Antonio Moreno Movies

Set in the South Seas, Seven Sinners stars Marlene Dietrich as a cabaret singer whose reputation as a troublemaker has gotten her kicked out of one port of call after another. Once more causing a riot, Dietrich takes refuge on the first ship out, together with her underhanded cohorts Broderick Crawford and Mischa Auer. During her next stopover at the Seven Sinners Cafe, Dietrich meets handsome Naval officer John Wayne. He falls in love with her, much to the consternation of island governor Samuel S. Hinds, who knows that any romantic entanglement with Dietrich invariably results in dissension, disarray and brawls. He tells her to lay off Wayne or she'll be deported. But Dietrich insists upon performing one last song for the Duke...and sure as shootin', a battle royal ensues. This time, however, Wayne works tirelessly behind the scenes to solve everyone's problems. Maintaining the fascination level of Seven Sinners is a limitless array of top character actors, including Oscar Homolka, Billy Gilbert, Albert Dekker and Reginald Denny. The film was remade in 1950 as South Sea Sinner, starring Shelley Winters and--are you holding on to something?--Liberace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mexican actress Movita, Franchot Tone's vis-a-vis in Mutiny on the Bounty (and, much later, Mrs. Marlon Brando) stars in the Monogram western Rose of the Rio Grande The story, based on a novel by Johnston (Zorro) McCulley, concerns a group of aristocratic vigilantes, who go about trying to restore their prominence in Mexico by killing anyone who stands in their way. The cast is full of Hollywood Hispanics, including Don Alvarado, Antonio Moreno, Gino Corrado (the villain), Martin Garralaga and Duncan Renaldo (who incidentally was born in Rumania!) Several profane outtakes of Rose of the Rio Grande exist: in one of the funniest, leading man John Carroll, unable to untie the ropes that bind Movita to a chair, begins grumbling "What did the guy do with these...God...damn...." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The last of Fox Studios' Hollywood-made Spanish-language films, Rose de Francia (Rose of France) stars Rosita Diaz as the title character. Diaz plays Luisa Isabel de Orleans, the French-born wife of Spain's Prince of Asturias. Because of their distrust of France, the Prince's parents refuse to allow him to consummate the marriage. Unaware of the reasons behind her husband's abstinence, Luisa Isabel tries to rouse the Prince by making him jealous. The plan works, the parents are foiled, and the film fades out discreetly as the royal couple scamper into their boudoir. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this Spanish language comedy, a bored housewife decides to make her husband jealous. He later gets his revenge by doing the same thing. Misunderstandings and romantic mayhem ensue until at last the couple is happily reunited. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Santa was based on the incredibly popular novel by Mexican author Don Federico Gamboa. So beloved was the original novel that audiences were predisposed to adore the film, whether it was any good or not. The story concerns the romantic travails of the homely pianist (Carlos Orellana) of a seedy house of "ill repute." The hero harbors a seemingly hopeless love for the house's prettiest inhabitant, played by the curvaceous Lupita Tovar. When the girl is injured in an accident, the pianist sacrifices his all to finance a life-saving operation -- but will his grand gesture turn out to be futile? Santa represented the first directorial effort of Spanish film idol Antonio Moreno. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Burgeoning western star George O'Brien starred in this lavishly mounted but otherwise quite commonplace Northwest melodrama about a crime-fighting lumberjack. A very young John Wayne (still known as Marian Morrison) can be glimpsed in a saloon scene. Wayne's fortunes would escalate later that year with the release of Raoul Walsh's spectacular but ultimately disappointing The Big Trail. The son of San Francisco's police chief, O'Brien assured himself a place in film history starring in John Ford's The Iron Horse (1924) and opposite Janet Gaynor in Murnau's Sunrise (1927). He was a natural for "B" westerns, however, and later headlined what many considered one of the finest series ever made, at RKO in the late 1930s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Fox's immediate follow-up to its successful early-talkie western In Old Arizona was 1929's Romance of the Rio Grande. As Pablo Wharton Cameron, Warner Baxter essentially repeats his "Cisco Kid" characterization from the earlier picture. The story focuses on the Alvarez family of Mexico, specifically fabulously wealthy Don Fernando (Robert Edeson). Intending to bequeath his vast fortune and estate to his long-estranged grandson Pancho, Don Fernando must contend with his ne'er-do-well nephew Juan (Antonio Moreno). But Pancho saves the family's name and as an extra added attraction wins the hand of fair senorita Manuelita (Mona Maris). Romance of the Rio Grande was based on the Kathleen Norris novel Conquistador; it was refilmed in 1941 as one of Cesar Romero's "Cisco Kid" series entries. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

