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| LA BANDIDA
(director/writer: Roberto Rodriquez; screenwriter: Rafael
García Travesi; cinematographer: Gabriel
Figueroa; editor: Jose W.
Bustos; music: Jose Alfredo Jimenez/Raul
Lavista; cast: Maria Felix (Maria
Mendoza/La Bandida), Emilio
Fernandez (Epigmenio Gomez), Pedro Armendariz (Roberto
Herrera), Katy Jurado (Jarochita),
Ignacio Lopez Tarso (Anselmo);
Runtime: 110; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Ismael
Rodriguez; TCM; 1963-Mexico-in Spanish with
English subtitles) "Too bad the stars were just too old to make their melodramatic romances that believable." Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz Roberto
Rodriquez ("Spring in the Heart"/"Smile of the
Virgin"/"The Happy Musketeers") directs and
co-writes with Rafael García Travesi
this overwrought melodrama with aging stars, which
represents the declining last days of Mexico's Golden
Age of Cinema. It tells of a passionate love
story of two rivals from the Mexican Revolution of
1912 courting the same hot-blooded woman. The
stylized epic-like musical romance picture looked
beautiful in lush Technicolor, with stunning landscape
visuals by the great cinematographer Gabriel
Figueroa. But there was little
action, it was much too talky with lame dialogue, and
the soap opera romance story was dull and corny. Yet
it was a crowd-pleaser in Mexico because it had star
appeal. Mexico's superstar actress, Maria Felix, who
was 48 at the time, was described by critics as "a
strong-willed woman with a man's heart," gives
a fiery performance as the vulnerable toughie.
The popular and colorful 60-year-old Emilio
Fernandez gives a colorful performance, as
does the 50-year-old Pedro Armendariz. Too bad the
stars were just too old to make their melodramatic
romances that believable. In
1912, during the Mexican Revolution, Madero
becomes President and attempts to execute land
reforms. Revolutionary rival fighters Epigmenio
Gomez (Emilio Fernandez) and Roberto
Herrera (Pedro Armendariz) are forced by the
government troops to put down their arms and return to
civilian life. When Herrera returns to his ranch, he
discovers his beautiful woman Maria Mendoza (Maria
Felix) was not faithful and he kicks her out
and shoots her lover. Maria, dubbed
"La Bandida" because she steals the hearts of all the
men who fall for her, returns to being a
prostitute at a bordello where the madam is an
ignorant and abusive American. The
hot-tempered Maria gives the madam a beat down and
gets all the prostitutes and bordello staff to go with
her as she opens her own bordello in San Miguel, which
is where Herrera dwells. When the peasant Gomez
arrives in San Miguel to engage in cock fights, Maria
seduces him and the men not only engage in cock fights
but compete to win the heart of Maria. In the
background, the Mexican Revolution is re-ignited. REVIEWED ON 8/1/2012 GRADE: C Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ |