Rita Moreno Movies

So far as their fans were concerned, Mario Lanza and Kathryn Grayson could have stood up against a blank wall and sung uninterruptedly for 96 minutes in Toast of New Orleans. MGM, however, adhered to the policy that all movies must have plots. This one finds Lanza playing Pepe Abellard Duvalle, a shrimp fisherman from Louisiana's bayou country, while Grayson plays Suzette Micheline, a famed opera singer. After he witnesses an impromptu duet between Pepe and Suzette at an outdoor restaurant, Suzette's manager Jacques Riboudeaux (David Niven) decides to groom Pepe for singing stardom. In so doing, Jacques has put the kibosh on his own romance with Suzette, but that's why he gets third billing. Toast of New Orleans is a typical Joe Pasternak production, all bright smiles, lilting songs and happy people in Living Technicolor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Fabulous Senorita in this frothy musical is Republic's resident Latin bombshell Estelita Rodriguez, here billed simply as Estelita. The story concerns the daughter (Estelita) of a Cuban millionaire who falls in love with a bookish professor (Robert Clarke) rather than the wealthy fiance of her father's choosing. The plot complications require our heroine to pose as twin sisters, with highly contrasting personalities. Meanwhile, a very young Rita Moreno essays one of her fist important screen roles as Estelita's actual sister. Laughs are provided by owl-eyed Marvin Kaplan as a nerdish undergrad. The story and songs are for the birds, but Estelita Rodriguez is always worth watching. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hollywood, 1927: the silent-film romantic team of Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) is the toast of Tinseltown. While Lockwood and Lamont personify smoldering passions onscreen, in real life the down-to-earth Lockwood can't stand the egotistical, brainless Lina. He prefers the company of aspiring actress Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), whom he met while escaping his screaming fans. Watching these intrigues from the sidelines is Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor), Don's best pal and on-set pianist. Cosmo is promoted to musical director of Monumental Pictures by studio head R.F. Simpson (Millard Mitchell) when the talking-picture revolution commences. That's all right for Cosmo, but how will talkies affect the upcoming Lockwood-Lamont vehicle "The Dueling Cavalier"? Don, an accomplished song-and-dance man, should have no trouble adapting to the microphone. Lina, however, is another matter; put as charitably as possible, she has a voice that sounds like fingernails on a blackboard. The disastrous preview of the team's first talkie has the audience howling with derisive laughter. On the strength of the plot alone, concocted by the matchless writing team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Singin' in the Rain is a delight. But with the addition of MGM's catalog of Arthur Freed-Nacio Herb Brown songs -- "You Were Meant for Me," "You Are My Lucky Star," "The Broadway Melody," and of course the title song -- the film becomes one of the greatest Hollywood musicals ever made. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Actual combat footage is used to flesh out the staged dramatics in Columbia's El Alamein. Related in flashback (a la 12 O'Clock High), the film concerns itself with the exploits of an American civilian named Banning (Scott Brady), who during WW II makes a tidy living selling tanks to the Allied troops. Through a fluke, Banning finds himself in the thick of battle. Together with a British tank crew, he stumbles upon one of Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps supply dumps (shades of Five Graves to Cairo). Now he and his comrades in arms are obliged to blow up the Nazi supplies and return to the safety of the British lines. Somehow, leading lady Rita Moreno is wedged into the otherwise all-male proceedings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fort Vengeance starts out as a western and ends up as a "northern." Trouble-making brothers Dick (James Craig) and Carey (Keith Larsen) skeedaddle to Canada when things get too hot for them in the states. The brothers join the Royal Canadian Mounties, where their knowledge of Indian activities make them invaluable. But Carey's recklessness causes the Blackfeet Indians to almost go on the warpath--and also leads to Carey's becoming a reluctant murderer. To prevent a massacre, the heartbroken Dick must track down his own brother. The film's climax is both downbeat and upbeat, depending upon one's point of view. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this adventure, four explorers search for a vast treasure in the Amazon jungle. One of the explorers is a woman who got involved after she traveled from California to marry her fiance whom she hasn't seen in two years. Another man tries to convince her that her fiance has become an alcoholic idealist obsessed with finding gold in the jungle. Another takes her into the jungle to find her love. En route he falls in love with her. Later they learn that her fiance has been killed by the Jivaro headhunters. The other man, who went in before them is also attacked, but the woman's guide saves his life. This film did not use stock footage. Much of it was actually filmed in the jungle to provide the backgrounds. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Yellow Tomahawk stars Rory Calhoun as a Wyoming Indian scout who forms a strong friendship with Cheyenne warrior Lee Van Cleef. Their relationship is sorely tested when martinet army major Warner Anderson inaugurates a vicious anti-Indian policy, targetted at the Cheyenne women and children. Despite valiant efforts to stem the carnage, Calhoun is eventually forced into a fight to the finish with the understandably vengeful Van Cleef. Much-needed comedy relief is provided by Noah Beery Jr. as a Mexican (!) and Rita Moreno as Beery's Indian bride. Peggie Castle costars as Calhoun's white love interest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tyrone Power is a Dutchman, and Susan Hayward is an Irish lass. If you believe that, then the rest of Untamed will go down a lot easier. Power is a Boer calvary commander attempting to bring peace to his South African homeland. He has an affair with Hayward, a married woman whose husband is killed during a Zulu attack. While rescuing the survivors, Power runs afoul of Dutch farmer Richard Egan, who insists that Hayward is his property. Egan turns bandit, targeting the diamond mines. Power is bound and determined to stop Egan--and, it is hoped, to clear the path towards lasting happiness with Hayward. The Untamed is a CinemaScope adaptation of a novel by Helga Moray. