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Open Access Articles- Top Results for Fiesta (1947 film)
Fiesta (1947 film)
Illustration of Esther Williams wearing a traje de luces outfit for the French theatrical release poster for Fiesta.
French theatrical release poster
Jack Cummings
George Bruce
Lester Cole
Fortunio Bonanova
Wilfred M. Cline
Blanche Sewell
June 12, 1947 (1947-06-12)
$2,395,000[1]
Fiesta is an American Technicolor musical-drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1947, starring Esther Williams, Ricardo Montalbán, Mary Astor and Cyd Charisse. The film was directed by Richard Thorpe and written by George Bruce and Lester Cole.
The story focuses on Mario Morales (Montalbán), a bullfighter who wants to be a composer, and his twin sister, Maria Morales (Williams), who wants to be a bullfighter even though she is a woman.
The film was shot on location in Puebla, Mexico.[2] This was Montalbán's first credited role in a Hollywood film, and resulted in him being offered a contract by the studio.[3] It was also the first of three films pairing Williams and Montalbán, the other two being On an Island with You (1948) and Neptune's Daughter (1949).
Fiesta was the first time Williams's name was billed above the title.[4]
1 Plot summary
3 Soundtrack
5.2 Home media
Retired matador Antonio Morales is anxious when his wife gives birth, disappointed when the baby turns out to be a girl, then thrilled when a twin brother is born. He names them Mario and Maria.
As the children grow up, Antonio's wife dreads the idea of her son facing the danger of becoming a bullfighter, particularly inasmuch as Mario has an artistic side to his nature, an affinity for music. Maria, meanwhile, becomes quite expert in the ring, taught by her father's right-hand man, Chato Vasquez.
As a gift on their 21st birthday, Maria honors her brother by getting a copy of Mario's new music composition to Maximino Contreras, a famed orchestra conductor. Maximino, thoroughly impressed, pays a call on the Morales family just before Mario's first bullfight. Antonio prefers not to distract his son prior to entering the ring, so he promises to pass along Maximino's personal regards later. But he does not.
Before a second bullfight, Mario is approached by Maximino, who wonders why he never responded to his previous invitation to meet. Realizing that his father ignored it, Mario angrily walks out of the ring, disappointing spectators and infuriating his father, who feels the family's honor has been disgraced.
Maria attempts a ruse, disguising herself as Mario and confronting the bull. Her life is in danger before Mario intervenes, restoring the Morales family's good name. Mario is permitted by his father to pursue a life in music instead.
Esther Williams as Maria Morales
Ricardo Montalbán as Mario Morales
Fortunio Bonanova as Antonio Morales
Mary Astor as Señora Morales
Akim Tamiroff as Chato Vasquez
John Carroll as Jose 'Pepe' Ortega
Cyd Charisse as Conchita
Hugo Haas as Maximino Contreras
Jean Van as Maria Morales, as a child
Joey Preston as Mario Morales, as a child
Frank Puglia as Doctor
Los Bocheros as The Basque Singers
Alan Napier as The Tourist
Fantasia Mexicana
based on El Salon Mexico
Music by Aaron Copland
Music Adapted and Orchestrated by Johnny Green
Piano soloist André Previn
Written by Luis Martínez Serrano
Jarabe Tapatío (The Mexican Hat Dance)
La luna enamorada
Written by Angel Ortiz De Villajos, Miriano Bolanos, Recio Leocadio and Martinez Durango
Romeria Vasca
Written and Performed by Los Bocheros
La barca de oro
Traditional[5]
The film took longer than expected because Thorpe decided that he did not want the bulls killed. However, this led to the bulls attacking the stuntmen, four of them ending up in the hospital, and two of them barely surviving after being gored in the groin due to infections caused by the dirt on the bulls' horns. (Williams was doubled by men. After years of swimming, her shoulders were broad and her backside was flat, and had a different body build that that of a bullfighter and a visible difference on film.) Not killing the bulls made the Mexican people angry, which didn't help, since they were already angry that their own toreadors could not star in the film. At the end of filming, the unit manager, Walter Strohm convinced Thorpe to kill the bulls, even though they cost $1000 each.[2]
File:Esther Williams in Fiesta trailer.jpg
Director of photography Sidney Wagner and one other crew member died of cholera after eating contaminated street food they had bought in town.[2] Williams' husband, Ben Gage, was arrested after getting into a fight with an employee of the hotel the cast was staying at, the same man who had recently shot the crew's doctor after being yelled at. Gage's arrest was covered by gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. Gage and the film's makeup artist George Lane were then declared persona non grata and wanted expelled from Mexico, but the company would be allowed to finish shooting the film. However, Williams knew that Lane would be fired when he returned to California, so she stalled shooting until he came back. Instead, the studio sent another makeup artist, Bill Tuttle to Mexico, and he promised Williams he would help Lane get another job.[2]
