired them in no less than four different films in the late 40's: this one, THE KISSING BANDIT, MARK OF THE RENEGADE, and ON AN ISLAND WITH YOU, almost always in dance duets.

As an add to a review above which wondered whether Ricardo Montalban had any actual experience as a pianist or was just faking it, I think I can definitively answer, as a pianist myself, yes, he's a pianist (having just seen Fiesta, and the barroom scene where his character Mario Morales takes to the house upright to accompany himself, his composition having just come up on the radio).

That's not him on the soundtrack, probably, but he's most definitely fingering the quite complex piece correctly (con mucho gusto!), and this means that yes, Senor Montalban has a talent many of us were previously unaware of.

Discovered to my surprise the same thing about Gary Oldman, as I watched him as Ludwig Van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved, and Kyle McLachlan as Ray Manzarek in The Doors.