Weekend in Havana (Movie from Pre-Revolution)

The production team behind this film would have benefited if they had done research for the movie by taking a real weekend in Havana. It appears the studio executives flew down to Rio instead. How else did they come up with music and costumes that are more Brazilian than Cuban?

Maybe the studio thought of this as a vehicle for Carmen Miranda, the charismatic Brazilian star. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense at all to have turned everything into a samba flavored musical that is completely out of character with its setting of the romantic allure Havana of the 40s.

The music is mildly entertaining. We know what will happen and how it will end, yet, we stay with a movie that has been done better before. Walter Lang directed on auto pilot because there is nothing in the film that shows anything new that we haven't seen before.

Alice Faye plays a Macy's sales lady on a Caribbean cruise. Ms. Faye is a charming presence in the film. John Payne is the man who is sent to deal with the possible problem caused by the accident of the ship and ends up falling madly in love with the sales woman. Cesar Romero is suave as the gambler that tries to endear himself to the woman he thinks is an heiress. Carmen Miranda is the singing sensation at the Casino Madrileno.

"Weekend in Havana" is an inoffensive way to spend a little more than an hour and a half with these characters.

Si existe una ciudad con historias que contar, es La Habana.
Existen dos versiones de esta ciudad, que conviven en el tiempo y el espacio: La Habana interior, fidelista y patriótica, y La Habana vista a través del prisma a menudo resentido y siempre melancólico del exilio. Sin embargo, al margen de las tensiones políticas y el conflicto de intereses, ambas partes coinciden siempre en lo irrefutable: que La Habana es una fuente inagotable de historias de contrastes en un marco innegablemente bello. Tiene algo esta ciudad que parece situarla por encima del bien y del mal, y el cine lleva cien años demostrándolo.