The Cuban Love Song (1931)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

W.S. Van Dyke

Writers:

C. Gardner Sullivan (screenplay) and
Bess Meredyth (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

5 December 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Musical | Romance

Plot:

A guilt-ridden U.S. Marine returns to Cuba to try to find his illegitimate child. |

Plot Keywords:

San Francisco California | 1920s | Cuba | U.S. Marine Corps | Warship

Cast

Lawrence Tibbett	...	Terry Burke
Lupe Velez	...	Nenita Lopez
Ernest Torrence	...	Romance
Jimmy Durante	...	O.O. Jones
Karen Morley	...	Crystal
Louise Fazenda	...	Elvira
Hale Hamilton	...	John
Mathilde Comont	...	Aunt Rose
Philip Cooper	...	Terry Jr. (as Phillip Cooper)
Ernesto Lecuona and the Palau Brothers' Cuban Orchestra	...	Orchestra

Runtime:

86 min (Turner library print) | UK:86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Moïse Simons's 1929 song, "El Manisero," achieved popularity in the United States in 1932 (a year after this film was released), when it was translated into English by L. Wolfe Gilbert and Marion Sunshine. All verses in this film were in Spanish.

Soundtrack:

El Manisero (The Peanut Vendor)

Those Tropic Nights in Havana

One of these fine days when Fidel Castro can no longer fog a mirror and the President of the United States no longer has a brother who's Governor of Florida and dependent on exiled Cuban votes, we'll be back to visiting Cuba as before and updated versions of Cuban Love Song will be made again.

Probably not with a transplanted opera singer like Lawrence Tibbett though. In Cuban Love Song he's Terry Burke, devil may care, upper middle class average Joe who just has to get some wild oats sowed before settling down to married life with Karen Morley. He joins the Marines to do it and the ship he's stationed on, puts into Havana for liberty shortly before American entry into World War I.

He sure finds his wild oats in Lupe Velez, Havana peanut vendor, grows them and sells them. They get one wild liberty together before Tibbett has to go to war.

So the question is, who will Tibbett eventually settle down with? Remember this film is before the code so the answer isn't obvious. In fact those oats had some consequences.

Tibbett got good reviews for Cuban Love Song and a couple of hit songs came out of it. The title song sold a few records and the Peanut Vendor Song started a rhumba craze during the Depression.

As sidekicks to Tibbett, Ernest Torrance and Jimmy Durante provide the same comic relief as Laurel and Hardy did for him in his debut in The Rogue Song.

Lawrence Tibbett had a magnificent baritone voice and opera lovers should not miss any chance to hear it.