Perhaps the culmination of cabaretera, an offshoot of the entertaining & absurd Prostitution Melodramas, common enough during Cinema Mexico’s ‘40s & ‘50s Golden Age to constitute a genre unto itself. Cabaretera added song & dance to the mix, especially when Cuban-born Ninón Sevilla starred. Crammed with incident between extended cabaret numbers, first in an upper middle-class nightclub, later in a lowdown joint near the railway (literally on the wrong side of the tracks), action concentrated to fit into time left after musical numbers on a film that runs about 85". The presentation both familiar (the ‘good’ bad girl) and foreign as Asian classical theatre. Director Emilio Fernández & great Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa (as much a ‘Prince of Darkness’ as Hollywood’s John Alton), run the whole thing as a stylish/stylized feminist film noir as Sevilla’s club success is derailed when a local pimp not only fails to recruit her, but sees her rescue the infant he had with one of his other girls. The child pulled from a public trash can seconds before a garbage pickup. Yikes! The pimp, out for revenge after six years in jail, will murder her lover/impresario; steal his son (now six); before he’s shot by Sevilla who’ll go to jail for her crime of revenge while the little boy lives on the street, selling newspapers & shining shoes in hopes of raising enough pesos to buy Mom a pair of shoes. Double Yikes! The whole shebang a strange, often bewitching, sometimes laughable* mix of the puerile, toe-tapping (that Afro-Cuban/Rumba beat), primitive & sophisticated. On the other hand, while seeing one may be essential, seeing two may be too much, already.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Sevilla more a sexy thing than a great musical talent. Not so her mentor at the club, Rita Montaner, a very great talent indeed.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: While working as a prostitute between club gigs, Servilla is one of an astounding lineup of street hookers positioned in front of their ‘work’ chambers. Down the sidewalk comes the club owner who’ll revive her career, but who’s now simply looking for some action, closely followed by a huge Mariachi band. An indelible composition from Fernández and Figueroa.
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