Viva Villa! *** (1934, Wallace Beery, Fay Wray, Leo Carrillo) – Classic Movie Review 9760

Viva Villa! (1934) and an MGM mess in Mexico… 

Directors Jack Conway and Howard Hawks’s fictionalised 1934 historical adventure Viva Villa! Stars the irrepressible Wallace Beery, who shines as the Mexican revolutionary bandit Pancho Villa, who fights for the good of his people and for visionary Francisco Madero (Henry B Walthall)’s Mexican republic. MGM’s brisk, lively biographical adventure is spiced with plenty of humour and action, and entertainment value.

MGM’s cavalier story (suggested by the book by Edgecumb Pinchon and O B Stade) in the screenplay by expert screen-writer Ben Hecht gleefully mixes fact and fiction willy-nilly, but Viva Villa! is never less than fun thanks to the enthusiastic star and his willing co-players.

Filming was started by Hawks, but Conway took over and got the sole direction credit. Hawks claimed that most of the location footage (except battle scenes) was his, though it is said that much of the footage originally shot by Hawks and all the second-unit scenes were lost in a plane crash.

Viva Villa! won an Oscar for Best Assistant Director (John Waters) and nominations for Best Picture, Best Writing, Adaptation and Best Sound, Recording (Douglas Shearer). At the Venice Film Festival 1934), Beery won the Golden Medal for Best Actor and Conway was the winner of a Special Recommendation.

Filming began in 1931 in Mexico, but because of a long series of problems including production delays and personnel changes, the film was not released till 27 April 1934.

Mexican government officials disliked the casting of Wallace Beery as the honored Pancho Villa, because he usually played villains or buffoons but Pancho Villa’s widow wrote a letter to producer David O Selznick telling him that she liked Wallace Beery’s interpretation of her husband. Beery in turn disliked filming on Mexican locations and had a private plane on stand-by.

No Hispanic actors were cast in the film. Beery was dissatisfied with Argentine actress Mona Maris, who was replaced by Fay Wray with an almost completely rewritten part.

Because of the difficulties of location shooting, multiple retakes and cast replacements, the budget edged up to $1,000,000, but it became the most popular movie at the U.S. box office in 1934.

Lee Tracy, originally cast as American reporter Jonny Sykes, was fired from the film and replaced by Stuart Erwin. It was alleged that he got drunk and urinated from his Mexico hotel balcony onto a passing military parade and was arrested, and then Hawks was fired for refusing to testify against Tracy.

But another version of the story is that Tracy was standing on the balcony observing the parade when a Mexican in the street below made an obscene gesture at him. Tracy replied in kind, and the next day a local newspaper printed a story that implied Tracy had insulted Mexico, causing an uproar there and so MGM sacrificed Tracy to be allowed to continue filming there.

Another version of the story is that Hawks quit the production because he felt unsafe. Gun-toting revolutionaries prowled the set, safety standards were lax and a suicide took place in front of him. Hawks worked for 10 weeks and was happy to leave.

Also in the cast are Leo Carrillo, Donald Cook, Stuart Erwin, George E Stone, Katherine De Mille, Joseph Schildkraut, Henry B Walthall, David Durand, Phillip Cooper, Frank Puglia, John Merkel, Harry Cording, Sam Godfrey, Nigel de Brulier, Paul Stanton, Mischa Auer and Arthur Treacher.

Viva Villa! is directed by Jack Conway and Howard Hawks (uncredited), runs 115 minutes, is made and released by MGM, is written by Ben Hecht, suggested by the book by Edgecumb Pinchon and O B Stade, is shot in black and white by James Wong Howe and Charles G Clarke, is produced by David O Selznick, and is scored by Herbert Stothart.

Yul Brynner struggles against his miscasting as the Mexican revolutionary bandit Pancho Villa in the 1968 Western action thriller Villa Rides! (also played by Rodolfo Hoyos Jr in 1958’s Villa!!, and by Telly Savalas in 1972’s Pancho Villa).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9760

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