Juan Duval Movies

This tuneful romantic melodrama is set in a tiny Mexican village and is comprised of three storylines. One tale concerns a pair of young lovers from rival villages who will not be able to marry until a long time feud is ended. In another tale, an heir to a large fortune falls in love with an impoverished girl. His family is dead set against the match. When he is diagnosed with a fatal tumor, the man begs the girl to marry him, but she refuses and instead arranges for him to marry another. In the third story, a matador's comely sister falls in love with a street vendor. Unfortunately, the matador hates her beloved and to break them up permanently, slyly convinces the peddler to enter the dangerous bullring. Fortunately for the sister, her brother's scheme fails spectacularly. She then marries the peddler and makes an ironic discovery. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Cary Grant's utter credibility in the role of a brilliant, world-famous brain surgeon Dr. Eugene Norland Ferguson is the single element that keeps Crisis afloat. While vacationing in a politically unstable Latin American country, Ferguson and his wife, Helen (Paula Raymond), find themselves the unwilling house guests of dictator Raoul Farrago (José Ferrer). Suffering from a brain tumor, Farrago insists that Ferguson operate at once. The "crisis" of the title arises when revolutionary leader Gonzales (Gilbert Roland) demands that Farrago be killed on the operating table -- and kidnaps Dr. Ferguson's wife to bind the bargain. Unaware of his wife's plight, Ferguson proceeds with the operation, setting into motion a series of events leading to a grimly ironic denouement. Director Richard Brooks adapted the screenplay of Crisis from a story by George Tabori. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This second screen version of Ernest Hemingway's To Have and Have Not is closer in spirit to the original than the first version, though it still is far from faithful to its source. John Garfield stars as Harry Morgan, who has metamorphosed from Hemingway's gun-runner to an ex-PT boat captain, now running a charter boat service in Southern California. Deeply in debt, Morgan agrees to smuggle aliens and later tries to sneak a bunch of gangsters out of the country. By the time he's been given a wake-up call by his conscience, Morgan has caused the death of a close friend. Patricia Neal and Phyllis Thaxter make the most of their limited footage as, respectively Harry Morgan's casual mistress and faithful spouse. Many critics feel that The Breaking Point represents Michael Curtiz' finest directing job--no small praise for a man who helmed such classics as Casablanca and Yankee Doodle Dandy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Esther Williams and Red Skelton share equal screen time for once in the MGM Technicolor musical Neptune's Daughter. The title character is, of course, Williams, here cast as Eve Barrett, a bathing-suit manufacturer (and sometimes model). Skelton plays Jack Spratt, the masseur at a fancy polo club, who falls for Eve's sister (Betty Garrett). To prove worthy of her love, Jack poses as dashing Latin polo star Jose O'Rourke (Ricardo Montalban), resulting in a wealth of comic complications. The slapstick setpieces include a hilarious horse-mounting routine and a climactic set-to between Skelton and petty crook Mike Mazurki; there's also a few inspired moments from Mel Blanc, cast as a slow-talking Mexican. While Xavier Cugat is on hand as "himself," the film's musical high point is the Oscar-winning Baby It's Cold Outside, performed first by Williams and Montalban and then by Skelton and Garrett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this sad drama, a remake of Oil for the Lamps of China, a South American rubber planter nurses a broken heart after his U.S. fiancee jilts him. In addition, he has trouble with the natives who do not respect him. His troubles ease when he meets a caring nightclub singer who he marries against the wishes of his employers. He is hoping that marriage will protect her from the U.S. detective who has been looking into her past. Unfortunately, the investigator finds her and extradites her back to the States where she must stand trial. Her husband accompanies her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Filmed at Palmdale, California, this Tex Ritter Western continued a recent trend of limiting Ritter's trademark music numbers in favor of rather ill staged fisticuffs and other action scenes. Ritter, who was never very lucky with his ever changing comic sidekicks, was here saddled with one Frank Mitchell, a New Yorker visibly ill at ease on the celluloid range. Tex and Shorty (Mitchell) ride into Cinco Valley, a gold rich area terrorized by marauders ostensibly lead by one Pablo (Martin Garralaga). Tex, however, recognizes Blackie (Earl Douglas), whose boss is Bannister (Warner Richmond), an American. Suspecting that Bannister and his henchmen are trying to drive the settlers off their potentially valuable land by posing as Mexican banditos, Tex convinces Pablo to help him set a trap for the marauders. Despite a couple of misunderstandings along the way, Tex, Pablo and Shorty gather enough evidence to convict Bannister.Tall, rangy musician Slim Andrews, aka Arkansas Slim, made his screen debut in this film. A personal friend of the star, Andrews was to appear in the next nine Ritter Westerns, sometimes as his comedy relief. Unfortunately, Arkansas Slim was as unfunny as Ritter's previous sidekicks and the series didn't exactly prosper from his participation. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The real "message to Garcia" was delivered by an American lieutenant to Cuban rebel General Garcia, asking for the General's help in the Spanish-American war. The fact that the lieutenant made his way to Garcia in absolute safety was ignored in 20th Century-Fox's Message to Garcia--which is just as well, since otherwise the movie would have been eight minutes long. In the film version, lieutenant John Boles is guided through the treacherous Cuban jungle by Barbara Stanwyck, doing her best to convince us that she's an Hispanic senorita. Also along for the trip is renegade marine Wallace Beery, who may not be as friendly as he seems. Fighting off Spaniards and spies at every turn, Boles successfully completes his mission. As history, Message to Garcia is about as reliable as the Hearst newspaper dispatches which triggered the Spanish-American war in the first place. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Yankee Buck Jones turns into a south-of-the-border Robin Hood in this fine, if flawed, Western from Columbia Pictures. Arriving with a shipment of food for the starving peons of La Loma, CA, Santa Fe Stewart (Jones) finds himself falsely accused of murdering local businessman Don Marco Ramirez (Emile Chautard) and stealing his valuable cargo. The Yankee Bandit, however, manages to escape from jail and embarks on a quest to defeat local mayor Don Alberto (George Humbert) and his brother Commandante Emilio (Luis Alberni), who have been starving the populace in order to take over their valuable land. With the assistance of Juan (Charles Stevens), whose young son was killed by the Commandante, the hero does his best to feed the hungry and soon discovers a surprising ally in a rich stranger. The latter is revealed to be the governor of California, traveling to La Loma to investigate the uprising. When the dust settles, the governor appoints Juan the new mayor of La Loma and Santa Fe its new commandant. To make sure the Yankee will remain in town, the governor gives the blessing for a union with lovely Dolores Ramirez (Helen Mack). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide