Lupita Tovar Movies

Assembled by film historian Kevin Brownlow and narrated by actor Kenneth Branagh, this 90-minute special celebrates the classic horror films that emanated from Hollywood's Universal Studios. Beginning with such silent classics as The Phantom of the Opera and The Cat and the Canary, Universal went into full gear in the early '30s, launching such valuable properties as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, and (in the 1940s) The Wolf Man, and making stars of the "twin titans of terror," Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. The studio maintained its horror quota well into the 1950s with its Creature From the Black Lagoon series, but the emphasis in this special is on the pre-1948 scare fests. Highlights include interviews with surviving Universal actors and technicians (Gloria Stuart is particularly amusing), and rare clips from Dracula [Spanish-language version]. Universal Horror made its American TV debut on the Turner Classic Movies cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The paying customers got two Donald Barrys for the price of one in this typically well-mounted Republic Western directed with his customary vim and vigor by George Sherman. A petty criminal, The Sundown Kid (Barry number one), is persuaded by a gang of rustlers to change places with his lookalike brother, Bruce McKinnon, the town sheriff. Assuming his "sheriff's duties," the Kid, aka Jim McKinnon, gets in trouble with his girlfriend, Nita (Lupita Tovar), who jealously watches him courting Bruce's fiancée Ruth Morton (Lynn Merrick). Jim pacifies the seething Nita by telling her the truth, but when a minister turns up to marry "Bruce" and Ruth, she angrily betrays him. In the ensuing melee, Jim is mortally wounded, but manages to reconcile with his estranged brother before expiring. A fine actor in the James Cagney mold, Donald Barry (nicknamed "Red" for obvious reasons) convincingly portrayed the disparate brothers. In what was to become one of the longest partnerships in B-Western history, blond Lynn Merrick (formerly Marilyn Merrick) went on to do 15 additional Westerns opposite Barry. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The town of Vinegaroon, TX, is the home to Judge Roy Bean (Walter Brennan), who calls himself "The Only Law West of the Pecos." Bean keeps a saloon, where he also conducts trials, using his office to get fat on fines and the seizure of property, and hanging most of those who get in his way, sometimes more than one a day. Cole Hardin (Gary Cooper) is a saddle-tramp brought in on a charge of stealing a horse belonging to Bean's chief stooge, Chickenfoot (Paul Hurst). Hardin's conviction by a jury made up of Bean's hangers-on (with the undertaker, played with low-key comic zeal by Charles Halton, waiting eagerly for the verdict and the hanging) seems certain, despite his contention that he bought the horse from another man, until Hardin recognizes the judge's obsession with the English actress Lily Langtry. Hardin feigns having seen, met, and known Miss Langtry intimately, and he cons the judge into delaying the death sentence until Hardin can send for a lock of the actress' hair that he supposedly has in El Paso -- that's long enough for the real horse thief (Tom Tyler) to show up and get killed.

