Dolores Del Rio Movies
Born into an aristocratic Mexican family, actress Dolores Del Rio was the daughter of a prominent banker. After a convent education, she was married at age 16 to writer Jaime Del Rio, whose name she retained long after the marriage had dissolved. The second cousin of silent film star Ramon Novarro, Del Rio was a regular guest at Hollywood parties; at one of these, director Edwin Carewe, struck by her dazzling beauty, felt she'd be perfect for a role in his upcoming film Joanna (1925). Stardom followed rapidly, with Del Rio achieving top billing in several major silent productions, including What Price Glory? (1927), as the French coquette Charmaine, and The Loves of Carmen (1927), in the title role. Since Del Rio spoke fluent English, the switch-over to sound posed no problem for her, though her marked Hispanic accent limited her range of roles. Most often, she was cast on the basis of beauty first, talent second; she is at her most alluring in 1932's Bird of Paradise, in which she appears all but nude in some sequences. Del Rio looked equally fetching when fully clothed, as in the title role of Madame Du Barry (1934). Upon the breakup of her second marriage to art director Cedric Gibbons, the graceful, intelligent Del Rio became the most eligible "bachelor girl" in Hollywood; one of her most ardent suitors was Orson Welles, ten years her junior, who cast her in his 1942 RKO production Journey Into Fear. In 1943, Del Rio returned to Mexico to star in films, negotiating a "percentage of profits" deal which increased her already vast fortune. Enormously popular in her native country, Del Rio returned only occasionally to Hollywood, usually at the request of such long-standing industry friends as director John Ford. Her seemingly ageless beauty and milk-smooth complexion was the source of envy and speculation; from all accounts, she used no cosmetic surgery, maintaining her looks principally through a diligent (and self-invented) diet and exercise program. Even as late as 1960, she looked far too young to play Elvis Presley's mother in Flaming Star. Del Rio retired from filmmaking in 1978, choosing to devote her time to managing her financial and real estate holdings, and to her lifelong hobbies of writing and painting. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1944
Actress Dolores del Rio teams up with one of her frequent directors, Emilio Fernández, for the melodrama Bugambilia. She stars as the spoiled-rotten daughter of a local miner, who falls blindly into a self-destructive romance with a local gentleman (Pedro Armendariz - little realizing that involvement with him will entail certain death. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 1943
Completed before his immensely successful Maria Candelaria, Emilio Fernandez' Flor Sylvestre was released second in the US-and not until two years after its initial Mexican release. Also known as Wildflower, the film features Fernandez himself as a character named Rogellio Torres. The lion's share of the footage, however, is devoted to the romance between Esperanza (Dolores Del Rio), granddaughter of a common laborer, and Jose Luis Castro (Pedro Armendariz), the firebrand son of a landowner. Joining a revolutionary movements, Castro is disowned by his father, but Esperanza remains loyally by his side. Later on, Castro's father is killed by outlaws; in seeking vengeance, he sacrifices his own life, while Esperanza carries on his revolutionary work with their young son in tow. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, Pedro Armendáriz, (more)
- 1942
- NR
Orson Welles had planned to produce, direct and star in RKO's Journey Into Fear, but prior commitments compelled him to vacate the director's chair in favor of Norman Foster. Joseph Cotten, who starred as an American gunnery engineer up to his armpits in international intrigue, adapted the screenplay from the novel by Eric Ambler. Targeted for extermination by the Gestapo, Cotten secretly books passage on a steamer bound from Turkey to Batumi. His fellow passengers include dancer Dolores Del Rio and her gigolo partner Jack Durant; talkative Frenchwoman Agnes Moorehead and her browbeaten husband Frank Readick; German archaeologist Eustace Wyatt; and a secretive, obese, thick-spectacled gent, played by Orson Welles' business partner Jack Moss. From the outset, it is no secret that Moss is a Nazi assassin. The question: who are his contacts, and how long will it be before Cotten is forced into a showdown? The very complex storyline was made even more so by RKO's decision to pare the film down to 69 minutes; several resultant plot gaps had to be bridged by an ongoing offscreen narration, presented in the form of a letter written by Cotten to his worried wife Ruth Warrick. As one can see, virtually the entire roster of Welles' Mercury Theatre troupe is involved in Journey into Fear. Welles himself plays colorful Turkish police officer Colonel Haki, while Everett Sloane, Hans Conried and Edgar Barrier essay significant smaller roles. Director Norman Foster so slavishly imitates the patented Wellesian visual style (following Welles' pre-production "storyboards" dictating choice of camera angle, lighting etc.) that many historians have assumed that Welles himself directed the picture. Remade for Canadian TV in 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Cotten, Dolores Del Rio, (more)
