La Zandunga
The title refers to a Mexican waltz, one of many folkloric elements in Fernando de Fuentes's 1938 comedia ranchera, a romantic musical genre he invented with his 1936 hit Over on the Big Ranch. A response to contemporary land reforms and related social tinkering, the films celebrated indigenous culture while idealizing prerevolutionary plantation society. Hedging his bets, de Fuentes reinforced a domestic cast with Lupe Velez, a bankable star throughout the U.S. and Latin America. Unfortunately the plot's a plodding story of forbidden love, and Velez—for all her beauty and comic flair—doesn't convince as an ingenue. In Spanish with subtitles. 100 min.
Credits
Cast information not available at this time.
