Lupe Velez fans will enjoy this minor musical in which the gal plays two roles, a recent arrival to New York named Rita, and her lookalike cousin, Maria, who is a Broadway musical star calling herself Elaine. The cousin has hidden the fact that she's married and pregnant from the producer, so Rita takes over her role while Maria goes off to have the baby. Things get amusingly complicated when the husband shows up without knowing the switch, not to mention two other guys who are interested in either Rita or Maria. Lewis Wilson, the first actor to play Batman, is in the cast, as is Gerald Mohr. Co-star Michael Duane is easily out-acted and out-personality-ed by Velez, who sings not too badly, dances well, and seems to be having a lot of fun. If you enjoy the Mexican Spitfire films you may get a minor bang out of this.
2 Reviews
Doubling your Lupe, but less of a spitfire.
mark.waltz23 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers
The year before her tragic suicide, the fireball Lupe Velez tried to lighten her image a bit after four years of the "Mexican Spitfire" series at RKO by appearing in this Columbia B musical playing twin cousins, 20 years before Patty Duke did. While she can get angry, she's far from the stereotype of her previous characters, one here a Broadway star desperate to save her marriage and the other the cousin new in town who agrees to take over the role in the show so the star can have a nice rest, having just discovered that she'spregnant. But neither the husband of the star nor the cousin's saxophone playing boyfriend (who ends up in the show's orchestra) know what's going on, a bizarre situation for the stage husband since he's unknowingly in the family way. Unrealistic twists makes the secret all the more difficult to keep, and the poor men (Tim Ryan and Gerald Mohr) become rivals in both certain that the other is after their girl.
A few decent musical numbers adds to the spark of the film, as does Lupe's reference to Carmen Miranda. Basically just a passable programmer, mainly for Velez fans, minus the fun slapstick of the "Mexican Spitfire" series. Velez seems to be influenced by the antics of Leon Errol in those eight B comedies, but the antics of Errol in those films usually upstaged Velez. The result is a ridiculous comedy of mass confusion where the ongoing war adds suspicions on both women as possible saboteurs. As required by Hollywood law, this ends with a patriotic finale, using cliched lyrics and the standard choreography that dozens of B musicals were overloaded with. Not hideous, but pretty silly stuff, even though Velez gives her all, trying to emulate Eleanor Powell, Ann Miller and Betty Hutton, but just coming off as barely passable outside of the high comedy the script provides.
A few decent musical numbers adds to the spark of the film, as does Lupe's reference to Carmen Miranda. Basically just a passable programmer, mainly for Velez fans, minus the fun slapstick of the "Mexican Spitfire" series. Velez seems to be influenced by the antics of Leon Errol in those eight B comedies, but the antics of Errol in those films usually upstaged Velez. The result is a ridiculous comedy of mass confusion where the ongoing war adds suspicions on both women as possible saboteurs. As required by Hollywood law, this ends with a patriotic finale, using cliched lyrics and the standard choreography that dozens of B musicals were overloaded with. Not hideous, but pretty silly stuff, even though Velez gives her all, trying to emulate Eleanor Powell, Ann Miller and Betty Hutton, but just coming off as barely passable outside of the high comedy the script provides.
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