Unfortunately, I'm just discovering the 'Mexican Spitfire' film series of comedies, centered on charismatic Lupe Velez, as the Mexican Spitfire. These were technically 'B' pictures, running around 70 min. in length. After all, you couldn't have a Latino actress the star of 'A' pictures! Nonetheless, from my experience, 'B' comedy and western series were often as or more entertaining than many 'A' pictures, hence often deserve a high rating for entertainment value: something the other reviewers to date don't seem to agree with..........I don't know about the other films in this series, but I categorize this film as a screwball romantic comedy(or, more correctly: farce, if you will). The director: Leslie Goodwin, had specialized in writing and sometimes directing comedies in the silent and talky periods, originating and directing all the 'Mexican Spitfire' films..............This film shares the same basic plot with that of the 'A' picture "Sun Valley Serenade". The latter differs in that it is definitely a musical romantic comedy, not a straight screwball romantic farce. Both involve the adoption of a war orphan or refuge, who is anticipated to be a little girl, but who turns out to be a vivacious 30ish sexy blond, to the great embarasment of the male sponsors. In the present case, the rational is that she is a refugee from WWI, not WWII! .............In looks and personality, Lupe and Marion Martin, as French refugee Fifi, are polar opposites, although they are both knockouts. Whereas Lupe was characteristically bombastic, Fifi was innocently playfully sexy: very appealing, thinking nothing of going up to a middle-aged man and kissing him, or sitting on his lap, or greeting him in a revealing negligee. As you can imagine, this soon caused friction between a number of pairs of husband and wife, as well as with Fifi's boyfriend(Fritz Feld) who later arrives from France...........Eventually, a formal dual is arranged between Feld, and Lupe's uncle Matt, masquerading as Lord Epping. The dual is most unusual, long knives and swords being thrown back and forth, with Lupe and Lord Epping's wife looking on...........Another comic scene has Zasu Pitts, as the hotel manager, and Elizabeth Risden, as Uncle Matt's wife, independently, crawling under the hotel bed in Uncle Matt's room, anticipating the arrival of Fifi and Uncle Matt. Fifi arrives first, flopping on the bed, squeezing the two women out from under it, given the low clearance and very weak springs.........Lynda Bilbrook plays Lord Epping's wife. Her personality much reminded me of that of Billie Burk( witch Glenda, in "The Wizard of Oz")............I found all the main male characters appropriately amusing or otherwise fitted for their roles. .........When Zasu Pitts faints at film's end, one of the males remarks "What's this, another orphan?" Another replies "Civil War"...........It's quite tragic that the entertaining Lupe's romantic life deteriorated such that she decided to end it all, at age 36............Around this time, another Latino spitfire arrived in Hollywood, in the form of Carmen Miranda: 'the Brazilian Bombshell'. In contrast to Lupe, she was put in 'A' pictures, mostly shot in Technicolor, to take advantage of her colorful outfits. But, unlike Lupe, she was never the first-billed actress. Nonetheless, for a few years, during the war, she commanded top salaries. Although she was best known as the Hollywood queen of samba, given the opportunity, she was also a charismatic spitfire comedian, in the mold of Lupe. .............The 'Mexican Spitfire' series is available on DVD, at Amazon, for example.
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