Sombrero

A bizarre but thoroughly entertaining tamale pie of a movie focusing on the lives of various peasants in a Mexican village. Typical of Hollywood films in the '50s, there are several anglo actors playing Mexicans, but at least Ricardo Montalban (playing Pepe Gonzales!) is the real thing. And he's got charm TO BURN! As difficult as it is to believe, Rick Jason is possibly more handsome than Montalban - and certainly taller at 6'4". In his autobiography, Jason mentions that Montalban became concerned during the filming when Jason seemed to be stealing the scenes in the rushes.

I don't recall seeing so many beautiful stars assembled for a single film: Pier Angeli, Yvonne De Carlo, Cyd Charisse, Vittorio Gassman. Wow! That's reason enough for tuning in, but there's other stuff to treasure as well, such as the flamenco dance by Jose Greco, which is as spectacularly good as the dance number with Cyd Charisse is spectacularly bad.

Perhaps the most beautiful casting in classic cinema in almost a fantasy-like small Mexican town, this movie reads like short stories similar to a fairy tale (or folk tale) background. There's little subplots intertwining Cyd Charisse, Yvonne De Carlo, Pier Angeli, Ricardo Montalban and Vittorio Gassman. It's quite entertaining if not a bit odd with Cyd Charisse's climax dance on the mountain. She also danced with Ricardo Montalban in several movies (Mark of the Renegade, On An Island With You, The Kissing Bandit, and Fiesta) and they make a gorgeous pairing. Surprisingly and sadly after their success, the director/producers for this film didn't put them together for this film. Still it's a happy, charming tale. Objectively I rate it a 6 but due to the wonderful casting and Cyd dancing, it's a 7.

This movie is really hard to find since there's no DVD out there so you have to view it on an old videotape (that may be converted to DVD) or wait until TCM shows it (maybe once a year if at all).

This is a wonderful, enjoyable film with a retinue of fine actors having a lot of fun in an entertaining story set in Mexico. The tale is wonderfully Mexican with cock-fights, inter-village rivalry, tragedy and mystery: Pepe (Richardo Montalban-- Mr. Rourke of Fantasy Island) loves the Mayor's (Thomas Gomez) daughter, Eufemia (Pier Angeli) but needs some success to convince her father he's a worthy candidate for her hand. Vittorio Gassman is the local rich boy whose family want him to marry an appropriate girl from an appropriate family, Rick Jason is the third compañero in love with a gypsy girl (Cyd Charisse). Wonderful performances by the lovely Nina Foch as the set-aside sweetheart, the great Andaluzian Gypsy dancer, Jose Greco, the ever-lovely bubbly Thomas Gomez, plotting Kurt Kaszner and a bit part with one of my fav's, Alfonso Bedoya who doesn't say "We don' gotta chow you no stinkin' batches." Alas, no video for this fine, fun film, so you'll have to catch it on the late show. Check out especially, Ricardo Montalban, Rick Jason and Vittorio Gassman singing the lively, "¡Eufemia!" ¡Realmente macanudo!

About 50 years ago, I saw a movie, made in Mexico, that was a satire on an american girl's idea of life in Mexico; The movie "Sombrero" was based on stories written by an american woman and whether intentional or not is very similar to that satire; However, It is a very enjoyable movie with a great cast; I had read the stories,but went to the movie because of the flamenco dancer,Jose Greco and because a very good friend and very brave matador named Hector Saucedo, did the bullfight scenes and I could never get enough of seeing his artistry; I saw the movie in 1953 in DesMoines,Iowa,accompanied by several hispanic friends whom I know enjoyed the movie as much as I did,but couldn't help making fun of the plot.Tragically, Hector was killed in a plane crash shortly after completion of the film. I rcommend the film for the opportunity to see a young Yvonne DeCarlo,Syd Charise,Ricardo Montalban, Jose Greco and Alfonso Bedoya (Of "I don't have to show you no stinking badges"fame.)I saw it on tv recently and awaited the bullfight scene after half a century,but was disapointed,because they only showed a few seconds of the sequence; Can anyone tell me where I can obtain a tape that shows his whole bullfigjht sequence?

What were MGM thinking of in making this film ? The opening proudly proclaims how thankful the studio is in letting them make it in Mexico, but what on earth did the Mexicans make of the end product ? Hysteria runs throughout the film culminating with a completely mad dance on the top of a mountain. Three interlinking love stories try to make sense of this nonsense and despite a cast of fine actors no one really has a chance to shine. Only Rick Jason ( see him preferably if you can in ' The Wayward Bus ' ) gives what I call a performance, and poor Vittorio Gassmann lags a little behind. As for the women it is a total waste. Cyd Charisse dances one of her worst dances ( in choreographic terms ) and fights with bad dialogue. Pier Angeli is underused and so is Yvonne de Carlo. Nina Foch has a truly nasty scene with a blind man who is dying and melodrama of the worst sort comes to the fore. I am not surprised it was a flop. I hope the Mexicans asked for their money back at the cinemas. A disgrace to film making. A 4 for the actors who presumably had to attend the premiere.