Lupe Velez Movies

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

Even allowing for the comparative freedom of the pre-Production Code years, 1930's Hell Harbor was pretty strong meat for its time. The story is set on a remote Caribbean island, entirely populated by descendants of Sir Henry Morgan's pirate crew. Morgan's brutish great-great-grandson Henry Morgan (Gibson Gowland) intends to shower himself with gold and to that end forces his daughter Anita (Lupe Velez) into a marriage with despicable moneylender Joseph Horngold (Jean Hersholt). Coming to Anita's rescue is shipwrecked American sailor Bob Wade (John Holland), whose presence sparks an unchecked riot on the island. The film's most chilling scene finds Morgan. Director Henry King also produced the film through his own Inspiration Pictures Corporation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey's final film is far from their best, but at least it never plunges to the depths reached by their earlier Silly Billies and Mummy's Boys. Adapted from an unproduced stage play called The Kangaroos, High Flyers casts Bert and Bob as Jerry Lane and Pierre Potkins, operators of an amusement park kiddie-airplane concession. Newspaperman Dave Hanlon (Jack Carson) persuades the boys to fly out to sea to pick up a life preserver which purportedly contains precious photos taken by Hanlon of the British Royal Family. What our heroes don't know is that Hanlon is head of a gang of smugglers, and that the preserver contains stolen jewels and a cache of drugs. But what Hanlon doesn't know is that, despite their boasts, Jerry and Pierre have never flown a real plane in their lives. Upon scooping up the preserver, the boys accidentally open a package of cocaine powder, whereupon they become really high flyers (how this scene got past the censors is astonishing). They crash-land in the backyard of wealthy Horace Arlington (Paul Harvey), who fears that there's a sneak thief at large on his property (actually the "crook" is Arlington's pet dog). Assuming that Jerry and Pierre are the private eyes, he's summoned to his estate to protect the priceless Markoff Diamonds. Arlington gives the boys full reign over the household, allowing Jerry to romance Arlington's daughter Arlene (Marjorie Lord) and Pierre to spoon with household maid Maria (Lupe Velez). Things get really hectic when Hanlon and his fellow thieves converge on the Arlington household, demanding that Jerry and Pierre help them steal the Markoff gems -- or else. The whole mess is viewed with alarm by Arlington's eccentric wife Martha (Margaret Dumont), who fancies herself a fortune-teller. There are isolated moments in High Flyers that rank with Wheeler and Woolsey's best, notably Bert Wheeler's imitation of Charlie Chaplin and Bob Woolsey's song-and-dance duet with Lupe Velez. Also fascinating in a bizarre sort of way are Velez's impressions of Simone Simon, Dolores Del Rio, and Shirley Temple! All in all, however, High Flyers is a stilted, mechanical effort, garnering the team some of their worst reviews. Whether or not Wheeler and Woolsey would have been retained by RKO after the lukewarm box-office reception to this film is a moot point: Gravely ill with kidney disease, Robert Woolsey was confined to his bed after the film wrapped, where he remained until his death 14 months later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While in Hawaii, Velez begins the film as a risque nightclub act and due to her involvement with a group of sailors becomes a beauty queen. ~ 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

Lupe Velez is "The Mexican Spitfire" in everything but name in the frantic baseball farce Ladies Day. Eddie Albert plays Wacky Waters, star pitcher of the Sox, a league-leading contender for the World Series. Alas, whenever Wacky falls in love, his game suffers-and so do the wives of his teammates, who are counting on that Series bonus money. When Wacky marries vivacious movie star Pepita Zorita (Velez), the wives, led by Hazel Jones (Patsy Kelly), take drastic action, kidnapping Pepita and hiding her out in a hotel room. But Pepita manages to wriggle out of the hotel towels that bind and gag, disguise herself as a bellboy, and head to the ballpark during the Big Game. Fortunately, Pepita turns out to be Wacky's prime motivation for winning the Series, and there's a happy ending for one and all. Pretty lame as far as baseball films go, Ladies Day will be best appreciated by fans of Lupe Velez and Patsy Kelly, who never speak when shouting will do. ~ Hal Erickson, 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

