Saeta del ruiseñor (1957)

User Rating:

2.9/10   

Director:

Antonio del Amo

Writers:

Concha R. Castaño (story)
Antonio Guzmán Merino (writer)

Release Date:

28 May 1959 (France)

Genre:

Musical

Plot:

Joselito is a naughty boy that sings like the nightingales. He lives in a little town near Sevilla....

Plot Keywords:

Singer | Blindness | Blind Girl

Cast

Joselito	...	Joselito
Ivy Bless
Archibald L. Lyall
Vicky Lagos
Manuel Zarzo
Aníbal Vela
Lola del Pino
Emma Picó
Luis Moreno
Félix Briones
Manuel Guitián
Carmelo G. Robledo		(as Carmelo Robledo)
Luis Roses
José María Sánchez Roda
Mari Carmen Alonso

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S | Spain:T

Filming Locations:

Priego de Córdoba, Córdoba, Andalucía, Spain

Company:

Producciones Cinematográficas Argos

Soundtrack:

Colombia tiene una copla

The boy with a golden voice

It is to state the obvious to write that Joselito Jimenez's musical melodramas were the reflection of the ideology of FRanco's dictatorship.However there's something fascinating when you see this little kid,some kind of Spanish Shirley Temple ...His date of birth COULD NOT be 1943 ,as an IMDb user wrote in his biography (check it),cause JJ would have been 14 when he made "Saeta del ruisenor" and it's obvious he was not 14 ! (and I do not even mention the voice changes ).JJ was certainly born in 1947,as his personal site testifies.

First Joselito movie shot in color (and his second one) ,religion is somewhat less present (in the first part) than in his previous effort. The young wiz kid portrays a naughty boy and the first sequences oddly resemble Louis Pergaud's "La Guerre des Boutons" .But when the young blind girl appears ,it's mushy melodrama all over again.

Joselito sings every five minutes;they make the first excuse they can think of for introducing his songs: with the young blind girlie ,during a talent show -we hardly see the other contenders-, with an echo in the mountains, during the Holy Week..

For religion gets the lion's share in the second part.The director films the Holy Week celebrations in lavish details and these sequences give the movie its touristic look ,as the precedent user wrote.

Another cliché of this kind of melodrama is the wealthy American (represented by a grumpy (show)businessman and his daughter -"when he says "no" ,he agrees!").The American dream -which would come true for Joselito in real life :he was the Ed Sullivan show's guest -is a permanent feature of the time.At least, these rich tourists make the village stand together .They can't do anything for themselves?Oh no!