Fiesta ** (1947, Esther Williams, Akim Tamiroff, Ricardo Montalban, John Carroll, Cyd Charisse, Mary Astor) – Classic Movie Review 8349

Director Richard Thorpe’s 1947 slim escapist entertainment Fiesta is vaguely amusing but not MGM’s best musical, thanks to slack work by writers George Bruce and Lester Cole. Unfortunately, it is hardly a musical at all, being clearly advertised as ‘MGM’s romantic drama with music’. Nevertheless, Johnny Green was Oscar nominated for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.

Fortunio Bonanova plays an old matador called Antonio Morales, who wants his son Mario Morales (Ricardo Montalban) to follow in his footsteps, but he just wants to dance, so his twin sister Maria Morales (Esther Williams) masquerades as her own brother and gets into the bull ring.

For those who like the idea of Williams starring as a matador, this is the musical for them. On the other hand, there may be those who might think that here the swimming star’s like a fish out of water. Ironically, for Maria’s bullfighting scene, it is clear that the bullfighting is being done by a male stand-in. Williams complained that ‘All they ever did for me at MGM was change my leading man and the water in my pool’, but here she is on dry Mexican land as a matador.

What are the movie’s other attractions? Otherwise there is young Cyd Charisse and Montalban dancing suavely together, a quality Oscar-nominated score by Johnny Green and music by Aaron Copland, and pretty shots of Mexico (the real Mexico, that is, not the MGM studio one) shot by Sidney Wagner and Charles Rosner in Technicolor, plus the redoubtable Mary Astor and Akim Tamiroff, bringing authority and conviction even to the disappointingly minor support roles MGM have relegated them to.

Also in the cast are Hugo Haas, John Carroll, Frank Puglia and Alan Napier.

It was filmed at Puebla, Mexico, and Tlaxcala, Mexico.

It is Montalban’s credited American film debut.

In her autobiography Million Dollar Mermaid, Williams recalled that her singer/actor husband Ben Gage, a big band vocalist, got drunk and clashed with the Mexican police, causing production to be halted as the authorities deported him.

Williams was a member of the Unity Church and a strong supporter of the Republican party. She won her MGM contract after making a screen test with Clark Gable and made her feature film debut with MGM in Andy Hardy’s Double Life (1942), getting her first screen kiss from Mickey Rooney.

The song La Bamba on the soundtrack, written by Luis Martínez Serrano, was a hit record for Ritchie Valens in 1958. Fantasia Mexicana, based on El Salon Mexico, music by Aaron Copland, adapted and orchestrated by Johnny Green, has André Previn as piano soloist.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8349

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