1h 30min | Drama, Sport | 6 October 1950
Director: John Sturges
Stars: June Allyson, Dick Powell, Ricardo Montalban, Lionel Barrymore.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042894/
Watched online, ok print for small screen.
DP/JA have been married since '45. This is the 3rd of 4 films together.
Watched because Marilyn Monroe was in the cast. She makes a brief appearance. Just a pretty girl, nicely dressed (suit), not at all her future persona, which so far she displayed most of in Love Happy ('49) with Groucho. (I'm going to skip the next MM film, The Fireball (1950), starring Mickey Rooney, subject roller derby. Someone saved me the torture, and posted an assemblage of her role; she's playing a sophisticate who either has money, or someone who buy her furs and jewels. Again, not quite her future persona, but getting closer, especially her eye makeup.)
This is an interesting film. RM plays a somewhat bitter Mexican, who views fighting as his only way out of poverty (although his mother/sister doesn't look shabby at all). But he talks frequently about the Gringo conspiracy (although that's the gringo's name for it) to suppress his people. He's a little mis-cast for this; his bearing is too regal to be a barrio chico.
DP speaks well in Spanish, with decent pronunciation. He sings a song in Spanish too. I like his voice and his acting.
I wonder what it was like for DP to play being in love with JA, but she and RM were the romantic couple. RM/JA kiss & embrace frequently. Maybe it made it easier for DP to play dejected by her (gentle) rejection.
This has a pretty long boxing sequence toward the end. Not my cup of tea.
MGM, dir. Sturges; 6
