lor de durazno
Silent movie
Premiere: September 28, 1917, at the Cine Teatro Coliseo
Company: Patria Film
Director: Francisco Defilipis Novoa
Script: on an adaptation of Hugo Wast's "Flor de durazno",
de
Shot in Dolores (Valle de Punilla-Córdoba) and Buenos Aires.
Cast: Ilde Pirovano, Diego Figueroa, Celestino Petray and Silvia Parodi,
among others.
Fabián has to leave town and Rina, his girl friend, was seduced
by Germán who later forsook her pregnant. Ashamed and scorned
by her father, she travels to Buenos Aires where she is humiliated
on several occasions until she finally returns to her paternal home.
After her comeback, Fabián forgives her ex-girl friend and
marries her. The couple had a child but he dies and the old rancor
comes back triggering the tragic finale for all the protagonists.
Luces de Buenos Aires
Premiere: September 23, 1932, at the Cine Capitol
Company: Paramount
Director: Adelqui Millar
Script: Manuel Romero and
Luis Bayón
Herrera
Music: Gerardo Matos Rodríguez,
featuring the Julio De Caro
Orchestra
Shot in Joinville (France)
Cast: Sofía Bozán,
Vicente Padula, Gloria Guzmán, Pedro Quartucci, among others.
Anselmo Torres is a plain countryman with hopes about his fiancée
Elvira. Everything was all right until Elvira went to Buenos Aires
with a girl friend expecting to start a theater career. Worried because
he had no news of her, Anselmo traveled to the city, accompanied by
some friends, to fetch her. Finally he found her at a party of dubious
morality.
Disillusioned and hurt, he goes to a café where the memorable
interpretation of "Tomo
y obligo" takes place. Finally, they resorted to an ingenious
stratagem to abduct Elvira and take her back to the countryside. There
is a happy ending.
Gardel sings, also, "El
rosal" and Sofía
Bozán, "La
provinciana" and "Canto por no llorar".
Espérame (andanzas de un criollo en España)
Premiere: October 5, 1933, at the Cine Real
Company: Paramount
Director: Luis Gasnier
Script: Alfredo Le Pera
Music: Carlos Gardel, Marcel
Lattés and Don
Aspiazú. Featuring the Aspiazú's Cuban Orchestra
and the guitarist Horacio
Pettorossi.
Shot in Joinville (France)
Cast: Goyita Herrero, Lolita Benavente, Jaime Devesa, among others.
Rosario does not like the idea of marrying the suitor chosen by his
father. She dreams, day and night, of a singer called Carlos de Acuña
and is ready to do anything to make her dream come true. After many
vicissitudes, including an escape, Rosario succeeded in sentimentally
joining Carlos, because the latter discovered his rival was, in fact,
a vulgar and unscrupulous delinquent. A key witness will tell the
truth to the young girl's father.
Gardel sings: "Por
tus ojos negros", "Me
da pena confesarlo", "Criollita de mis ensueños"
and "Estudiante".
La casa es seria
Premiere: May 19, 1933, at the Cine Suipacha
Company: Paramount
Director: Jaquelux
Script: Alfredo Le Pera
Music: Carlos Gardel and Marcel
Lattés
Shot in Joinville (France)
Cast: Imperio Argentina,
Lolita Benavente, Josita Hernán, among others.
Lost short film, about 25 minutes long, whose soundtrack was saved.
Juan Carlos Romero stubbornly harasses Carmen Rivera, disregarding
the woman's complaints until the persistent admirer succeeds in making
her accept him. They agree that he will go to visit her, and when
he is near her window after an agreed signal, Carmen would throw the
key so that he will be able to enter. When the time comes and the
signal is made, a lot of keys are thrown from several windows.
Gardel sings "Recuerdo
malevo" and "Quiéreme", which was not committed
to record.
Melodía de arrabal
Premiere: April 5, 1933, at the Cine Porteño
Company: Paramount
Director: Luis Gasnier
Script: Alfredo Le Pera
Music: Carlos Gardel, José Sentis, Horacio
Pettorossi, Marcel
Lattés and Raúl Moretti, featuring the orchestra
led by Juan Cruz Mateo and Horacio Pettorossi.
Shot in Joinville (France)
Cast: Imperio Argentina,
Vicente Padula, Jaime Devesa and Manuel París, among others.
Vicente Padula and Gardel
Mr. Torres made a living by stealing at cafés, cheating in
gambling with Pedro Ventura, a friendly accomplice. He was as well
a singer. One day he met Alina, a singing instructor, who recommended
him to a theater impresario for a chance. Torres, ashamed of his way
of life, hides his true identity and tells her his name is Roberto
Ramírez.
The story gets worse when, in a quarrel, the singer kills Rancales,
an old accomplice of the café who threatens him by telling
the truth to Alina. The policeman in charge of the investigation discovers
the truth about the murder and, also, the double identity of Ramírez.
But, instead of denouncing him, he helps him out of gratitude, because
on another occasion the singer had saved his life.
Gardel sings: "Melodía
de arrabal", "Cuando
tú no estás", "Silencio"
and "Mañanita
de sol", in duo with Imperio
Argentina. Imperio Argentina sings: "Evocación",
"No sé por qué" and "La marcha de los
granaderos".
Cuesta abajo
Premiere: September 5, 1934, at the Cine Monumental
Company: Paramount
Director: Luis Gasnier
Script: Alfredo Le Pera
Music: Alberto Castellanos
Shot in Long Island (New York)
Cast: Mona Maris, Vicente Padula, Anita del Campillo, Carlos Spaventa
and Alfredo Le Pera, among
others.
The student Carlos Acosta quit his studies and forsook
his fiancée Rosita to follow Raquel, a woman who leads him
to an immoral life and to his doom.
The protagonist works at a café in a port of the United States,
dancing for money. There he finds an old friend, Jorge Linares, passing
through on his way to Argentina. When he approaches a secluded spot
at the café to talk, discovers that Raquel supports another
man with the money he gives her.
Carlos decides to join his friend and return to Buenos Aires to meet
again with Rosita who still was waiting for him.
Gardel sings: "Amores
de estudiante", "Por tu boca roja", "Criollita
decí que sí", "Cuesta
abajo" and "Mi
Buenos Aires querido". Carlos Spaventa sings: "En
los campos en flor" and the estilo "Olvido".
El tango de Broadway
Premiere: March 12, 1935, at the Cine Teatro
Broadway
Company: Paramount
Director: Luis Gasnier
Script: Alfredo Le Pera
Music: Alberto Castellanos
Shot in Long Island (New York)
Cast: Trini Ramos, Blanca Vischer, Agustín Cornejo, Vicente
Padula, Jaime Devesa and Carlos Spaventa, among others.
Alberto Bazán is a frivolous young man, scarcely concerned
about work and business, who has a love affair with a dancer named
Celia. His strict uncle announces his visit and then they try to deceive
him: they tell Laurita, Alberto's secretary, to behave as if she were
his fiancée; and Celia plays the role of his secretary.
A funny comedy that climaxes when Alberto falls in love with Laurita,
and his uncle, putting aside his seriousness, falls for Celia.
Gardel sings: "Rubias
de Nueva York", "Golondrinas",
"Soledad"
and "Caminito
soleado". Agustín Cornejo sings: "Chinita"
and "Qué me importa".
Cazadores de estrellas (The big broadcast of 1935)
Premiere: April 30, 1936, at the Cine Astor
Company: Paramount
Director: Norman Taurog y Theodore Reed
Shot in Hollywood (USA), except Gardel's which were made in Long Island
(New York).
It is a musical with various artists of the time: Jack Oakie, Bing
Crosby, Ray Noble and his orchestra, George Burns and the Singing
Children of Vienna, among others.
Carlos Gardel appears in two scenes with Celia Villa, Manuel Pelufo
and Carlos Spaventa. He sings "Apure
delantero buey" and "Amargura".
El día que me quieras
Premiere: July 16, 1936, at the Cine Teatro Broadway
Company: Paramount
Director: John Reinhardt
Script: Alfredo Le Pera
Music: Terig
Tucci
Shot in Long Island (New York)
Cast: Rosita Moreno, Tito
Lusiardo, Manuel Pelufo and Agustín Cornejo, among others.
Julio Argüelles, son of a well-to-do family and secretly a singer,
challenges the paternal authority and marries and actress. Despised
and jobless, with his wife who is ill, he decides to steal at his
father's home. Later he becomes a widower and devotes himself to singing,
with his daughter, to make a living. The young girl falls in love
with a boy whose father does not approve of the engagement because
her parents were artists. But, later, he changed his mind when he
discovered the true identity of Argüelles.
Gardel sings: "Sol
tropical", "Sus
ojos se cerraron", "Guitarra,
guitarra mía", "Volver",
"Suerte
negra", in a trio with Lusiardo
and Pelufo, and "El
día que me quieras", with a finale in a duo with Rosita
Moreno.
Tango bar
Premiere: August 22, 1935, at the Cine Suipacha
Company: Paramount
Director: John Reinhardt
Script: Alfredo Le Pera
Music: Terig
Tucci
Shot in Long Island (New York)
Cast: Rosita Moreno, Enrique de Rosas, Tito
Lusiardo, José Luis Tortosa and Manuel Pelufo, among others.
The action takes place onboard of a steamer. Laura Montalván
is a thief that relies on the complicity of the captain of the steamer,
Zerrillo. On this voyage Ricardo Fuentes is interested in her but
he discovers what is happening. Time later he opened a "dancing",
"Tango Bar", and saved Laura from a difficult situation
by hiding a stolen piece in his strongbox and by persuading the police
that was after the woman of her innocence. It seemed that this would
be his last friendly gesture toward her, he had decided to break up
with her, but he is persuaded by her promise of changing her way of
life definitively.
Gardel sings: "Por
una cabeza", "Los
ojos de mi moza", "Lejana
tierra mía" and "Arrabal
amargo".
