Amapola Del Vando Movies
Amapola Del Vando appeared in many Hollywood films between the 1930s and late 1960s. A native of Spain, she immigrated to California at age nine and started out working in local theaters during the late '20s. After appearing in a few films during the early '30s, Del Vando also began working for Central Casting where she was instrumental in promoting Latino actors. Later she became a technical adviser and specialist in Latin American music for the major studios. During the 1950s Del Vando appeared in a few television shows ranging from I Love Lucy to Fiesta Kitchen. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1969
- R
Justine (Anouk Aimee) is a Jewish prostitute living in Egypt who manages to sleep her way to the top. Marrying a financial minister, Justine works her way up from her beginnings as a hooker, but continues to use her sexual allure as a tool to win her and her husband's ends. Along the way, she helps the Jews fight for their own homeland against the British and Arabs. The story is told from the perspective of the English nobleman Darley (Michael York), who first meets the temptress in 1938. The Jews in Egypt are continually pressured by the Moslem majority, who also persecute local Coptic Christians. Justine helps both Christians and Jews in Alexandria receive fair treatment despite religious and racial prejudice. Dirk Bogarde and Anna Karina also star in this story tinged with adultery, incest, homosexuality and religious and nationalistic fervor. This story is based on the novel Justine, one of four which comprise the Alexandria Quartet, by British diplomat and novelist Lawrence Durrell. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anouk Aimée, Dirk Bogarde, (more)
The once-scandalous autobiography of Frank Harris was the source of the fascinating "adult" western Cowboy. Jack Lemmon plays Harris, who when first the audience meets him is a citified desk clerk in a frontier hotel. Harboring romantic notions of the West, Harris prevails upon hard-living, hard-drinking trail boss Tom Reece Glenn Ford to take him along on Reece's next cattle drive. In the months that follow, Harris' idealized notions of the West are cruelly dispelled, though he eventually becomes accustomed to the rough-and-tumble life on the trail and to the curious cameradie between the drovers. The film's most talked-about scene finds a group of cowboys planting a rattlesnake in one of their comrade's blankets as a joke; their regretful but oddly detached reaction when the bitten man dies speaks volumes about the Real West. Also memorable is the performance of Brian Donlevy as Doc Bender, an ageing gunfighter who can't stand the notion of becoming an anachronism. One of the more unorthodox westerns of the 1950s, Cowboy is also one of the best. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Lemmon, Glenn Ford, (more)
- 1958
Maracaibo was actor Cornel Wilde's second directorial effort. Wilde casts himself as troubleshooting oil man Vic Scott, who has arrived in Venezuela to help put out a fire at an offshore well. It's a ticklish situation: if Scott fails, not only will he die in the blaze, but all of Maracaibo will likely be destroyed. When he isn't risking his life, Scott romantically pursues ice-princess journalist Laura Kingsley (played by Jean Wallace, at the time Mrs. Cornel Wilde). Joe E. Ross of Car 54 Where are You fame provides a few welcome laughs as a Brooklynese oil rigger. Filmed partially on location, Maracaibo was based on a novel by Stirling Silliphant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cornel Wilde, Jean Wallace, (more)
- 1956
In 1956, it was still possible for Americans to take a working vacation in Cuba, and the Ricardos and the Mertzes are no exception. Upon setting foot on his native soil, Ricky (Desi Arnaz) makes a beeline to the home of his mother (Mary Emery), hoping to introduce Lucy (Lucille Ball) and Little Ricky (Richard Keith) to his Cuban relatives -- especially the highly regarded head of the Ricardo clan, Uncle Alberto (George Trevino). Naturally, Lucy makes a shambles of the reunion, but all ends happily in a lavish nightclub performance at Havana's Casino Parisien, where Desi Arnaz sings "I'm a Lucky Guy" and duets with Richard Keith in a con brio presentation of his signature number "Baba Lu." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Emery, George Trevino, (more)
- 1956
In this adventure, a man a man is paroled from prison and made to join the army so he can break up an international counterfeiting operation involving an ex- army buddy. they use him to woo the friend's lover and pump her for information. He finds her to be a dry well, but the importing firm she works for is a different story. In the end, the fellow breaks up the gang, wins the heart of the girl, and get back together with his father, a Treasury agent. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Danton, Leigh Snowden, (more)
- 1953
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
- Starring:
- Anna Maria Pier Angeli, Ricardo Montalban, (more)
- 1953
Cashing in on the popularity of such pro-Native American films as Broken Arrow, Columbia's resident quickiemeister Sam Katzman came up with Conquest of Cochise. John Hodiak plays the eponymous Apache leader, who at the beginning of the film is seen conducting raids on the U.S.-Mexican border in the company of the Comanches. Eventually realizing that the whites are better armed and equipped than the Indians, Cochise wants to put an end to the raids and smoke the peace pipe, but the Comanches don't see things his way. In films of this nature, there is usually a foredoomed love affair between a white man and an Indian girl. This time, however, Cochise falls in love with Mexican aristocrat Consuelo de Cordova (Joy Page), whom he holds hostage while U.S. cavalry officer Burke (Robert Stack) searches for the killer of Cochise's Indian bride. Director William Castle does a nice job matching stock footage with his newly-shot scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Hodiak, Joy Page, (more)
- 1950
- NR
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
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, José Ferrer, (more)