By the time the dust settles, the judge, for all of his warped sense of justice and corrupt nature, finds himself genuinely liking Hardin as something of a kindred spirit, as bold and daring as he was in his youth, and feeling something like friendship for him. But Bean also tries to shoot Hardin when he decides to cast his lot with the homesteaders, led by Jane-Ellen Mathews (Doris Davenport) and her father, Caliphet (Fred Stone), who have been fighting for survival against Bean and his cattle-rancher allies every step of the way. Hardin tries to appeal to the better nature within the judge, and also saves him from an attempted lynching, but when that fails, and a corn crop is burned and Mr. Mathews killed, he sees no choice but to take action. He gets an arrest warrant sworn out and is deputized by the county sheriff. Taking Bean in his saloon or anywhere in his town (renamed Langtry by the judge, in honor of the actress) is impossible, but then it's announced that Lily Langtry will be appearing in Texas, a long day's ride away from Bean's stronghold. The judge, dressed in his full Civil War regalia and with his men in tow, rides to see the performance while Hardin gets ready to try and arrest him. The kind of climactic shoot-out that follows has been done to death in the decades since, but it was something new and revelatory in a Western in 1940, and still plays beautifully on a dramatic level, capturing in full the complexity of the relationship between these two antagonists. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Controversy over ancient Spanish land grants takes center stage in this exciting George O'Brien Western from RKO. Presented with an obviously phony survey, Don Aliso del Campo (Lucio Villegas) resists rancher John Courtney's (LeRoy Mason) demands that he vacate the ancestral range. Knocked unconscious in the ensuing struggle, Aliso recovers to learn that he has become the prime suspect in Courtney's murder. Smelling a rat, trouble shooter Wade Benton (O'Brien) cons dim-witted henchman Rance Potter (Glenn Strange) into revealing that Dan Wallace (William Royle), the Courtney foreman, killed his employer in order to marry the dead man's sister (Mary Field) and take over the property. With Don Aliso in hiding, Benton goes in search of evidence that will convict Wallace and his gang of thugs for the murder of Courtney. The Fighting Gringo was filmed at Chatsworth, CA. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The stunningly beautiful Lupita Tovar stars in the Mexican drama El Traidor. The storyline, however, is carried by Jose Bohr, who also wrote and directed. Bohr plays a crusading crime fighter, dedicated to bring a gang of dope peddlers to justice. Somewhere among Bohr's circle of friends is a traitor, equally dedicated to allowing the crooks to escape scot-free. Featured in the cast is Argentine leading man Barry Norton, whose starring career in the U.S. had dwindled to bit parts due to his inability to master the English language. Energetically directed, El Traidor suffers from murky cinematography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a wealthy but inept yachtsman (Buster Keaton) sails to Spain and goes looking for love in all the wrong places when a conniving seductress steals his heart. ~ 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

The first of three Richard Talmadge productions released by J.D. Trop's Capital Film Exchange, this minor Western came complete with two songs, "My Gringo" and "Caballero Song." Talmadge played Dick Carsey, a young New Yorker hired to lead a pipeline through land belonging to Mexican landowner Don Juan (Julian Rivero). Unbeknownst to Dick, construction foreman Tenny (Gayne Whitman) is hoping Don Juan will shoot him for trespassing, an act which will send the don to jail and allow Tenny free access to the land. But Carsey, who has fallen in love with Don Juan's feisty daughter, Juanita (Lupita Tovar), switches sides and instead helps defend the ranch. A veteran stunt man and a protegee of Douglas Fairbanks, Dick Talmadge survived the changeover to sound despite a rather unprepossessing vocal ability and would continue to star in his own productions until 1936. He later functioned as second-unit director on such films as Circus World (1963) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

One of the most frequently telecast films of the 1950s and 1960s, East of Borneo stars Rose Hobart as Linda, the wife of African missionary Dr. Clark (Charles Bickford). Feeling stifled by her unfamiliar surroundings, Linda is further isolated from civilization when her husband runs off into the jungle, believing that his wife has been unfaithful. With grim determination, our heroine heads into the wilds herself in search of Clark, braving all manner of marauding wildlife and human predators. When she finally catches up with her husband, she finds he's been living in comparative luxury as court physician of the Prince of Marudu (Georges Renavent). The End? Not quite -- we've still got a volcano in the offing! East of Borneo achieved latter-day fame when an avant-garde filmmaker got hold of a print of the film, spliced together all of the leading lady's close-ups, and came up with a surrealistic exercise titled Rose Hobart. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Emmett J. Flynn had directed everyone from William S. Hart to Laurel and Hardy by the time he wielded the megaphone for his first talkie, The Veiled Woman. The title character is Nanon (Lia Tora) who, in flashback, cautions a virginal young woman (Lupita Tovar) from trodding the primrose path in life. While working as a roulette girl in the gambling house owned by her lover Pierre (Paul Vincenti), Nanon accidentally kills a man and takes a run-out powder. Later on, Nanon marries a respectable socialite, only to lose her husband when he learns about her unsavory past. Her tale told, Nanon is unexpectedly reunited with Pierre, now making an honest living as a cab driver.The Veiled Woman was also filmed in French- and Spanish-language versions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide