Emilio Fernández: Los Islas Marías, Take One

'Outsanding melodrama' is my initial response to Emilio Fernández' Los Islas Marías (1951). The over-the-top soundtrack befits it as with other early 1950s movies, especially film noir or science fiction types, but it is also akin to something equally melodramatic such as The Lost Weekend (1945). We are treated to sultry women. Honor. Family. An eclectic mix of labor, celebration and crime. A federal penal colony. Redemption.

Emilio "El Indio"/"The Indian" Fernández fashions a story that revolves around a dysfunctional family in a manner resembling a tale by Fyodor Dostoyevsky seasoned by Flannery O'Connor and filtered through Mexican culture. Fantastic! 

I'll just give the basic set up. First, we follow Doña Rosa Suárez (Rosaura Revueltas) as she proudly, joyously goes around town making arrangements for the celebration of her youngest son's graduation from the Military Academy. She invites all sorts of people to the event, which will be held at the family villa. It's only a little later that we see things are not at all ideal under the surface, however. Her husband, an officer in the Mexican Army, is dead, pehaps killed during the Mexican Revolution or in more recent disturbances. She can't really afford to maintain the family household, even though she retains servants. Her beautiful daughter Alejandra (Esther Luquín) is either a courtesan or otherwise involved in some shady business, with shady men. Her oldest son Felipe (Pedro Infante) hangs out at nightclubs, sings love songs, drinks heavily, has several women admirers, yet acts (and feels inside) like an abject failure. This is why all of Doña Rosa's hopes are now pinned on Felipe's younger brother Ricardo (Jaime Fernández), set to enter the Army as a second lieutenant, in the footsteps of their father. He is her pride and joy. But things will not go as planned -- that's the set up.

Today's Rune: Defense.      

Emilio Fernández: Víctimas del Pecado

Emilio Fernández, Víctimas del Pecado (1951): a movie that's got the depth, variety and fast pace of an action novella. Most of the story takes place in and around two diverse, integrated Cuban-themed nightclubs in Mexico City, the CHANGOO -- i.e. Changó, Yorùbá/Santería storm god -- home of gangsters and "higher class" clientele, and a more working class cabaret somewhere across the smoke-filled railroad tracks, La Máquina Loca/The Crazy Machine.

Within this crime and entertainment milieu, dandified gangster-pimp Rodolfo (Rodolfo Acosta) forces one of his workers to ditch her newborn child (probably his son), who is then taken in by another co-worker, Cuban dancer Violeta (Ninón Sevilla), causing all sorts of chaos. Eventually, Violeta and the baby are adopted by a kindlier pimp, Santiago (Tito Junco), who runs La Máquina Loca. There is a class difference from the CHANGOO: Santiago tells her not to address him as "Don Santiago," as "we are all the same here." Santiago will suffice.

Direct conflict between the two pimps drives some of the plot, but we are also regaled by syncopated musical numbers, a barroom brawl, gunplay, a prison sequence and, throughout much of it, Rodolfo's comical and volatile ego. "Leave my suit alone," he tells his baby mama early on. He also likes to say, "No pain, no gain," and in trying to coerce Violeta directly into his service, "Women are worth the men they are with." Another Rodolfo quip: "The only place you never leave is your grave." 

In a brief interlude early on, Pedro Vargas sings:
   
A sea dampened with sighs
Blood and laughter
Together in your eyes

We see a likeness of Emilio Fernández, the director of Víctimas del Pecado, every time the Academy Awards are shown: he was the physical model for the Academy Award of Merit -- the Oscar statuette.

Today's Rune: Partnership.