Fiesta (1947)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Richard Thorpe

Writers:

George Bruce (writer)
Lester Cole (writer)

Release Date:

12 June 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Musical

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Esther Williams	...	Maria Morales
Akim Tamiroff	...	Chato Vasquez
Ricardo Montalban	...	Mario Morales
John Carroll	...	Jose 'Pepe' Ortega
Mary Astor	...	Señora Morales
Cyd Charisse	...	Conchita
Fortunio Bonanova	...	Antonio Morales
Hugo Haas	...	Maximino Contreras
Jean Van	...	Maria Morales, as a child
Joey Preston	...	Mario Morales, as a child
Frank Puglia	...	Doctor
Alan Napier	...	The Tourist

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #11630)

Filming Locations:

Puebla, Puebla, Mexico

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Esther Williams, in her autobiography "Million Dollar Mermaid" states that during the shooting of "Fiesta", her husband at the time -- Ben Gage -- got drunk and had a run-in with the Mexican police, causing production to be halted as the authorities had him thrown out of the country.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Forecast (1945)

Soundtrack:

El Salon Mexico

Montalban/Charisse Dance and Green's Scoring highlight routine film.

Esther Williams is totally miscast in this attempt to take her out of the swimming pool (though there is one brief sequence at the "old swimming hole"). Twins born to a former matador - the boy wants to be a composer, not a matador. It's the girl who wants to be the matador. Dad pushes the boy, ignores the daughter. We've seen it before. It's all well-handled here, though nothing out of the ordinary. Montalban is fine in his first film. There is an outstanding dance he shares with an almost unrecognizable Cyd Charisse (in an early role) about 45 minutes into the film that brings the whole project to life for about five minutes - magical moment in film charisma and vitality. The star of the film however is the deservedly Oscar-nominated scoring of Johnny Green including an adaptation of Copland's EL SALON MEXICO into a fantasia for piano and orchestra (shades of what he'd do four years later in AN AMERICAN IN PARIS and win a deserved Oscar for it). It's Green's musical underscoring of the film that enlivens the scenes, which are filmed in a very unspectacular Technicolor - all the earth tones make it look dirty. This is NOT a musical as some reviewers think it. It has no songs and only two dances. The fantasia is presented as a composer performing a work of his own. Worth a look, especially for the wonderful Charisse/Montalban Mexican dance.