In this third of RKO's "Mexican Spitfire" series, star Lupe Velez doesn't get any further west than Reno, Nevada. Lupe feels that her straightlaced husband (Donald Woods) is neglecting her, and thus seeks a divorce. Reliable old Uncle Matt (Leon Errol) shows up to straighten things out, which means that for the umpteenth time in this series he'll disguise himself as the veddy British Lord Epping. Before everything straightens itself out, Uncle Matt finds himself in dutch with his own wife. We all know that Lupe and her hubby will get together: otherwise there wouldn't be a fourth "Mexican Spitfire" picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first "Mexican Spitfire" entry of 1942, Mexican Spitfire at Sea is set mainly on a Hawaii-bound ocean liner. Combining business with pleasure, vacationing advertsing man Dennis (Charles "Buddy" Rogers) hopes to sign a contract with a wealthy client. Alas, these plans are scotched by the well-meaning idiocies of Dennis' peppery spouse Carmelita (Lupe Velez), and by a whole flock of Dennis' relatives who have invited themselves along for the voyage. Once again, it's up to Dennis' Uncle Matt (Leon Errol) to save the day-which inevitably requires old Matt to disguise himself as his British lookalike Lord Epping. Marion Martin, the blonde bombshell who'd caused so much trouble in the previous series entry Mexican Spitfire's Baby (1941), is seen in a minor role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

RKO brought its "Mexican Spitfire" saga to a close with the eighth film in the series, Mexican Spitfire's Blessed Event. Lupe Velez is back again in the leading role, as is Leon Errol as disguise-happy Uncle Matt, but Velez's husband is now played by Walter Reed. When Lupe purchases a baby ocelot while on vacation, she sends a fractured-English telegram that leads everyone to believe that she's become a mother. Somehow this is tied in with her husband's big business deal with whisky manufacturer Lord Epping, who for the purposes of the plot twists is a dead ringer for Uncle Matt. 63 minutes later, it's all over. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Perhaps hoping to emulate the Hollywood success of his arch-rival Walter Winchell, New York gossip columnist Ed Sullivan starred in the cheaply produced musical hodgepodge Mr. Broadway. As stiff and unsmiling as he'd be on his much-later TV series, Sullivan appears as himself, taking the viewer on a guided tour of Manhattan's night life. He visits three of the more famous clubs, the Paradise, the Hollywood and the Casino. Among the celebrities seen at work and play in this "rilly big shew" are entertainers Bert Lahr, Hal LeRoy, Joe Frisco, Ruth Etting, Blossom Seeley, Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Gus Edwards, Jack Haley, Eddy Duchin and Abe Lyman; and sports figures Jack Dempsey, Primo Carnera, Tony Canzoneri and Maxie Rosenbloom. At the film's three-quarter mark, Ed tells the viewer that there's a broken light for every heart on Broadway, whereupon the film segues into a corny dramatic sketch involving a stolen necklace. In later years, Ed Sullivan did his best to hide the existence of Mr. Broadway, but bootlegged prints continued to surface, providing future audiences with a fascinating (if poorly photographed) encapsulation of a bygone era. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the popular comic strip by Ham Fisher, this fast-paced and funny boxing outing follows the exploits of a boxing manager and the up-and-coming fighter he mentors to. The film is also known as Joe Palooka. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Substantially, Lupe Velez' Columbia vehicle Redhead from Manhattan was the same as her previous RKO starrers-boisterous, unsubtle, and immensely profitable. La Lupe plays a dual role, as twin sisters named Rita and Elaine. Escaping from a torpedoed ship, Rita shows up in New York, where she takes the place of her Broadway-star sister Elaine, who's having problems with her marriage and needs to make a short but quick getaway. Naturally, neither Elaine's husband (Gerald Mohr) nor Rita's saxophone-player boyfriend (Michael Duane) are aware of the switch. Anyone who can't figure out what happens next should be drummed out of the theater in disgrace. And as always, a little of Lupe Velez goes a long, long way. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide