Rumba

George Raft is a dancer at a Havana night club. He meets super-rich Carole Lombard, and they start an affair. However they are both proud, touchy individuals, and she goes back home to marry Monroe Owsley. Or does she?

Produced to follow up the success of BOLERO, this musical drama uses the dance numbers as pauses rather than accede to the burgeoning style that the Astaire-Rogers unit was producing at RKO, as portraying the performers' emotions. Director of Photography Ted Tetzlaff shoots things in Dutch angles and Velez and Yolanda stand in for the two whenever possible. Miss Lombard's dancing in the earlier film had been rather elementary, so in this one, they delay it until the end, and have Raft and her twirling about each other in medium close-up.

Director Marion Gering took a break from Sylvia Sidney weepers to add this one to his resume. That's probably why Gail Patrick is so good in her role as Owsley's sister and Miss Lombard's best friend. Samuel Hinds also appears briefly as Miss Lombard's half-witted father, and does the job well, if that's a thing.