La fiesta (1926)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Genre:

Short | Musical | Music

Plot:

Anna Case sings a song while the Cansino family dances in the background. |

Plot Keywords:

Character Name In Title

Cast

Anna Case	...	Herself - Anna Case
Eduardo Cansino	...	Lead Dancer, The Dancing Cansinos (as The Dancing Cansinos)
The Metropolitan Opera Chorus
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rita Hayworth	...	A Dancing Cansino (unconfirmed)

Also Known As:

Anna Case in La Fiesta (USA) (long title)
Anna Case with the Dancing Cansinos

Runtime:

10 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Vitaphone)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Vitaphone Production Reel #294

Movie Connections:

Featured in Okay for Sound (1946)

Dull, unimaginative early talkie

It's difficult to figure out exactly what the purpose of this short was. If it was designed to serve as both a showcase for opera diva Anna Case and an example of what talkies could do, it fails miserably on both counts; Miss Case doesn't even appear until about five minutes into the film. The intervening time was taken up by a musical number by the background chorus and a dance number by the Cansinos (future sex goddess Rita Hayworth and her father), both of which were ruined by a combination of poor sound and incredibly inept staging by the director (who, justifiably, received no screen credit). He kept the entire number in one static long shot; the camera was so far away from the principals that no one was recognizable, and since many of the actors were costumed similarly, it was difficult to see when someone was actually moving. When the director finally did cut to a medium shot, instead of moving the camera with the dancers, he had the annoying habit of letting them move to the extreme left or right of the screen, then having the camera chase after them. It was not only distracting but self-defeating, as it completely ruined the fluidity and tempo of the scene. When Miss Case finally did appear on screen she was, frankly, unimpressive. She did have a beautiful voice, as you would expect from an opera singer, but she had no screen presence whatsoever, and for some reason was very heavily made up, which was especially evident when you compared her to two female extras standing in back of her during her aria.

This short can serve as a curio, but is so poorly made and incompetently staged, with such bad sound quality, that a curio is about the only thing it's good for.