- 1940
Wallace Beery trots out his "lovable lout" act for the zillionth time in Man From Dakota. Beery plays a Union army sergeant who, along with his superior officer (John Howard), is captured and incarcerated in a Confederate prison. Upon escaping, Beery and Howard cross the path of Dolores Del Rio, playing a Russian refugee (with a Mexican accent). Dolores helps the escapees in their efforts to reach Northern lines and deliver secret information to General Grant. Based on a novel by MacKinlay Kantor, The Man From Dakota was distorted and truncated so that Wallace Beery would end up with the largest role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Beery, John Howard, (more)
- 1938
In this adventure, set in Shanghai, a gunrunner gets entangled with a conspiracy to deliver customs certificates. Unfortunately, his contact has died and the money has disappeared. He being pursued by other smugglers when Japanese bombs are dropped. He is saved from the firestorm by a French singer. Together they flee the city and board a refugee ship. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, George Sanders, (more)
- 1937
A remake of Frank Capra's Submarine (1928), Devil's Playground is a snappy Columbia "B plus" picture starring Richard Dix and Chester Morris. Submarine officers Dorgan (Dix) and Mason (Morris) battle on land for the affections of dance-hall girl Carmen (Dolores del Rio). She marries Dorgan but makes a play for Mason when her husband is on duty. The romantic rivalry is forgotten when Dorgan must rescue
Mason and his crew from a sunken sub. Devil's Playground was one of Columbia's bigger moneymakers of 1937. Excerpts from the underwater scenes later found their way into the Three Stooges two-reeler Three Little Sew and Sews (1939). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Mason and his crew from a sunken sub. Devil's Playground was one of Columbia's bigger moneymakers of 1937. Excerpts from the underwater scenes later found their way into the Three Stooges two-reeler Three Little Sew and Sews (1939). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dix, Dolores Del Rio, (more)
- 1937
Autograph hound Al Babson (Eddie Cantor) accidentally disrupts the filming of a movie about Ali Baba, and is injured in the process. The filmmakers try to buy him off, but nurse Dinah (Virginia Field) suggests he be hired as an extra. He takes an overdose of painkillers, and his Arabian Nights dreams combine with the plot of the movie. His name leads the populace to think he's the son of Ali Baba, and he's taken to the palace of Sultan Abdullah (Roland Young), who's so impressed by Al that he makes him prime minister. Princess Miriam (June Lang) is in love with Yusuf (Tony Martin), the leader of the peasants, while Al has fallen for Deenah (also Virginia Field), whose father Omar (Maurice Cass) is trying to make a carpet fly. Meanwhile, the evil Prince Musah (Douglas Dumbrille) is conspiring with Sultana (Louise Hovick), one of Abdullah's many wives, to capture the princess, take over Bagdad, and kill Abdullah and Al as well. Miriam and Yusuf are unhappy because royalty and commoners cannot marry, so Al comes up with a plan to help his friends, but the plan spectacularly backfires, and Abdullah orders him to be boiled in oil. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Cantor, Tony Martin, (more)
- 1937
Set during World War I, Lancer Spy stars a young George Sanders as Michael Bruce, an officer in the British Navy who bears an uncanny resemblance to the recently-captured Baron Kurt von Rohbach (also Sanders). Rohbach is highly connected in the German aristocracy, and his capture has been kept quite secret. This allows Bruce to be drafted into service to impersonate the German officer, infiltrate the enemy at the top level, and send back information that can turn the tide in the war. Bruce does a remarkable job and fools just about everyone; only the head of the secret police Major Gruning (Peter Lorre) has his doubts, but he can hardly accuse someone of the Baron's standing on nothing more than suspicions. He therefore engages a comely nightclub singer Dolores Daria Sunnell (Dolores Del Rio) to seduce Bruce and find out if his suspicions are sound or baseless. Unfortunately for Gruning, the singer finds her heart genuinely stolen by the imposter. She discovers the truth, but refuses to out him. Meanwhile, Gruning has laid his hands on some evidence of his own, and he moves to capture Bruce. Having accomplished his mission, Bruce flees to Switzerland. Gruning captures Dolores instead and puts her to death for her betrayal. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, George Sanders, (more)
- 1936
