O Sonho de Andaluzia

A botijo seller by profession but a bullfighter by vocation, Juanillo (Luis Mariano) is in love with Dolores (Carmen Sevilla) , daughter of the owner of the inn and a 'dancer' with many possibilities of succeeding in the world of entertainment. To maintain their love, the two decide that the town festivals will be the last stage where they will demonstrate their artistic skills. But Juanillo's unexpected success as a bullfighter during the holidays leads him to sign an important tour of America with a promoter that will separate him from his beloved. Along the way, he meets a well-known French actress (Arlette Poirier) who falls in love with him and pursues him, and his girlfriend Dolores finds out about this romance through the gossip newspapers, so the classic love triangle with the subsequent affairs takes place. When the letters he writes to her from the Americas are intercepted, Dolores will doubt Juanillo's love and things will get complicated. In desperation, Dolorès devotes all her time and efforts to dance and she becomes the celebrated dancer Dolores. After a series of misunderstandings and ups and downs, the sun of Andalusia will finally reunite the two lovebirds.

This is the ordinary vehicle of the two most famous singers and actors of the fifties and in truth they show their singing skills very well and adding the expert dance abilities of Carmen Sevilla who performs some spectacular Flamenco dances. A melodramatic plot served as a mere pretext for the insertion of musical segments to show off the stellar couple along with a brief love intrigue. They formed a successful musical couple in a few films: La bella de Cádiz, El Sueño de Andalucia y Violetas imperiales. Their best-known operetta of all those starring Luis Mariano and Carmen Sevilla was ¨Violetas Imperiales¨, the latter in the role of a cheerful gypsy who came to predict the future status of queen to Eugenia. Stars Eusebio González García (1914-1970), also known as Luis Mariano who was a popular tenor of Spanish origin who showed interest in singing as a child . His family moved to France at the start of the Spanish Civil War and settled in Bordeaux where he studied at the Conservatoire, and also sang in cabarets. Jeanne Lagiscarde, who was in charge of the classical department of a record store in Bordeaux, took Mariano under her wing, and gave up her job to nurture his talent in Paris. To earn a living, he sang in stage shows and appeared in films, starting with 'L'escalier sans fin' in 1943. That year he auditioned for the role of Ernesto in Don Pasquale, and sang in the opera at the Palais de Chaillot and later at the Théâtre des Variétés, with Vina Bovy, recording excerpts from the opera. He also left many recordings of popular song and operetta. He continued to appear in other films from 1946, including a singing role in Napoléon and a film adaptation of Lehar's Der Zarewitsch . He was a singing idol of French operetta of the post-war stage and screen who achieved celebrity in 1946 with "La belle de Cadix" ("The Beautiful Lady of Cadix") an operetta by Francis Lopez. He appeared in the 1954 film Adventures of the Barber of Seville and Le Chanteur de Mexico (1957) and became popular in France as well as his native Spain . And , of course, the unforgettable Carmen Sevilla, this Spanish actress, singer and dancer began her career in the 1940s and became one of the most popular and highest paid stars of Spanish cinema until the 1970s. As an actress, she had leading roles in numerous films, including Imperial Violets (1952), Academy Award nominee Vengeance (1958), Don Juan (1956) and Searching for Monica (1962). She also had supporting roles in English-language epic films including King of Kings (1961) and Antony and Cleopatra (1972). At the time of her death, she was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Spanish cinema and from the Golden Age of Hollywood. She received in 2001 the 'Gold Medal of Merit in Labour' and the 'Hija Predilecta' of the Province of Seville in 2007. They're well accompanied by a familiar cast of the best Spmanish secondaries, such as: José Nieto, Candida Losada, Beny Deus, Fernando Fernández de Córdoba, Enrique Guitart. And delivering the comic relief, the likeable appearances from Antonio Casal and a newcomer Marujita Diaz who will continuate a prolific career as successful actress and singer. And special metion for Fernando Sancho sympathetically playing the representative of the French actress, he acts in a similar style as he will subsequently do in the multiple Spaghetti westerns as a boastful Mexican.

Being a Hispanic/French co-production, there are two versions of this story, depending on which adaptation gives more space to French or Spanish actors. The Spanish one was directed by the veteran craftsman Luis Lucia, while the French one was directed by Robert Vernay . The film is acceptable and pssable; however, being really necessary a perfect remastering, because the available version is almost unwatchable since the black and white images are extremely faded.