Word: carmen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Greenwich Village (20th Century-Fox) provides a hackneyed but handsome vehicle for a number of Hollywood virtuosos, notably Brazilian Dancer Carmen Miranda and the plug-ugly king of illiterary men, William Bendix. Resplendently decked out in Technicolor, the film is a gaudy, expensive improvisation on the oft-told story about a cafe singer (newcomer Vivian Elaine) who yearns to be a musicomedy queen, and a struggling composer (Don Ameche) who wants to have his concerto played at Carnegie Hall...
...small army of Manhattan's Latins turned out to see Carmen Amaya, famed Spanish gypsy dancer at the Roxy Theater last week. But a very critical segment of that army really went to hear one of her numerous assistants, a coppery, curly-haired Spaniard who strummed a guitar. When he twanged and thrummed at the climaxes of a malagueña or a bulenia, the little group of strum-pots practically rose up and cried "Ole!" The man they were applauding was Sabicas, most famous of present day flamenco guitar players...
...second drawer (Over 21). Otherwise it was mostly out of a musty old trunk in the attic. There was not one really good farce, fantasy, thriller. Musicals made the season's biggest splash, but their finest sounds were familiar ones: the brilliant Bizet music in the all-Negro Carmen Jones, the lovely Lehar waltzes of The Merry Widow. Possibly barring One Touch of Venus, musicomedy failed to produce a single decent score, and nowhere produced even a halfway decent book. The net result was an unprecedented string of fancy-figure flops-My Dear Public, Jackpot, Artists and Models, Allah...
...Walter Huston's old part as a period dictator-Peter Stuyvesant. Nelson Eddy is the singing editor whom Stuyvesant jails for his opinions and to get his girl. The girl: Constance Dowling who, besides singing likably enough, has the high surface gloss and hardness of a Dutch tile. Carmen Amaya, who has nothing to do with the plot, dances powerfully, continues to convey passion by making faces as if her partner had just trod on her corns. Kurt Weill's score has moments notably the gay-sad September Song, that suggest his great Die Dreigroschenoper...
They finished far ahead of such-popular favorites as Carmen Amaya, Carmen Miranda and Rosario & Antonio. Nobody questioned the justice of the verdict. After the ball was over, Raul & Eva returned to their four-to-six shows a day (divided between Broadway's Mexican Hayride and the Havana-Madrid night club) that earn them about $1,000 a week...