Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Knowing that Rouben Mamoulian, one of the great film directors of the Twentieth Century (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Love Me Tonight, Queen Christina, Golden Boy,...), had directed this not widely known film and being the Musical Genre on of my favorites, I always had an "eye" on this movie.
I'd define "The Gay Desperado" as a wonderful and entertaining spoof with musical interludes, set in the Mexican Border, where the notorious, funny, charming bandit Pedro Braganza (who's a music fan, very funnily played by Leo Carrillo) and his gang try to imitate the American gangsters' "modern ways", kidnapping a singer (Chivo, played by Nino Martini) in the process.
I must note that Nino Martini is the only member of the cast who actually sings, profusely, in the film, getting to sing some popular Mexican songs and an Operatic Aria among others.
Martini has an impressive voice (you can tell he was a real Opera singer from the Met) and a mischievously charming personality. Leo Carrillo more or less steals the film as the florid leader of the Mexican bandits with an "ear for music". Very funny performances too by Harold Huber as Carrillo's more serious sidekick and by great character actor Mischa Auer (of "My Man Godfrey" and "You Can't Take it With You" fame), who impersonates a silent native (almost a "Buster Keatonish" character) who's part of the gang too.
Ida Lupino is very good (before her later "Warner Bros. Screen Persona") as an American girl who has just eloped to get married in Mexico to a rather wishy-washy, stiff fiancé, getting both to meet Carrillo's gang face to face.
Great cinematography, pace, mood and dialogue (IMHO this is no "ordinary" musical) in a beautifully restored transfer (IMAGE made a great job).
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