oh my

I haven't found an addition to my canon in quite a while.

This makes it in spades.

You just know nothing good goes on in these nightclubs.

Let's see: suicide, rape, slavery, drugs, murder, blackmail, revenge, deception, adultery, sex, assault, prostitution, extortion, seduction, an attempted heist and (somehow entwined within this all) singing and dancing. It seems all so Bollywood and yet this is part of the cabaretera (cabaret movies) genre from Mexico during the late '40s and early '50s.

Busby Berkeley would surely wince at the aerial photography but I really admire the big production numbers that burst the proscenium arch of the nightclub stages wide open. The ballads, mambos, rumbas and sambas that feature many top Mexican musicians [including Carmen Miranda's nightclub band] had me humming the tunes for days after watching this.

All this and noir-ish elements too - femme fatale, expressionist lighting, fog enshrouded streets, nihilist attitude, dark and dreary subject matter. Yet it never quite slides over into camp. Its all so lovingly embellished that I can suspend my disbelief and for the whole wild plot-wringing ride I'm right along with them.

Aventurera (1950)

directed by Alberto Gout

cinematography by Alex Phillips

production design by Manuel Fontanals

the blurry underground

Underground (1941)
directed by Vincent Sherman
cinematography by Sidney Hickox




Its such a shame that the DVD transfer is so poor.
I'd live to be able to share more images-
I'm sure there is a lot more beauty I couldn't notice over
the blurry transfer,
more black and white contrast that was washed out into greys.
For some reels, the sound and image
tracks had lost their common stride.

But the story is so compelling and the performances
absolutely riveting
that I'm sharing these just so I can mention that I've seen it.
Not to mention that the plot involves the underground
resistance in Germany.
Unusual enough and especially for a Hollywood film in 1941.