FBO Pictures was in the process of transforming into RKO Radio when the silent actioner Air Legion was filmed. Ben Lyon stars as Dave, the son of a late, legendary WWI flight commander. On the strength of his dad's reputation, Dave is hired by an airmail service run by ex-flying ace Steve (Antonio Moreno). Alas, Dave turns out to be a craven coward, going so far as to wound himself to avoid flying into dangerous weather. Even so, he redeems himself in the final reel by saving Steve's life, and, presumably as a reward, ends up with Steve's former girlfriend Sally (Martha Sleeper). Star Ben Lyon would fare better two years later with a far more ambition aviation effort, Hell's Angels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his later interviews, director Allan Dwan seldom had anything to say about his 1928 opus Whip Woman -- and who could blame him? Estelle Taylor, whose tabloid fame as the litigious wife of boxer Jack Dempsey tended to overshadow her acting skills, stars as Sari, a whip-wielding Hungarian peasant girl. After saving Count Michael Ferrenzi from killing himself, Sari becomes the bride of the grateful aristocrat. Ferrenzi's snooty mother (Hedda Hopper) does everything she can to break up the union, but Sari is not a girl to be trifled with. Fifteen-year-old Loretta Young showed up in a small role in Whip Woman, which led to much bigger things when she was spotted by director Herbert Brenon and cast in the Lon Chaney Sr. vehicle Laugh, Clown, Laugh. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The impossibly beautiful Billie Dove coasts through the melodramatic convolutions of Adoration. Billie and Antonio Moreno play husband-and-wife Russian aristocrats who are separated during the Revolution. Upon meeting again, Moreno becomes convinced that Billie has been unfaithful. He walks out and takes to drink, while his wife, ever hopeful that she can patch things up, becomes a professional model to raise money. The caddish Nicholas Soussanin, who accused Billie of adultery in the first place, is at long last exposed as a liar, thereby assuring a happy ending for the displaced couple. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Contrary to popular belief, Clara Bow was already Paramount's biggest box-office draw when she starred in this delightful rags-to-riches comedy. But It, from the fertile mind of bizarre best-selling author Elinor Glyn, remains perhaps the quintessential Bow picture. Not that the story of a poor shopgirl falling for her rich employer was anything new (by 1927, Bow could play that role in her sleep), but It came complete with one of the best publicity campaigns in Hollywood history. Glyn herself publicly pointed to Bow as the personification of It, "that quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force." Paramount made sure that Glyn's lofty description of the word sunk in and even convinced the author to explain It in the film to leading man Antonio Moreno (who, according to Glyn, simply oozed It as well). The lightweight comedy behind all this hoopla centered on little Betty Lou Spence, a vivacious salesgirl invited to dinner at the Ritz by foppish wastrel and self-described "old fruit" "Monty" Montgomery (William Austin in one of those roles later personified by Edward Everett Horton). Betty is not paying attention to her dinner companion, however, but is ogling department store heir Cyrus Waltham (Moreno). He notices her too, and takes the salesgirl on a whirlwind tour of Coney Island. But when Betty is mistakenly assumed to be the unmarried mother of an infant (actually her roommate Molly's), stern Cyrus no longer sees her as proper marriage material. Betty, of course, gets her man in the end and Waltham's snooty girlfriend ("other woman" specialist Jacqueline Gadsden) ends up in the drink. Delivering all the vivacious punch expected of a Bow comedy, It takes time out for a couple of rather poignant scenes. With the hindsight that Brooklyn's own Bow was never fully accepted by Hollywood society despite her stardom, it is touching to watch Betty being ostracized at the snobbish Ritz; and Bow is never more affecting than when she realizes that Moreno is offering diamonds and pearls instead of marriage. Priscilla Bonner, as Bow's drab, single-mother roommate, adds a touch of realism to her brief role, enviously observing Betty's frivolity. If It only added to Bow's brilliant success, the film did little for the intelligent Bonner. To the end of her life, Bonner maintained that accepting featured billing in It lost her any chance of true stardom. A very young Gary Cooper, has a bit as a reporter and director Josef Von Sternberg reputedly took over for Clarence Badger during a brief illness. Despite its rather trite Cinderella plot, It magnificently demonstrates why Bow's guileless flapper came to define an entire decade. It is heartbreaking to realize that her decline had already set in, and Bow's very public troubles and eventual career destruction were lurking right around the corner! ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Dorothy Gish's screen vehicles for British director Herbert Wilcox were usually a treat, but her 1927 film Madame Pompadour tended to be weighed down by the ponderous stylistic choices of its producer, Germany's E. A. DuPont. Not surprisingly, Gish plays the title character, the celebrated 18th-century aristocrat-paramour whose clothing and hairstyles determined French fashions for decades. A favorite of King Louis XV (Henri Bosc), Mme. Pompadour has trouble limiting her ardor to any one man, and in this film she falls in love with handsome political prisoner Rene Laval (Antonio Moreno). Adapted by DuPont and Frances Marion from the stage play by Rudolf Schanzer and Ernst Wellisch, Madame Pompadour was an especially lavish and handsome production. Unfortunately, despite its brief 75-minute running time, the film moved at a snail's pace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide