The Gay Desperado - DaaVeeDee

The Gay Desperado (DVD) (*)

$20.99

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Spanish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Spain ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
86 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1936 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Rouben Mamoulian

Written By:
Leo Birinsky
Wallace Smith

Actors:
Nino Martini ..... Chivo
Ida Lupino ..... Jane
Leo Carrillo ..... Pablo Braganza
Harold Huber ..... Juan Campo
James Blakeley ..... Bill Shay
Stanley Fields ..... Butch
Mischa Auer ..... Diego
Adrian Rosley ..... Radio Station Manager
Paul Hurst ..... American Detective
Al Ernest Garcia ..... Police Captain
Frank Puglia ..... López
Michael Visaroff ..... Theatre Manager
Chris-Pin Martin ..... Pancho
Harry Semels ..... Manuel
George Du Count ..... Salvador

Synopsis:

The Gay Desperado is a 1936 musical lampooning the then-popular gangster pictures. Leo Carrillo plays a genial Mexican bandit, Pablo Braganza, who gets nowhere until he and his amigos begin studying gangster techniques - courtesy of Hollywood movies. Selecting kidnapping as his crime of choice, Pablo snatches opera star Chivo (Nino Martini) simply because he likes his singing. But the bold bandito gets in over his head when he abducts a troublesome heiress, Jane (Ida Lupino), and her nerdy fiancé, Bill (James Blakely). Chivo hopes to extract a huge ransom for Jane's return, but the girl is more trouble than she's worth. All ends happily when Pablo engineers a romance between Jane and Chivo.

Rouben Mamoulian's uproarious comedy The Gay Desperado (1936) was one of a handful of talkies produced by Mary Pickford at United Artists and comes to DVD courtesy of the Mary Pickford Foundation and Milestone Films. In contrast to the way most movies held by estates and smaller distributors usually look on DVD -- which is to say, poorly preserved and filled with flaws -- this picture looks and sounds exceptionally good. Indeed, there are major studio releases from the same decade that haven't come to digital disc looking this good, and the quality would seem to be a credit to the U.C.L.A. Film Archive, which did a major restoration job on the film. The volume takes a bit of a boost but not nearly as much as some movies have needed, and when Metropolitan Opera star Nino Martini starts to sing...this becomes one of the prettier musicals as well as one of the funnier comedies of its period. The picture is sharp in every shot, and the contrasts are amazingly rich and varied with a vast range of detail and shadings. The 87-minute movie has been given 14 chapters that are well chosen as an outline of the plot. The disc opens automatically to the movie, with the chapter selection accessible manually through a sequential menu. There are no extras or bonus materials, but this movie is funny enough to carry itself just fine without any help.

Opera singer Chivo is currently playing a singing cowboy, and Mexican bandito Braganza kidnaps him (along with Jane, an heiress) so he can learn to become more like the American movie gangsters he admires.

This product was added to our catalog on Friday 15 November, 2013.

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