Accused is a British melodrama starring American actor (and confirmed Anglophile) Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Somewhat incongruously cast as an Apache dancer, Fairbanks and his dance partner/wife Dolores Del Rio headline a Paris musical. Fairbanks becomes the unwilling target for the attentions of performer Florence Desmond (the famed British impressionist, here playing a hateful adventuress). Desmond is later murdered with the dagger used by Fairbanks and his wife in their act, and Dolores is accused of the crime. A florid court trial unmasks the real killer. Zoe Akins, a prominent playwright of the 1920s whose once-celebrated works seem somewhat childish today, was one of the scenarists of Accused. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Dolores Del Rio, (more)
- 1936
In this romantic comedy, an aspiring socialite heads for a vacation in Monte Carlo where she befriends a wealthy widowed duchess and then begins blackmailing her after she steals a scandalous letter. This letter could destroy her upcoming nuptials to a stuffy Englishman. The duchess enlists the aide of an American thief to get the damning letter back. Meanwhile, her English lover continues to ardently pursue her; he is blissfully unaware that something is amiss. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren William, Dolores Del Rio, (more)
- 1935
Per its title, this merry Warner Bros. musical was filmed on location in the resort community of Agua Caliente. Pat O'Brien plays magazine editor Larry MacArthur, whose scathingly negative review of tempestuous dancer La Espanita (Dolores Del Rio) has incurred the lady's considerable wrath. Through a fluke, MacArthur finds himself in Caliente, where he begins ardently pursuing the lovely Rita Gomez, not realizing -- at least at first -- that Rita and La Espanita are one in the same. Intending to humiliate MacArthur, Rita relents when she realizes she's fallen for him as well. Of the supporting players, only Edward Everett Horton is given any worthwhile material, and he makes the most of it. The Busby Berkeley dance numbers are okay, but the film's musical highlight is Wini Shaw's rendition of "The Lady in Red", followed by Judy Canova's semi-parody version of the same tune. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, Pat O'Brien, (more)
- 1935
Though Busby Berkeley is the director of I Live for Love, there isn't a dancer or dance number anywhere to be seen. Dolores Del Rio stars as hot-tempered South American stage favorite Donna Alvarez, who is brought to America to headline a Broadway show. The film details the backstage romance between Donna and her handsome co-star Roger Kerry (played by Everett Marshall, an opera star who'd last been seen on-screen in 1930's Dixiana). They fight, make up, fight again, make up again, and fight and make up again. And that's all, folks. The film's singular highlight is the barbershop-quartet lampoon "A Man Must Shave". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, Guy Kibbee, (more)
- 1934
No boring historical pageant this, Warner Bros.' Madame DuBarry is a fast-paced, often hilarious romantic romp. Her Mexican accent held in check, the ravishingly beautiful Dolores Del Rio plays 18th-century French courtesan DuBarry like a 20th-century golddigger on the make. Brought to Versailles as the companion of courtier D'Aigullon (Victor Jory), former street waif DuBarry charms her way into the heart -- and boudoir -- of gouty King Louis XV (Reginald Owen). Many of the famous incidents in her character's life are given showcase treatment: When DuBarry's enemies steal her gown, she appears at her presentation at Versailles in a flimsy nightgown; and when she wants to take a sleighride in the middle of summer, King Louis "nationalizes" all the sugar in Paris as a substitute for snow. Upon Louis' death, the petulant new Queen Marie Antoinette (Anita Louise) banishes DuBarry from court, which our heroine takes in her usual stride, insouciantly chanting the roundelay "The King of France" as she walks out of the palace, with her head held high (and still -- at this point anyway -- firmly planted on her shoulders). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, Reginald Owen, (more)
Based on Al Jolson's 1931 Broadway hit, Wonder Bar transposes the "Grand Hotel" formula to a lavish nightclub in Paris' Montmartre district. Presiding over the evening's entertainment is manager-emcee Al Wonder (Jolson), who after greeting his guests in a multitude of languages (a la Joel Grey in Cabaret) introduces a steady stream of top variety acts. The star attraction of the Wonder Bar floor show is the Latin dance team of Inez (Dolores Del Rio) and Harry (Ricardo Cortez). Al worships Inez from afar, but she is hopelessly in love with Harry, a no-good louse who is carrying on with Liane (Kay Francis), the wife of prominent banker Renaud (Henry Kolker). Meanwhile, German military officer Captain Von Ferring (Robert H. Barrat), who has lost his fortune to bad investments, enjoys one last fling at the Wonder Bar before committing suicide. The two main subplots converge when Inez stabs Harry out of pique, whereupon the ever-loyal Al deposits Harry's body in Von Ferring's