Just like when Ma and Pa Kettle became such a hit in The Egg And I that it became
a movie series, Lupe Velez proved such a hit as the fiery and passionate Mexican
singer Carmelita Fuentes that RKO did a whole series of Mexican Spitfire films.
Velez who was on the downside of her career, she was no longer an A list player
got her career extended a few more years. Sadly only a few years since she died
by suicide in 1943.
This film which introduces the characters has Donald Woods press agent on a hunt in Mexico for a talented singer of the Latina persuasion for his boss Donald MacBride's radio station. He brings Lupe Velez and finds she's awfully hard to handle. The one she relates best to is Leon Errol who is his uncle. His aunt Elizabeth Risdon who usually played snooty old dowagers is at her snootiest here. Fiance Linda Hayes isn't too thrilled with Velez's presence either.
Velez and Errol worked well together and it was both of them that kept the Mexican Spitfire series going. Later on when Errol started playing the dual role of Uncle Matt and Lord Epping he could have spun out on a series of his own.
For better or worse this is what Lupe Velez is best remembered for cinematically as opposed to her sex life which was varied and tempestuous.
This film which introduces the characters has Donald Woods press agent on a hunt in Mexico for a talented singer of the Latina persuasion for his boss Donald MacBride's radio station. He brings Lupe Velez and finds she's awfully hard to handle. The one she relates best to is Leon Errol who is his uncle. His aunt Elizabeth Risdon who usually played snooty old dowagers is at her snootiest here. Fiance Linda Hayes isn't too thrilled with Velez's presence either.
Velez and Errol worked well together and it was both of them that kept the Mexican Spitfire series going. Later on when Errol started playing the dual role of Uncle Matt and Lord Epping he could have spun out on a series of his own.
For better or worse this is what Lupe Velez is best remembered for cinematically as opposed to her sex life which was varied and tempestuous.