'The Trumpet Blows' deserves some credit for sheer nerve, just for casting Adolphe Menjou, George Raft, Sidney Toler and Edward Ellis as Mexicans. Credulity is strained even more by casting Menjou and Raft as brothers.
Menjou is Pancho Montez, a former bandito (clearly based on Pancho Villa) now living in the town of Corrales under the alias Pancho Gomez. He hopes to marry the beautiful dancer Chulita (wot, no last name?), played by the beauteous and classy Frances Drake.
Pancho's brother Manuel has been living in the USA (which explains Raft's accent), but now he comes to live with Pancho. Big brother Pancho has a wife all picked out for Manuel, but the latter prefers Chulita. I was expecting the brothers to fight over Chulita. Instead, when Manuel learns the truth, his respect for his brother compels him to leave town to give Pancho a clear field.
Manuel goes off to Mexico City and, with laughable ease, he becomes a big-league matador. Meanwhile, the police have finally caught up with Pancho. When Manuel learns of this, he rushes back to aid his brother.
This movie is seriously compromised by the fact that most of the actors are not remotely believable as Mexicans. I especially loathed Nydia Westman, whose twittering voice and smirking face are invariably annoying but who is here more annoying than usual because she's so implausible as a Latina. Al Bridge, whom I usually like, is unbelievable here as a gravel-voiced Mexican constable.
Katherine DeMille (Cecil B DeMille's adopted daughter, who may genuinely have had some mestiza blood) is plausible, and Frances Drake is superb. Sidney Toler's facial bone structure is really weird: he never quite looks plausible as a caucasian (even though he *was* one), and never quite looked right in Chinese makeup as Charlie Chan. Here, as a mestizo, he looks flat-out ridiculous. I haven't seen so many fake Mexicans since John Garfield, Spencer Tracy, Sheldon Leonard and Frank Morgan donned sombreros and serapes for 'Tortilla Flat'.
The script and direction in 'The Trumpet Blows' aren't bad, but would have been vastly more effective if this film had been cast with genuine Latino actors. That's not political correctness: I'm just being pragmatic. No movie with Nydia Westman in it will ever get a perfect 10 rating from me, but the other actors work hard in this one. As for George Raft in matador drag ... did somebody mention 'bull'? I'll charitably give this one 6 out of 10.
Menjou is Pancho Montez, a former bandito (clearly based on Pancho Villa) now living in the town of Corrales under the alias Pancho Gomez. He hopes to marry the beautiful dancer Chulita (wot, no last name?), played by the beauteous and classy Frances Drake.
Pancho's brother Manuel has been living in the USA (which explains Raft's accent), but now he comes to live with Pancho. Big brother Pancho has a wife all picked out for Manuel, but the latter prefers Chulita. I was expecting the brothers to fight over Chulita. Instead, when Manuel learns the truth, his respect for his brother compels him to leave town to give Pancho a clear field.
Manuel goes off to Mexico City and, with laughable ease, he becomes a big-league matador. Meanwhile, the police have finally caught up with Pancho. When Manuel learns of this, he rushes back to aid his brother.
This movie is seriously compromised by the fact that most of the actors are not remotely believable as Mexicans. I especially loathed Nydia Westman, whose twittering voice and smirking face are invariably annoying but who is here more annoying than usual because she's so implausible as a Latina. Al Bridge, whom I usually like, is unbelievable here as a gravel-voiced Mexican constable.
Katherine DeMille (Cecil B DeMille's adopted daughter, who may genuinely have had some mestiza blood) is plausible, and Frances Drake is superb. Sidney Toler's facial bone structure is really weird: he never quite looks plausible as a caucasian (even though he *was* one), and never quite looked right in Chinese makeup as Charlie Chan. Here, as a mestizo, he looks flat-out ridiculous. I haven't seen so many fake Mexicans since John Garfield, Spencer Tracy, Sheldon Leonard and Frank Morgan donned sombreros and serapes for 'Tortilla Flat'.
The script and direction in 'The Trumpet Blows' aren't bad, but would have been vastly more effective if this film had been cast with genuine Latino actors. That's not political correctness: I'm just being pragmatic. No movie with Nydia Westman in it will ever get a perfect 10 rating from me, but the other actors work hard in this one. As for George Raft in matador drag ... did somebody mention 'bull'? I'll charitably give this one 6 out of 10.