El último cuplé

Barcelona 1950s. María Luján (Sara Montiel), a famous star-business performer singing from the 1920s works at ¨El Molino¨ Cabaret , she is now forgotten , broke and alone . Juan Contreras (Armando Calvo), her ex-entrepreneur and ex-boyfriend , finds her singing at a modest theater in a variety show where people ignore how great she was . María and Contreras have an emotional reunion in her dressing room and start remembering their past . 1910 , Madrid , she lived modestly with her aunt Paca (Matilde Muñoz Sampedro) and Maria won a beauty contest . She was engaged to Cándido Chamorro (José Moreno) who worked at a watch repair shop . Cándido steals money from the shop , discovered and is imprisoned . Cándido is released but soon realizes that he has nothing to offer María so is enlisted and he volunteers for the African Army . Meanwhile , Maria gets a big success and soon she is singing in Paris where she is deemed as a superstar . 1919 , at the Moulin Rouge the spectators adore her and the men are all at her feet including a drunken Russian noble , Grand Duke Vladymir of Russia (Alfredo Mayo) , who forces her . But Contreras intervenes and ends up wounded in a duel with him . María realizes that Juan truly loves her and, moved with gratitude , swears eternal love to him . The couple tours America where María continues her triumphant career performing in the best venues from Buenos Aires to New York . Back in Madrid Maria meets Pepe Molina , (Enrique Vera) an aspiring Torero and she falls in love for him . They begin a torrid love story that is soon the scandal of the day . Maria uses her money and influence to advance Pepe's career and he soon becomes a famous bullfighter but a sad tragedy takes place .

Musical drama full of songs and attractive scenarios , being paced in a long flashback reminiscing about her glorious spectacles when she was received like a goddess as well as her turbulent past and distresses . Dealing with her rising , becoming the singing sensation of the time to her fall . It achieved a big hit , thanks to its 24 songs , 11 played by Sara Montiel. The film had problems with censorship due to some brief erotic elements , as when the original script of El Ultimo Cuple was submitted to the censors, as required by law in General Franco's regime, it was rejected . It was re-exhibited in 1973 , approx. 138 minutes of runtime ; 28 minutes more than first version . "The Last Torch Song" packs a brilliant cinematography by José F Aguayo . Evocative original musical score by Juan Solano filled of known and classic Spanish songs . The motion picture was professionally directed by Juan De Orduña and exhibited by the powerful production company CIFESA , the main filming enterprise from Franquismo . It was a big hit and considered to be one of the greatest successes of the Spanish cinema .

Sara Montiel is frankly well as one very highly sensual singer , making lavish utilization of her considerable physical assets , attractive countenance , charms and whatever acting ability was necessary , Sara made her María Luján the most enticing , heartless and hot-blooded screen heroine of the Spanish cinema . At the beginning , she won a beauty and talent contest held by Cifesa, the most influential Spanish film studio of that era . In the next four years she appeared in 14 films for Cifesa , including her first international success Locura De Amor (1948), which led to a long term-contract in Mexico. She quickly established herself as one of the most popular film actors of the decade. They starred 14 films between 1950 and 1954. Hollywood came calling and she was formally introduced to American moviegoers in Veracruz (1954), playing Gary Cooper's love interest. Later she filmed she worked at Warner Bros in Serenade (1956) with Mario Lanza, directed by Anthony Mann, who became her first husband. After starring in Samuel Fuller's Yuma (1957) with Rod Steiger, Sarita shot El Ultimo Cuplé (1957) ("The Last Song") in Spain, a musical production that turned out to be the biggest box-office success in Spain's film history. It played for over one year in the same theaters in which it opened. A similar reaction followed in Western Europe and Latin America. Sarita Montiel had become the most popular actress-singer of 1957 and a national treasure for Spain.The unprecedented success of "El Último Cuple" threw a wrench into her Hollywood career, as she was offered a multimillion-dollar contract to star in four films in Europe . Her next vehicle, La Violetera (1958) ("The Violet Peddler"), confirmed Sara's popularity and broke the box-office records set by the previous movie. The theme song from "La Violetera" became Montiel's signature song as well as ¨El Relicario¨ from ¨El Ultimo Cuple¨