Lupe Velez Movies

Douglas Fairbanks' The Gaucho is a curiosity: a traditional Fairbanks actioner with decidedly unsavory, unpleasant and uncharacteristic overtones. For the first time in his career, Fairbanks plays what would have been a villainous role in anyone else's film: An outlaw leader who exploits religion for his own nefarious purposes. As the unofficial leader of Miracle City, Fairbanks laughs aloud as the faithful flock to the shrine of the Madonna: he knows that, once they've left, he can claim the pitiful alms they've left behind. Eventually, however, Fairbanks experiences a religious conversion, thanks in part to the love of a good woman and in great part to a deus-ex-machina appearance by the Madonna Herself (portrayed, unbilled, by Fairbanks' wife Mary Pickford). A subplot involving leprosy and suicide adds to the overall discomforting tone of the film. Despite its lapses in taste, The Gaucho amassed a fortune for Fairbanks, who in 1928 could do no wrong at the box office. Lupe Velez makes her first major film appearance as a lusty mountain girl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Star Lon Chaney Sr. and director Tod Browning bade adieu to the silent-movie era with 1929's Where East is East. His face covered with hideous scars (convincingly applied with nonflexible collodion), Chaney is cast as weather-beaten animal trapper Tiger Haynes, at present living and working in Indochina. Haynes' loving relationship with his nubile half-caste daughter Toyo (Lupe Velez) is threatened by the return of Toyo's scheming mother, Madame Da Sylva (Estelle Taylor). Still harboring a grudge against Tiger, the Madame decides to get even by stealing Toyo's sweetheart Bobby (Lloyd Hughes) away from her. The villainess also intends to destroy Haynes by turning his animal "pets" against him. But the Madame is herself destroyed by Haynes' loyal gorilla, who in a gruesome (but largely unseen) finale tears the viperish woman apart. A typically morbid entry in the Chaney-Browning series, Where East is East may elicit more laughs than chills when seen today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If Hollywood gossip columnists can be believed, Gary Cooper and Lupe Velez were lovers -- and very passionate ones -- when they co-starred in Paramount's Wolf Song. Cooper is cast as Sam Lash, a fur trapper with a randy reputation when it comes to women. But when Sam meets tempestuous Mexican damsel Lola Salazar (Velez), he falls deeply in love for the first time in his life. Lola's aristocratic father Don Solomon (Michael Vavitch) disapproves of the romance, forcing Sam to kidnap the girl and high-tail it to the mountains. After a brief period of marital contentment, Sam gets restless and leaves Lola, preferring the company of his trapper pals Gullion (Louis Wolheim) and Rube (Constantin Romanoff). But he relents and returns to his bride -- making short work of his bitter enemy, Indian leader Black Wolf (George Rigas). Completed as a silent film, Wolf Song was released as a part-talkie by virtue of the inclusion of three songs, two performed by Lupe Velez and one by radio crooner Russ Columbo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romance, men board "The Love Boat" (no, not the TV boat) and set sail for China with the hope of buying a Chinese bride. The hero disembarks and immediately finds himself in the midst of an auction of women. There he spies a beautiful girl being sold by her father. The hero saves her. She is taken to San Francisco by a friendly elder. In San Francisco, she immediately snubbed by the local elite. Her old guardian sells her to the Chop Suey King. The hero finds her, rescues her and proposes. His socially prominent family is firmly against the match. The day is saved when the girl discovers that she is not really Chinese. She was only raised by a Chinese family after her missionary parents were murdered. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this romantic adventure, a feisty young woman (Velez) toys with the affections of a railroad worker (Withers) and a Mountie (Blue). She ends up with Withers and decides to accompany him to the city. Unfortunately, the other workers around her do not want her to go. As the lovers try to flee, Withers kills a man and the Mountie and his pal Rin Tin Tin begin their pursuit. The murderous duo end up shooting a dangerous river rapids and nearly losing their lives. In the end the Mountie lets the lovers go to find their happiness. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Three years before Sam Goldwyn's overpublicized Anna Sten vehicle We Live Again, Leo Tolstoy's Resurrection was filmed under its original title by Universal (it had previously been filmed no fewer than times, most recently with Dolores Del Rio and Rod LaRocque in 1926). Set in 19th-century Russia, this is the story of innocent peasant girl Katusha (Lupe Velez), who is seduced and abandoned by the dashing Prince Dmitri (John Boles). Disgraced in the eyes of everyone, Katusha descends into prostitution, while Dmitri's reputation remains unbesmirched. When the former lovers are brought together by chance years later, Dmitri magnanimously suggests that Katusha redeem herself by embracing the Church, but she spurns his empty piety. Eventually, however, she finds God and is able to turn herself around -- and even forgive the self-righteous Dmitri. In addition to We Live Again, Resurrection would be filmed twice more, once in a 1934 Spanish-language version with Gilbert Roland, and again in 1963 by Soviet director Mikhail Shveister. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A broad lampoon of celebrity worship, The Half-Naked Truth stars Lee Tracy as a carnival huckster and Lupe Velez as a "kootch" dancer. Reaching for the moon, Tracy passes Lupe off as an exotic foreign princess--and manages to pull the wool over the eyes of all Manhattan. Now "famous for being famous", Lupe is employed for special appearances by Ziegfeldish impresario Frank Morgan. When the fraud is revealed to the world, Tracy returns to the carnival, with Lupe (who's loved him since Reel One) at his side. Half-Naked Truth co-stars Eugene Pallette as Tracy's assistant; the bullfrog-voiced Pallette has a wonderful moment in which he discovers that he's been mistaken for "Princess" Lupe's head eunuch! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A remake of West of Zanibar, this strange, gut-wrenching melodrama set in the African jungles, offers a disturbing portrait of a bitter, crippled and insane megalomaniac who vents his rage via mental torture against all those who get too near. Walter Huston plays the madman who lost the use of his legs during a battle with his nemesis Gordon. The accident happened many years ago and since then Huston has dragged himself about in his jungle home making the lives of those around him waking nightmares. He has terrified the local tribesmen into total submission with his knowledge deadly voodoo (he tells them guns are magical instruments). He is even crueler to his fellow Anglos. A young white woman comes to visit one day. Believing her to be the daughter of his arch rival Gordon, he gleefully embarks upon a heavy reign of psychological abuse until the poor girl is nearly destroyed. For more fun, he gets a new doctor addicted to drugs and of course he can also torment the woman who loves him, Velez. The horror continues until Gordon suddenly shows up. Vengeful Huston quickly picks a fight and during the ensuing struggle Gordon tells Huston a bitter truth, one that leads Huston to a horrible realization. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a pair of ex-Marines team up and get involved in a nightclub.Trouble ensues when they both fall in love with a feisty woman and begin fighting over her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

There were very few laughs in this phlegmatic film adaptation of the Oliver LaFarge's Pulitzer Prize winning novel Laughing Boy. The title character is a young and impressionable Native American, played by Ramon Novarro. Laughing Boy marries Slim Girl (Lupe Velez), a fellow tribesperson who had previously been led into a life of sin and debauchery by libidinous white men. She persuades her husband to leave his tribe and move to the big city, ostensibly to improve his chances of selling his hand-made silver jewelry. In truth, however, Slim Girl is interested only in staying close to her white lover. When Laughing Boy realizes he's being cuckolded, he grabs his bow and arrow to seek revenge, but finds only tragedy instead. Despite the eminently censurable elements in Laughing Boy, including one scene that was hastily edited out just before its general release, the Hays Office found fault only with the film's negative depiction of government Indian agents! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hollywood Party was planned as a lavish, star-studded MGM musical titled Hollywood Revue of 1933. Under the less-than-sterling guidance of "kicked upstairs" MGM producer Harry Rapf, production dragged on interminably, using up the talents of five directors (none of whom were credited) and seven writers. The "all star" cast lineup slowly dwindled down to comparatively inexpensive contract players Jimmy Durante and Jack Pearl (radio's Baron Munchhausen) and a passel of non-MGM personalities. The final product wove a goofy story about The Great Schnarzan (Durante), a jungle-movie star whose films are suffering at the box office because his lions are anemic. Schnarzan schemes to purchase several healthy lions from Baron Munchhausen; to get the baron into a bargaining mood, Schnarzan throws a huge Hollywood party in Munchhausen's honor. Liondora (George Givot), Schnarzan's "hated rival", hopes to purchase the Baron's lions for himself, and crashes the party disguised as a Greek Baron. Also figuring into the plot are the members of the Klemp family (Charles Butterworth, Polly Moran and June Clyde), who are filthy rich and thus quite attractive to both Schnarzan and Liondora; poor-but-honest Eddie Quillan, who romances the Klemp's daughter; and Schnarzan's ex-girlfriend Lupe Velez, who shows up at the party in an astonishingly revealing gown for the express purpose of making trouble. In an amusing animated sequence courtesy of Walt Disney, Mickey Mouse introduces the Technicolor musical exploits of "The Hot Chocolate Soldiers." Shortly before the end, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy make a welcome appearance as a pair of lion-farm owners who wish to collect a debt from Baron Munchhausen. This segues into the classic egg-breaking sequence involving Stan, Ollie, and Lupe Velez. Now we've reached the 65 minute mark, with no logical ending in sight. Director Allan Dwan, brought into the project at the last minute, took a look at the existing footage and declared "It's a nightmare!" Inspired, Dwan directed a closing sequence which suggested that the whole plot had been dreamed by Jimmy Durante; Durante is wakened from his slumbers by his wife--played by Mrs. Jimmy Durante. Hollywood Party makes no sense at all, but it's a must for comedy lovers and 1930s film buffs. Don't miss that opening number, written by Rodgers and Hart and performed by Frances Williams and a chorus of barely dressed telephone operators; and keep an eye peeled for a lengthy uncredited appearance by the Three Stooges. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this racy comedy, a harem girl desiring to escape her life, stows away on the boat of a wealthy archaeologist as it sails for England where the young nobleman is slated to receive a large inheritance. He soon finds her, and she pleads with him to let her go on to England where she has a few relatives. He agrees, and then allows her to stay at his home during her search. It is not long before they fall in love. Unfortunately, a friend of the archaeologist tells the girl that her lover cannot possibly marry her. The distressed girl run away to Paris with an oily womanizer. Soon her true love follows to save her. He finds her singing in a cafe. He also learns that she and the gigolo were not together long. Casting notions of social convention to the wind, the nobleman asks for her hand. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide