Fiesta (1941) User Reviews

Adorable Armida!!!!

[kidboots · 4/10 · 24 September 2008]

Obviously at 45 minutes it was only going to be a bottom feature for double bills and also served to introduce Anne Ayars to film audiences. At 22 she looked a lot older, which is probably why she didn't make much of a splash. She featured in "Dr. Kildare's Victory" and "Apache Trail" but only made a few films. She played Cholita, but was outshone by the dazzling Armida as Cuca. Armida was a beautiful Mexican dancer who's early credits include a sultry dance in "The Show of Shows" (1929). Another supporting player to watch was Antonio Moreno as Cholita's uncle, Don Hernandez. He had a huge career starting with bit parts in early Biograph films. His most famous role was as the stuffy boss in "It". When talkies came in he made a number of Spanish language films. He looks very dashing in "Fiesta".

Cholita (Anne Ayers) returns to Mexico with her fiancé, pompous radio singer Fernando Gomez (George Givot in a performance that is little more than a caricature). He is a fortune hunter and switches his attentions to Cuca when he thinks she is rich.

The Technicolor is there to showcase the vivid Mexican dances of which the film has plenty. Cuca sings and dances to a spirited song "Never Trust a Jumping Bean". Cholita sings "I'll Never Forget Fiesta" and the beautiful "La Golondrina".

It's so short, it's sweet!

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 22 October 2010]

Remember when W.C. Fields, introducing twins, claimed that one was the world's largest midget, and the other was the world's shortest giant? Well, this film could be called either the cinema's longest short, or the cinema's shortest feature, take your pick. And it's actually pretty good. It's all about a young girl who returns from Mexico City with her new fiancé, only to have her old boyfriend, who has been waiting for her to return, try to scare the pompous man off. Yes, it all happens in less than 50 minutes, and includes several fun musical numbers including the silly but entertaining "What do you do with a jumping bean?", as well as several numbers in Spanish.

Throw in some colorful costumes and houses that look like the Munchkinland set from "The Wizard of Oz" and add on some nice color photography (which resembles the MGM Travel Talks series), and you have a pleasant little musical feature. The cast is pretty adequate, but the choreography by LeRoy Prinz is most memorable. Anne Ayres is about as realistic as a Mexican girl as Charleton Heston was as a Mexican man in "A Touch of Evil". The stereotypes of the pleasant peasants, people of such good nature that they have to force themselves to lie in order to go to confession, and then go back to confession to confess that they lied about lying, is rather silly. Some of the comical moments seem a bit forced, but what else can you expect in a Hal Roach comedy? Simply enjoy the music and the color.

Is It A Short Or a Feature?

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 2 May 2007]

Fiesta with a running time of only 43 minutes seems to fall in a never never land of film classification. Not long enough to be a feature film and too long for a short subject. It's strictly an academic question because I doubt this film would have qualified for any awards.

It barely has a plot in it and what little it does concerns young Anne Ayars bringing home radio star George Givot for guardian/uncle Antonio Moreno's approval. Givot is certainly not the hero his publicity makes him out to be and Jorge Negrette spend what little time between songs and dances proving it so and winning Ayars.

If you watch Fiesta you're not watching it for any story, but to enjoy the musical numbers. Latin American music was at the time making one of its periodic bursts of popularity at the time Fiesta was made and the film is an attempt to cash in on that as well.

The numbers are nice, but you can hear and see the same thing watching Desi Arnaz do an occasional number on I Love Lucy.

Somewhat Bland Musical Comedy

[Snow Leopard · 18 June 2002]

This somewhat bland musical comedy isn't anything special, although as light entertainment it is at least watchable. The story revolves around some romantic tangle-ups that happen during a Mexican "Fiesta", but there's not really much depth to the story or the characters. Fernando is mildly interesting, but the rest of the characters are one-dimensional, and for the most part the cast does not succeed in getting much out of them. They wisely kept the running time short, and devoted a lot of it to the musical numbers. Since it was filmed in color, they must have had high hopes for it. And there are parts of it that are entertaining, but overall there's not enough for it to be of more than casual interest.

Hollywood's idea of Mexico...

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 20 November 2015]

In the late 30s and early 40s, the Hal Roach Studio switched from making comedy shorts to longer-length B-movies. Most were about an hour long, though I have no idea why "Fiesta" is only 45. Regardless, it's a strange Hollywood version of life in the Mexican countryside--one that is very sanitized and full of happy peasants and singing.

When the film begins, the big boss-man of the town announces a fiesta because his daughter, Cholita (Ann Ayars) is returning. However, everyone is a bit surprised when she shows up with a fiancé-- especially since poor Jose thought she was his. Soon this fiancé proves to be a real drip so Jose decides to play a trick on him and pretends to be a bandit. Can he possibly win back Cholita or is the woman destined to be married to a haughty jerk?

This is a musical with a rather thin plot. The opening number is very nice but I had no idea what they were singing about as it was in Spanish. The second number, however, was awful, as the woman singing lead had a voice high pitched enough to cause dogs to bark and glass to explode! Apart from this, the rest of the songs are okay and the film a mildly entertaining affair if you have very low standards and expectations. Kind of like silly fluff, really.

Tinny Technicolor Trifle

[richardchatten · 5/10 · 25 June 2017]

Shot on just the one set crowded with sombreros and flamenco dresses, this tinny studio-bound Hal Roach streamliner is very much a throwback to the early Technicolor musicals 'La Cucuracha' (1934) and 'Dancing Pirate' (1936), and further back still to the concluding Technicolor portion of the 1929 'Rio Rita'.

Despite singing a song with the preposterous title "Never Trust a Jumping Bean", of the two femmes the tiny Armida far outshines top-billed opera star Anne Ayars (who looks considerably older than Armida despite being seven years younger). And Armida has two ranches!

