A Message to Garcia

A Message to Garcia has two sterling stars in its cast; Wallace Beery and Barbara Stanwyck. It also features John Boles as a romantic lead for Stanwyck. The film vaguely interesting, but only for the two lead stars. The storyline is not strong enough to gain any momentum. Stanwyck as a Cuban is not the best of casting. (Wouldn't Delores Del Rio have been a much better choice?). Interesting from a historical perspective.

1936's "A Message to Garcia" is lackluster Fox fiction set in Cuba during the Spanish American War of 1898. US President William McKinley (Dell Henderson) is the one sending the message to the Cuban general (Enrique Acosta) fighting the Spaniards, who have hired a German assassin (Alan Hale) to intercept the man carrying the vital paper (John Boles). Barbara Stanwyck plays the Cuban girl who falls for him, while top billed Wallace Beery supplies comic relief through the lengthy jungle trek, playing off both sides during the conflict. Not one of Barbara's more stellar efforts, with her screen time sadly limited, though Alan Hale makes a surprisingly effective villain. An uncredited John Carradine does not appear on screen as President McKinley, but it is his voice that we hear in the opening sequence, sounding as though he were recorded underwater. Perhaps cast for his physical resemblance to the President, Dell Henderson must have come up short, so Carradine's more authoritative tones were rather poorly dubbed in, an unconvincing performance despite the combined efforts of both actors (Carradine had recently provided several dubbed voices in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Crusades").

President McKinley -- body by Dell Henderson, voice by John Carradine -- orders Lieutenant John Boles to deliver a message to rebel General Garcia that the US will begin a war against Spain, and cooperate with him. Along the way he is pursued by German spy Alan Hale, and picks up as aides Cuban rebel Barbara Stanwyck and US Marines deserter Wallace Beery.

The last two are inventions for the movie. Beery plays a variation on Long John Silver, and Miss Stanwyck is as hot as a jungle. Neither did the real Lieutenant Rowan head down to Cuba as a stoker carrying a letter. He traveled comfortably with an oral message. That, however, would not have made an interesting movie, and producer Raymond Griffith and director George Marshall lay it on thick.

What will surprise most people, given his fallen reputation, is how good Boles is: simultaneously intrepid, inventive, naive, and romantic. It's romantic piffle as history, a staple of the moom pitchers, but a lot of fun.

This was an interesting recounting of the real-life events around Lieutenant Andrew Rowan carrying a message from American President McKinley to General Garcia in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. He did so under grave peril and withstood many hardships while alluding Dr. Ivan Krug who's mission it is to stop him. Along the way he enlists the help of a native Cuban Raphaelita (played by the gorgeous Barbara Stanwyck, who my one complaint...didn't even attempt a plausible Cuban accent-I love her though, it is more of an observation) and an AWOL marine who is a bit of a con artist living by his wits in Cuba.

This was a wonderful docu-drama, although I am not sure how accurate as they cross a river crawling with alligators by bopping them on the head with a stick. Either way it was a fun film to watch and Barbara Stanwyck is gorgeous and at her lovely prime in this film...so I say give it a view.

Elbert Hubbard's famous essay on how Lieutenant Rowan of the United States Army delivered a message to Cuban rebel general Garcia from President McKinley was embellished to an action adventure story with some horrible casting. I'm betting the real story of Rowan's journey through Cuba was far more interesting.

The horrible miscasting of Barbara Stanwyck as a Cuban senorita is the main problem. She who adopted a nice brogue for The Plough And The Stars and Union Pacific probably would have made it worse had she talked with an accent in A Message To Garcia. I'd like to think that Darryl F. Zanuck in one of the first features of the newly formed 20th Century Fox Studio would have tried for Dolores Del Rio.

I'm sure Zanuck laid out some big bucks to Louis B. Mayer for the services of Wallace Beery. I agree with another reviewer that someone who had spent 10 years in Cuba living hand to mouth as Beery's character had, would have picked up some working knowledge of Spanish. But Beery was good box office back then and Zanuck was no fool that way. What there is of the picture he steals from John Boles playing the real life Lieutenant Rowan and Stanwyck playing a fictional senorita with whom he has a romance.

A Message To Garcia is a nice, but feeble attempt to tell the story of a most intriguing espionage tale.