car, knowing full well that Von Ferring intends to drive himself off a steep hill to his death. Never letting Inez find out that she killed Harry, Al stands stoically aside as she finds true happiness with composer Tommy (Dick Powell). Lest this all sound heavily somberly serious, it should be noted that Wonder Bar is chock full of laughs, from both Jolson (who runs through quite a repertoire of tried-and-true routines) and the drunken antics of "tired business men" Hugh Herbert and Hobart Cavanaugh. The musical numbers staged by Busby Berkeley range from sedate to incredible, with the bizarrely racist 10-minute "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" (truly a jaw-dropping experience) falling into the latter category. The film's most outrageous moment, however, is an uninhibited chunk of homosexual humor on the dance floor ("Boys will be boys!", crows Jolson) which just barely squeaked past the Hollywood censors! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Dick Powell, (more)
The top-billed stars in the extravagant RKO musical Flying Down to Rio are Dolores Del Rio and Gene Raymond. Forget all that: this is the movie that first teamed Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. We're supposed to care about the romantic triangle between aviator/bandleader Raymond, Brazilian heiress Del Rio and her wealthy fiance Raul Roulien, but the moment Fred and Ginger dance to a minute's worth of "The Carioca", the film is theirs forever. Other musical highlights include Rogers' opening piece "Music Makes Me" and tenor Roulien's lush rendition of "Orchids in the Moonlight". Then there's the title number. The plot has it that Del Rio' uncle has been prohibited from having a floor show at his lavish hotel because of a Rio city ordinance. Astaire and Raymond save the day by staging the climactic "Flying Down to Rio" number thousands of feet in the air, with hundreds of chorus girls shimmying and swaying while strapped to the wings of a fleet of airplanes. It is one of the most outrageously brilliant numbers in movie musical history, and one that never fails to incite a big round of applause from the audience--even audiences of the 1990s. Together with King Kong, Flying Down to Rio saved the fledgling RKO Radio studios from bankruptcy in 1933. The film was a smash everywhere it played, encouraging the studio to concoct future teamings of those two stalwart supporting players Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, Gene Raymond, (more)
- 1932
Having inherited the warhorse stage piece Bird of Paradise from his predecessor William LeBaron, RKO Radio production chief David O. Selznick opted to do the property up brown, hoping to transform the Richard Walton Tully original into RKO's "prestige" offering of 1932. Joel McCrea stars as a handsome South Seas soldier of fortune who falls in love with Dolores Del Rio, the daughter of a Polynesian native chieftain. Alas, their idyllic romance is destined to come to a sudden and violent end: tribal custom decrees that Del Rio is to be sacrificed to the local volcano. After initial resistance, the heroine nobly resigns herself to her fate, realizing that there is no place for her in her white lover's civilization. A more conservative (and far less costly) version of Bird of Paradise was filmed in 1952, with Jeff Chandler and Debra Paget. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, Joel McCrea, (more)
- 1932
Dolores Del Rio plays Dolores in Girl of the Rio -- which, one supposes, makes perfect sense. The heroine is a cabaret dancer who attracts the eye of her boss, slick gambler Don Jose (Leo Carrillo). When Dolores falls for handsome gringo Johnny Powell (Norman Foster), Don Jose pulls a few strings to have the boy carted off to a faraway prison. Using a few tricks of her own, Dolores manages to secure Johnny's release, whereupon Don Jose, his back to the wall, "gracefully" bows out of her life. Adapted from the old Willard Mack play The Dove (previously filmed under that title in 1928), Girl of the Rio was remade in 1939 as The Girl and the Gambler, with Leo Carrillo reprising his role from the 1932 film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, Leo Carrillo, (more)
- 1930
In this melodrama, a dancer works in a sleazy Marseilles portside dive that is really the front for a bordello. While dancing one night she meets a sailor and agrees to be his bride. Unfortunately, one of her former suitors suddenly shows up and a terrible fight ensues. The sailor kills his rival and ends up sentenced to Devil's Island. The only females allowed there are the wives of the guards, so, not wanting to be far from her beloved, the dancer marries the meanest guard in the prison. During a prison riot, the sailor proves his mettle and gets pardoned. The couple happily decide to return to the dancer's native Britain. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, Edmund Lowe, (more)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's narrative poem Evangeline briefly abandoned the curriculum of English Literature 101 for the purposes of this part-talkie screen adaptation. Dolores Del Rio stars as the title character, an Acadian lass whose marriage to kinsman Gabriel (Roland Drew) is forestalled by the British invasion of the Grand Pre region. Exiled from the territory along with most of the other Acadians, Gabriel is transported far, far away from Evangeline's arms. Our heroine spends the rest of the film in search of her sweetheart, but the two are reunited only after Gabriel falls mortally ill, and Evangeline has joined an order of nuns. The film was billed as a "talkie" by virtue of its two songs, both performed by Dolores Del Rio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, Roland Drew, (more)