There's very little plot to speak of, although a brief comic interlude when a character falls into a tub of flour and is taken to be a ghost reminds us that this is a Hal Roach production.

The first 45 minute color musical?

[ptb-8 · 7/10 · 9 March 2006]

The funniest thing about this colorful teeny weeny delicious pinyata of a musical is that it is 45 minutes... and it is quite funny anyway.. The best thing about it is the incredible color...Technicolor...and eye-popping art direction. It is exquisite to watch. The story? ...remember this is a 45 minute movie now.... someone turns up at the fiesta with some radio bozo and the village decides to get rid of him so she can marry someone who loves her. This takes 44 minutes. Inbetween opening and closing doors there is what seems like 55 songs and an incredible amount of parading and twirling about in the village square...which is the one big set...with rooms and doors and verandas from each side. In fact it looks exactly like the wonderful style of 20s cinemas designed by John Eberson called Atmospherics which looked like a Spanish courtyard complete with steps and balconies and a twinkling cobalt blue sky with stars overhead. Made independently in 1940, FIESTA is a charming situation comedy for rural audiences in delicious color and with authentic looking costumes of an infinitely beautiful variety. I would easily say this film is one of the most beautiful early color films yet seen... if you have seen MGM's $3 million dollar YOLANDA AND THE THIEF made in 1945 or THE PIRATE in 1948, or other as expensive big studio lush fantasy films, this small budget pic is easily as spectacular in its modest way. I have never seen the colour 30s pix LA CUCURACHA or THE DANCING PIRATE but I would suggest this lovely dance musical belongs in that bracket of tech productions. I would certainly say it was made for country and suburban audiences. What it lacks in running time it makes up for in lavish screen detail. It's not about much, but who cares? it is absolutely gorgeous to see and funny to boot. Kids would love it. 45 minutes!

Technicolor explosion

[mart-45 · 7/10 · 24 July 2006]

This film probably would be of very, very little interest, were it not shot in colour. At least you can enjoy the magical reds and blues that have never been seen again since Technicolor process was replaced with cheaper and inferior ones. Amazingly enough, even as we are people from the 21st century, and are soon to celebrate Technicolor's one hundredth birthday (it began in 1917 with The Gulf Between, first two-strip Technicolor feature which has not survived), we still manage to be raptured by colour in these early films - especially if these only run for 45 minutes. The film features almost no plot, but at least a dozen songs - not bad ones - and the opportunity to see Anne Ayres, who a few years later became the leading lyrical soprano in the Metropolitain and returned to the screen only in 1951, when he was cast as Antonia in Tales of Hoffmann. Incidentally, she was the only woman in that film who actually lip-synced to her own voice. Her acting style is very sober and unassuming, so you might want to check out her other screen appearances.

Fiesta (1941)

[crumpta · 19 October 2014]

Ran across this little movie by accident...What caught my eye was the billing of "George Negrete"....I had to watch it to see if that turned out to be Jorge Negrete. It did, and being a huge fan of his singing...well, I had to watch it. He was a really big star in that era in Mexico....I have several of his movies, and as many of his albums I could find. It's a simple movie...minimal plot....very much like an American copy of the style of Mexican movies of that era. A lot of inaccurate mixing of music, dress and accents, but still an amusing comedy with some pretty decent music....and pretty short, so it never really gets boring.

Fiesta feast!

[estherwalker-34710 · 7/10 · 11 August 2021]

I decided to watch the 1947 Esther Williams film "Fiesta" at YouTube. But, after a while, I realized that someone had duped me. This wasn't the right movie! Upon further investigation, I discovered that Hal Roach had produced a 45 min. Technicolor1941 film also called "Fiesta", and that this is what I had been watching! I still haven't seen the '47 film, but from summaries, I doubt that it is so dominated by a supposedly 3 day non-stop fiesta, with occasional interludes to feature the principle actors talking and furthering the plot...............I was introduced to 3 famous singers or dancers, 2 born in Mexico, the other an American. The latter is Ann Ayars, trained as an opera singer. In this, her first, Hollywood film, she is the lead female: Cholita, niece of Uncle Antonia, who owns this apparently very large estancia(on a Roach sound stage): Rancho las Flores., with its many inhabitants milling about. Ann would have a very limited film career, mostly exploiting her musical talent elsewhere. In the film, she sings several numbers, including the classic "La Golindrina", composed by a Mexican doctor and composer during the Mexican civil war of the 1860s. Near the film end, she sings a duet with famous Mexican actor and singer Jorge Negrete, as Jose, while they are dancing, symbolically cementing their renewed romantic relationship, after Cholita broke up with her boyfriend Fernando, whom she acquired while studying in Mexico City. ........... Jorge also sings a solo before the fiesta begins, presumably about his anticipation of Cholita returning from Mexico City, which she shortly does. Later, he serenades Cholita while she is locked in a cage, after he kidnaped her from the estancia, masquerading as a bandit leader............. Then, there is the cute, petite , Armida: a famous Mexican singer and dancer, as the second lead female. She takes the name Cuca, which translates into English as vagina. She leads the singing and dancing in the long musical production about 'jumping beans'. As Cholita gradually switches back from Fernando to Jose as her paramour, Cuca quickly latches onto Fernando, who is at least a foot taller than she, and robust. She sneaks into his limo when he leaves for Mexico City, he having been unable to convince Cholita to leave with him. Fernando is played by American George Civot, who had a background as a comedian and actor.. Some reviewers dismiss him, but I thought he had good charisma..............In all, a fun 45 min. For me. In contrast to some reviewers, who state the film has no plot to speak of, it does have a romantic conflict plot sandwiched between all the gaiety.