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The King and I, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's 1951 Broadway musical hit, was based on Margaret Landon's book Anna and the King of Siam. Since 20th-Century-Fox had made a film version of the Landon book in 1946, that studio had first dibs on the movie adaptation of The King and I. Deborah Kerr plays English widow Anna Leonowens, who comes to Siam in the 1860s to tutor the many wives and children of the country's progressive King (Yul Brynner, recreating his Broadway role-and winning an Oscar in the process). The culture clash between Anna and the King is but one aspect of their multilayered relationship. Through Anna, the King learns the refineries and responsibilities of "modern" western civilization; Anna meanwhile comes to realize how important it is for an Oriental ruler to maintain his pride and to uphold the customs of his people. After a successful evening entertaining foreign dignitaries, Anna and the King celebrate with an energetic dance, but this is cut short by a bitter quarrel over the cruel punishment of the King's new Burmese wife Tuptim (Rita Moreno), who has dared to fall in love with someone else. Despite the many rifts between them, Anna and the monarch come to respect and (to a degree) love one another. When the King dies, Anna agrees to stay on to offer help and advice to the new ruler of Siam, young Prince Chulalongkhorn (Patrick Adiarte). In general, The King and I tends to be somewhat stagey, with the notable exception of the matchless "Small House of Uncle Thomas" ballet, which utilizes the Cinemascope 55 format to best advantage (the process also does a nice job of "handling" Deborah Kerr's voluminous hoopskirts). Most of the Broadway version's best songs ("Getting to Know You", "Whistle a Happy Tune", "A Puzzlement", "Shall We Dance" etc.) are retained. None of the omissions are particularly regrettable, save for Anna's solo "Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?" This feisty attack on the King's chauvinism was specially written to suit the talents of Gertrude Lawrence, who played Anna in the original production; the song was cut from the film because it made Deborah Kerr seem "too bitchy" (Kerr's singing, incidentally, is dubbed for the most part by the ubiquitous Marni Nixon). When all is said and done, the principal attraction of The King and I is Yul Brynner, in the role that made him a star and with which he will forever be identified. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This drama is another adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's popular novel that follows the exploits of a white scout who was raised by the Mohicans. He comes to the aid of a settler's colony that is plagued by warring Indians. He becomes entangled with an old white trader and his two daughters when he rescues them from the wrath of the Huron tribe. The trader hates the Indians because they killed his wife and took her scalp. Now he scalps any Indian he encounters. It turns out that all the Hurons want are the scalps he has taken so that the spirits of the dead can rest. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In the first episode of a two-part Zorro adventure, dashing Mexican bandit leader El Cuchillo (Gilbert Roland) and his gang are diverted from robbing a stagecoach by alluring señorita Chulita (Rita Moreno). Changing his plans, El Cuchillo decides to hide out in the pueblo of Los Angeles to steal a valuable cache of silver from the local warehouse. But that dauntless masked do-gooder Zorro (Guy Williams) (aka Don Diego de la Vega), is not about to let that happen. Originally telecast as part of the Walt Disney Presents anthology, "El Bandido" was a one-hour spin-off of Disney's popular weekly series Zorro, which ran from 1957 to 1959. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Romeo and Juliet is updated to the tenements of New York City in this Oscar-winning musical landmark. Adapted by Ernest Lehman from the Broadway production, the movie opens with an overhead shot of Manhattan, an effect that director Robert Wise would repeat over the Alps in The Sound of Music four years later. We are introduced to two rival street gangs: the Jets, second-generation American teens, and the Sharks, Puerto Rican immigrants. When the war between the Jets and Sharks reaches a fever pitch, Jets leader Riff (Russ Tamblyn) decides to challenge the Sharks to one last "winner take all" rumble. He decides to meet Sharks leader Bernardo (George Chakiris) for a war council at a gymnasium dance; to bolster his argument, Riff wants his old pal Tony (Richard Beymer), the cofounder of the Jets, to come along. But Tony has set his sights on vistas beyond the neighborhood and has fallen in love with Bernardo's sister, Maria (Natalie Wood), a love that, as in Romeo and Juliet, will eventually end in tragedy. In contrast to the usual slash-and-burn policy of Hollywood musical adaptations, all the songs written by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim for the original Broadway production of West Side Story were retained for the film version, although some alterations were made to appease the Hollywood censors, and the original order of two songs was reversed for stronger dramatic impact. The movie more than retains the original choreography of Jerome Robbins, which is recreated in some of the most startling and balletic dance sequences ever recorded on film. West Side Story won an almost-record ten Oscars, including Best Picture, supporting awards to Chakiris and Rita Moreno as Bernardo's girlfriend, Anita, and Best Director to Robbins and Wise. Richard Beymer's singing was dubbed by Jimmy Bryant, Natalie Wood's by Marni Nixon (who also dubbed Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady), and Rita Moreno's by Betty Wand. The film's New York tenement locations were later razed to make room for Lincoln Center. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide