Yambaó

Unfortunately, Ninon Sevilla was induced to reprise her "mulata" in the ill-conceived, poorly directed (Alfredo B. Crevenna) Yambao (1957). Aware that Pedro Armendariz had done his best to steal her limelight in "Mulata" (1954), Ninon was delighted with second-rate co-stars Ramon Gay (from the Aztec Mummy pictures) and Senorita Durgel, with whom she had worked harmoniously in Crevenna's 1956 "Amor y Pecado". So the accent is firmly on Sevilla all the way. Alas, she proves a huge disappointment. The film's poster lists seven songs and dances, but there seemed more a like dreary dozen to me. All but one are total write-offs, while the one that is mildly pleasant has nothing to do with the movie and seems to have been added as an afterthought. Not that the foolish, half-baked story with its copycat echoes of far better films like "Chloe" is any more entertaining. And as for the acting, the word "puerile" comes readily to mind, even to describe the exotic Sevilla herself who way overdoes the eye popping, teeth gnashing and similar amateurish histrionics. What's worse, she disappoints her fans by confining her dancing strictly to repetitive mambo-junko. We keep waiting for director Crevenna to wake up and realize this dime-store potboiler would play better as a comedy. Alas, he never does, even though Ninon's over-the-top scenery-chewing should have caused lightning to strike.

The first (and only) time I seen this movie was back around 1965 or 1966 on an old heavy 13" tube type B/W TV. I have not seen it aired since then. Would really love to find a copy of this movie despite the somewhat vague memories I have of it. I would put this movie in among the other oldies which I'd rate as one of the cult classics! Back in the days of the "Friday late night shockers", this was one of the number of memorable classics I recall. I have to give this a "10" rating, simply because it left such an impression on me. It was fairly risqué for it's time, but compared to today, well, it's pretty tame. Nonetheless, I was captivated by it's presentation. A good rare oldie!

Steamy passions and evil brew on a Cuban sugar plantation in 1850 Cuba. Fifteen years after the execution of an evil black witch, her daughter, (who has been trained in the black arts and subjugated to her crippled grandmother's hatred and plot for revenge) becomes severely conflicted when ordered to kill man she loves, the married Spanish master who freed her. The evil forces unleashed when thwarted finally redound with disaster upon they're perpetrators. A colorful and interesting period piece which is more credible than a mere horror film. Recommended for an unusual story line and the stirring setting with the many Afro-Cuban ethnic sequences portraying slave life in the region of that time and place.

Yambaó aka Cry of the Bewitched could have been a passable movie if the filmmakers would have played up some of the more theoretically good aspects of the script, the horror or eroticism or they could have reversed course after seeing how terrible the acting was and turned it into a deadpan comedy. Instead they stuck with it and we end up with a boring melodrama. The lowlights are the endless musical numbers and the one highlight would be the unexpected ending.

Yambao is a charming sorceress, under influence of her grandmother's spirit, greeding for revenge. She leads us thru this story of unusual passion and possession. But the film doesn't stand the pace.. long scenes of chanting slaves, althought sometimes (unvolontary ?) very funny, break the tempo and make us regret what this genre movie could have been