The studio insisted that Williams wear a traje de luces matador outfit for the film. Traditionally, the suit is made to lie very flat on the toreador's chest, and this proved to be difficult. The tailor in Mexico refused to work on the suit unless Williams "agreed to have her bosom surgically removed." Strohm had the suit sent back to Irene, MGM's costume designer in Hollywood, to be fitted to her body, which included closing the fly with hooks. On the trage de luces, when worn by men, the fly is left slightly open, so the "world can appreciate what's in there."[2]
The film features Williams in the water for one short sequence. This was a stark contrast with many of her box office hits, which all featured elaborate water sequences. Publicity photos for the film featuring Williams in a bathing suit were utilized much more than those of her in the traje de luces suit.[2]
The film earned $2,546,000 in the US and $3,089,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $1,170,000.[1]
Fiesta was nominated for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture at the 1948 Academy Awards, but lost to Mother Wore Tights.[6]
On October 6, 2009, Turner Entertainment released Fiesta on DVD as part of the Esther Williams Spotlight Collection, Volume 2. The 6 disc set was a follow up to the company's Esther Williams Spotlight Collection, Volume 1, and contains digitally remastered versions of several of Williams's films including Thrill of a Romance (1945), This Time for Keeps (1947), Pagan Love Song (1950), Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) and Easy to Love (1953).[7]
↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study .
↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Williams, Esther (1999). The Million Dollar Mermaid: An Autobiography (Autobiography) (First ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-15-601135-8. OCLC 43706619. Retrieved 2010-07-30. a reprint that has online preview
↑ "Turner Classic Movies". Tcm.com. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
↑ "This Time for Keeps". Tcm.com. 2009-11-12. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039377/soundtrack
↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039377/awards
↑ "Turner Classic Movies". Tcm.com. 2009-11-12. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
40x40px Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fiesta (film).
Fiesta at the Internet Movie Database
Fiesta at AllMovie
Fiesta at the TCM Movie Database
The films of Richard Thorpe
Fast and Fearless (1924)
Full Speed (1925)
Deuce High (1926)
Josselyn's Wife (1926)
The Meddlin' Stranger (1927)
Border Romance (1929)
The Utah Kid (1930)
Grief Street
Murder at Dawn
Forgotten (1931)
Murder on the Campus
The Quitter
Green Eyes (1934)
Last of the Pagans (1935)
The Voice of Bugle Ann
Tarzan Escapes (1936)
Dangerous Number (1937)
Night Must Fall (1937)
Double Wedding
Love Is a Headache (1938)
The First Hundred Years
The Toy Wife
The Crowd Roars (1938)
Three Loves Has Nancy
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939)
Tarzan Finds a Son!
The Earl of Chicago
20 Mule Team
The Bad Man (1941)
Barnacle Bill (1941)
Apache Trail (1942)
Tarzan's Secret Treasure
Tarzan's New York Adventure
Three Hearts for Julia
Above Suspicion (1943)
Cry "Havoc"
Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
The Thin Man Goes Home
Thrill of a Romance (1945)
Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945)
Fiesta (1947)
This Time for Keeps (1947)
On an Island with You (1948)
A Date with Judy (1948)
The Sun Comes Up (1949)
Big Jack (1949)
Challenge to Lassie (1949)
Malaya (1949)
Three Little Words (1950)
Vengeance Valley (1951)
The Great Caruso (1951)
The Unknown Man (1951)
It's a Big Country (1952)
Carbine Williams (1952)
The Prisoner of Zenda (1952)
The Girl Who Had Everything (1953)
All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953)
Knights of the Round Table (1954)
The Student Prince (1954)
Athena (1954)
The Prodigal (1955)
The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955)
Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957)
Tip on a Dead Jockey (1957)
Jailhouse Rock (1957)
The House of the Seven Hawks (1959)
Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959)
The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962)
Follow the Boys (1963)
Fun in Acapulco (1963)
The Truth About Spring
The Golden Head
That Funny Feeling
The Last Challenge
Vultures of the Sea (August 1928)
The Vanishing West (October 1928)
The Fatal Warning (February 1929)
The King of the Kongo (August 1929)
The Lone Defender (March 1930)
King of the Wild (with B. Reeves Eason) (March 1931)
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