Festival en Méjico

My husband and I had the pleasure of attending Jose Iturbi's concerts in San Antonio and Austin, Texas; also, my husband was fortunate to hear sister Ampara Iturbi while stationed on Trinidad during WWII, so I always rewatch these old films with great nostalgia. As an amateur pianist I did so enjoy all the music in this film. Calypso, boogie woogie, and classical...something for anyone who enjoys music. Yes, the plots of these old movies were always simplistic, but they make such good clean time-passers, particularly amid the sleaze presented to us on TV and in film today. I am so glad they have been preserved and that we have channels devoted to them. They take me back to happy times.

This movie is burdened mostly by poor pacing. The first half of the film is a long string of diverse musical numbers connected by a few lines of dialog. Then the director seemed to realize that some kind of plot development was necessary, so the musical numbers are few and far between in the second half of the movie, which is dedicated to getting the flimsy plot moving. Then there's the grand finale with Jane Powell delivering a beautiful rendition of "Ave Maria."

Not once did I feel like I was in Mexico City. Believe it or not, you will see more keffiyehs than sombreros in this movie! Maybe the director thought it was Holiday in Morocco. However, some of the costumes are beautiful - especially some of Jane Powell's dresses.

Walter Pidgeon, who I usually like, is only fair in his role as the US Ambassador to Mexico and an all-wise, empathetic and loving, but somewhat condescending father. Jane Powell has a beautiful voice, but her acting is erratic and bordering on manic in some of the early scenes. Jose Iturbi never was an actor, but had a film career based solely on his being an excellent pianist. Ilona Massey is, likewise, not a great actress, but she is beautiful and hot. Roddy MacDowell has such a high-pitched, soft voice, it is hard for me to ever find him very convincing as a serious love-interest, even as a teenager. At the end of the day, every minute of this film seems like it is populated not by real people, but by actors playing roles.

If you like a fairly wide range of music, then the first part of this movie will delight you. I personally wanted to come up for more air between musical numbers. The two best scenes are in the second half. The funniest scene is between Pidgeon and the parents of one of his daughter's girlfriends. It is the cleverest plot device in a plot riddled with every cinematic cliché of the era, and it is quite ironic, with Pidgeon discovering he is the object of the affections of the young daughter of one of his ambassadorial colleagues.

The penultimate scene in which Pidgeon talks frankly with Powell, his daughter, about facing up to life after you've made a fool of yourself is worth wading through the trite plot, clichés and front-loaded music. And her response, as depicted in the climactic scene is suitably uplifting.

Spreading the musical numbers more evenly throughout the film, and developing the plot in a more even manner, too, would have improved this film quite a bit. As it is, it is more like sitting through two performances - first, a short concert, followed by a short film.

Randall Brandt is exactly right. This is a "Holiday in Mexico"? Produced by MGM at the height of its power, glory, not to mention financial resources, and yet the darned thing never gets outside a Culver City sound stage? Couldn't they at least have sent a camera crew to Mexico City to film some establishing shots in the major thoroughfares, parks, museums, etc.? Very disappointing.

This might just as well have been titled "Holiday in Burbank."

As to the story, it's flimsy at best. In its favor is the rich Technicolor photography which has never been equaled, plus some good musical numbers. The cast is good, with Walter Pidgeon in his most ambassadorial form as the father of the spunky young Jane Powell. Jose Iturbi and his sister play some great piano, as well!

Worth viewing, though at 128 minutes it's a bit long. "Holiday in Mexico" is an example of how Hollywood used to view (or didn't view) other countries.

'Holiday in Mexico' may not be a great film, but it is good at what it set out to do, doesn't try to be any more than it is and knows exactly what it wants to be.

Its weak link is the thin and insipid story, the first half being almost plot less, which also suffers from draggy pacing that is especially uninteresting in the scenes between Roddy McDowell and Jane Powell that dominate too much of the second half. The overlong length, not unusual in George Sidney's 1940s films. McDowell has an annoying caricature character, and not only does he do little with it but he does grate somewhat.

There is so much to enjoy about 'Holiday in Mexico' on the other hand. Even with not much authentic Mexico in sight, being on the most part more Culver City soundstage than Mexico, it is a lovely looking film, being beautifully shot in rich colour and handsomely produced. The music is similarly great, with a mix of pleasant songs and the divine piano music of Chopin and Rachmaninov masterfully played by Jose Iturbi, in every film he appeared in his piano playing was some of the finest on film.

Scripting is not exceptional, but sweet and amusing and nowhere near as trite as the story. The bittersweet romance between Ilona Massey and Walter Pidgeon has been criticised, to me it had a lot of affecting charm. Other great things are the knockout piano choreography and the clever animated title sequence, courtesy of Hanna-Barbera, that is the most evocative of Mexico that 'Holiday in Mexico' gets.

Powell is very charming and sings beautifully, and while Massey is not as natural an actress she is still likable enough. Iturbi and Xavier Cugat add enormously to the film and Pidgeon is similarly likable. Sidney directs with competence.

All in all, lots of fun and charm though not without its flaws. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I could never understood why Ilona Massey didn't make it big as some other stars of that era...The closeup of her in technicolor singing "You, so its you"..was mesmerizing. ..outstanding blond beauty. The beauty mark, even sexier...I read where in her starlet days, MGM roomed her with another unknown beauty, a brunette, you have heard of her...Hedy lamarr. Both, trying to learn English in order to succeed in American movies...well Hedy won, hands down, and deservedly so. BTW, the irony of this statement, is that Hedy was originally set to play the part that Ilona got in this movie. In those days, Hedy was known to turn down parts that just wanted to accentuate her beauty, and she wisely turned this down. Ilona was then cast opposite MGM's king baritone, Nelson Eddy in "Balalaika", which was a flop...and MGM lost interest in her and ended her contract...Results? Her next movie was in Universal's horror movies, mainly because of her accent..What a shame.