- 1928
Gateway of the Moon is set in Bolivia (with Southern California serving as a "stand-in"). Dolores Del Rio stars as Toni, the half-caste niece of corrupt railroad foreman George Gillespie (Anders Randolph). When British railroad inspector Arthur Wyatt (Walter Pidgeon) shows up in the region to institute some much-needed reforms, Gillespie sets about to either discredit or kill the "interloper." Wyatt is saved from destruction by Toni, who has fallen in love with him. Typical "never the twain shall meet" stuff, Gateway of the Moon was based on Upstream, a novel by Clifford Bax. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, Walter Pidgeon, (more)
- 1928
Based upon The Red Dancer of Moscow by Henry Leyford Gates, The Red Dance is a silent film (released with a synchronized score, to take advantage of the commercial allure that "sound" added to films in 1928) that paints a picture of Russia before, during and after the Soviet Revolution. Tasia (Dolores Del Rio) is a peasant girl who becomes romantically involved with Grand Duke Eugen (Charles Farrell ), a Russian aristocrat who is supposed to marry Princess Varvara $Dorothy Revier). True love eventually wins out, although things are invariably complicated by the changes wrought by the Revolution -- which include Tasia's new career as a dancer with the Moscow Theatre and Eugen's adjustments to life outside the aristocracy. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, Charles Farrell, (more)
- 1928
Mexican-born Dolores Del Rio is convincingly cast as a fiery Hungarian lass in Revenge. Yet another variation on The Taming of the Shrew, the film concentrates on the tempestuous relationship between whip-wielding Rascha (Del Rio), the daughter of a bear tamer, and virile Hussar officer Jorga (Leroy Mason). Kidnapping Rascha, Jorga demands that she become his wife -- and a docile, obedient one at that. The more Rascha protests against this set-up (and she puts up quite a fight!), the more Jorga falls in love with her. By film's end, Rascha is as sweet and subservient as any of her daddy's trained bears, but one still wonders how long this will last. A silent film, Revenge was released with a synchronized musical score. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, James Marcus, (more)
- 1928
The 1928 production Ramona was the third film version of the Helen Hunt Jackson novel of the same name, first dramatized (in one reel!) by D. W. Griffith in 1910. Dolores Del Rio plays the title character, the ward of domineering California sheep rancher Senora Moreno (Vera Lewis). Escaping her cruel and judgmental guardian, Ramona sadly resigns herself to the probability that she will never find true happiness because she is -- gasp! -- a half-breed. Though she loves Moreno's grandson Felipe (Roland Drew), Ramona does not want him to bear the stigma of a mixed marriage, so she marries Allesandro (Warner Baxter), an Indian shepherd. Misfortune continues to befall the heroine when her husband is lynched by bigoted white ranchers; shortly thereafter, her baby dies from injuries sustained in a bandit raid because the white doctor refuses to treat an Indian infant. Suffering a total nervous breakdown, Ramona wanders into the woods, having lost all memory of her previous existence. But faithful Felipe rescues the girl, snapping her out of her amnesia by singing her favorite childhood song (courtesy of the Vitaphone soundtrack). Ramona was remade in 1936 with Loretta Young and Don Ameche. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, Warner Baxter, (more)
- 1928
The strange and terrible things that the lust for gold can do to the soul comprise the message of this innovative, epic account of the Alaskan gold rush. Unlike Chaplin's version of the same era story, which combined hardship with comedy and culminated with a happy ending, Clarence Brown's film is disturbing. Though he follows the lives of many prospectors throughout the movie, one story receives extra attention. It is that of a gold miner who finally strikes it rich, suffers terribly to return to his true love and discovers that she has become a tawdry dance-hall girl working for a known murderer. Enraged, the prospector gets into a terrible battle that culminates in a tragic scene -- perhaps designed to make us realize how insignificant we are in the face of nature's ruthless grandeur. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Del Rio, Ralph Forbes, (more)
