Isabel (Sara or Sarita Montiel) is a gorgeous singer with great aspirations but very bad luck . After serving time in jail for a robbing she did not commit, she lands a singing gig at a "night club" in Barcelona where she meets Xandro "The Greek" (Alain Saury) and his colleague lover Gloria (Magali Noel) , but they are really running a prostitution ring . Later on , she travels to Beirut in a luxurious ship along with other girls forcely recruited . In the ship cruise Isabel meets Francis, (Giancarlo del Duca) a young good-looking playboy and love story blooms among them . In the meantime , the heinous couple is posing as entertainment promoters , though they are really owners of a brothel based in Beirut where they wish Isabel performs song and to work as a whore . As they offer Isabel a contract to perform in Music Halls in the Mideast and she accepts eager to get away. Upon arrival in Beirut, Isabel and other women are sped away to a lavish villa where they discover the true intentions of the nasty people . They are expected to sing and dance but also to engage in other sexual activities and prostitution with the wealthy clients that patronize the place. Meanwhile , a Police Inspector (Carlos Casaravilla) is investigating the sinister business of the pseudo-promoters . AIfter that , Isabel pretends to go along with the situation but starts devising a plan to escape , being helped by Dr. Castello ( Fernand Gravey). Shortly after , she goes Paris , at the French capital, Isabel has a great success on television and is booked to perform at the prestigious Olympia Theater . Things go wrong when the ominous enemies appear .
Agreeable update on a Femme Fatale story with an unfortunate woman with a fateful life , including women trafficking , exploitation , mistreating , loving issues and the typical Spanish clichés . The story is extremely melodramatic and plenty of songs , musical spectacle and colorful scenarios . Ladislao Vadja brilliantly casts one of the best Spanish actress of the epoch ,Sara Montiel , to play Isabel Llanos , she is a beautiful aspiring singer with great ambitions but persistent bad luck . Sara acts in the kind of steamy role she revels in , and with some Italian actors supporting her , as the handsome Gianfranco de Luca , Magali Noel , Daniele Vargas and Spaniards as Jose Calvo ,Gemma Cuervo , Carlos Casaravilla , César Ojinaga , Joaquin Diaz , Mariano Azaña . It packs a luxurious as well as evocative cinematography in brilliant Technicolor by Christian Matras , being shot on various locations in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain , Paris, France , Tangier, Morocco . Evocative musical score by Gregorio Garcia Segura , full of popular and catching popular songs sung by the great Sarita Montiel playing : Adios Granada , Perfidia , Alma mia , En secreto , Les Feuilles Mortes , La Española .
Sara Montiel is frankly well as one very highly sensual Singer making lavish utilization of her considerable physical assets , attractive countenance , charms and whatever acting ability was necessary . At the beginning , she won a beauty and talent contest held by Cifesa, the most influential Spanish film studio of that era . In the next four years she appeared in 14 films for Cifesa , including her first international success Locura De Amor (1948), which led to a long term-contract in Mexico. She quickly established herself as one of the most popular film actors of the decade. They starred 14 films between 1950 and 1954. Hollywood came calling and she was formally introduced to American moviegoers in Veracruz (1954), playing Gary Cooper's love interest. Later she filmed she worked at Warner Bros in Serenade (1956) with Mario Lanza, directed by Anthony Mann, who became her first husband. After starring in Samuel Fuller's Yuma (1957) with Rod Steiger, Sarita shot El Ultimo Cuplé (1957) ("The Last Song") in Spain, a musical production that turned out to be the biggest box-office success in Spain's film history. It played for over one year in the same theaters in which it opened. A similar reaction followed in Western Europe and Latin America. Sara played ¨Carmen de Ronda¨ by Tulio Demicheli , Sara made her Carmen the most gorgeous , heartless and hot-blooded screen heroine of the Spanish cinema .Sarita Montiel had become the most popular actress-singer of 1957 and a national treasure for Spain.The unprecedented success of "El Último Cuple" threw a wrench into her Hollywood career, as she was offered a multimillion-dollar contract to star in four films in Europe . Her next vehicle, La Violetera (1958) ("The Violet Peddler"), confirmed Sara's popularity and broke the box-office records set by the previous movie. The theme song from "La Violetera" became Montiel's signature song.
This ¨La dama de Beirut¨1965 contains a twisted script plenty of incidents , treason , thrills , and a silly intrigue from some notorious writers/producers/directors as Jesús María de Arozamena , Alfonso Balcázar , José Antonio de la Loma , Duccio Tessari and Ladislao Vajda himself . This magnificent director Vadja shot this average movie , that's why he died at its third week , replacing the mediocre filmmaker Luis Maria Delgado . Ladislao Vadja , born in Hungary, is author of sensational movies , such as 'The Bait', and 'Carne de horca', and three with Pablito Calvo: 'An Angel over Brooklyn'(along with Peter Ustinov) , 'Uncle Jacinto' . And , specially ¨Marcelino Pan y vino¨, his biggest hit , it touched the hearts of numerous spectators all around the world , here filmmaker Ladislao Vadja succeeded in this picture , obtaining a great achievement , managing perfectly to the performers and taking advantage of them , giving the best of Pablito acting , in my opinion this is one of the best films to come out of Europe in the decade of the 50s . Vadja's author of sensational movies , such as 'The Bait' or 'El cebo' , 'María, matrícula de Bilbao' , 'Atraco' , 'Doña Francisquita , 'Aventuras del Barbero de Sevilla' and furthermore , this middling ¨La dama de Beirut¨. Rating : Below average 4.5/10 .
