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| Mary Hatcher, Desi Arnaz |
HOLIDAY IN HAVANA (1949). Director: Jean Yarbrough.
Bus boy turned bandleader Carlos Estrada (Desi Arnaz of Cuban Pete) wants to sign up singer Lolita Valdez (Mary Hatcher) to be a vocalist with his group. Talking to what he thinks is Lolita through a hotel room door, Carlos is highly insulted by the gal's termagant mother, Mama Valdez (Minerva Urecal of That Other Woman). Hating Lolita for "her" remarks, Carlos attempts to find a new singer with which to enter a competition at a carnival in Havana. Through a sequence of events, Lolita winds up accompanying Carlos and his band to Havana, but he thinks she is a woman named "Delores." Meanwhile two opposing agents, Marge (Ann Doran of Violent Road) and Sam (Ray Walker), are both anxious to sign Lolita to a contract that will bring her to New York.
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| Ray Walker, Minerva Urecal, Ann Doran |
I asked myself while watching "why is
Holiday in Havana so dull?" Desi Arnaz is charming and talented -- I was never crazy about his voice but he
does know how to put over a song -- as is his leading lady, Mary Hatcher, and there is fine back up from Urecal, Doran, and Steven Geray and Sig Arno as members of the band. There are also some snappy song numbers -- Hatcher scores with the lovely "I'll Take Romance" while Desi does "The Straw Hat Song" (which he reprised on
Lucy) and that exciting bongo-rhumba finale. But then there's everything in-between, silly situations with no real laughs even though the cast is more than game. The movie runs a little over an hour but it seems three times as long. Mercifully, Arnaz found gainful employment, and showcased his considerable talent, on
I Love Lucy two years later. Despite
her ability, Mary Hatcher's film career -- after only a handful of credits -- was over that same year. Hatcher had a beautiful near-operatic voice and did some Broadway musical productions in addition to film assignments.
Verdict: Desi has energy to spare but he needs a better script. **1/2.
2 comments:
Poor Desi. After Too Many Girls, he could have become a big movie star but they didn't know what to do with him. The Carmen Miranda syndrome. He was very good in one dramatic role, in Back to Bataan. Thank God for I Love Lucy - if he had not become Ricky Ricardo, he would have become a forgotten bandleader...
-C
Yes, you're right about that. It wasn't him -- it was the material. People think he only displayed talent when he did "Lucy," but the talent was always there. No, he wasn't a genius like Lucy, maybe, but he was not a flash-in-the-pan either.
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