fiesta

January 23 movie: Fiesta. TCM started the Ricardo Montalban tribute with his first English language movie, Fiesta. The story is that Montalban grew up in Mexico City, then moved to LA as a teenager. He got the acting bug and tried to get into movies, but couldn't get any work. When he auditioned for a part in Tortilla Flat and was beaten out by John Garfield, he gave up on Hollywood in disgust and went back to Mexico. He became a serious actor in Mexico City, then was "discovered" by MGM when they came down to cast Fiesta.

Montalban is almost the only actor with a speaking part who's actually from Mexico. His father is at least played by a Spanish actor (Fortunio Bonanova). It goes downhill from there: Mary Astor is his mother, Akim Tamiroff the faithful family retainer, Cyd Charisse his girlfriend, John Carroll his future brother-in-law, and Esther Williams his twin sister! Alan Napier (Alfred from the old Batman series) gets to play his own nationality: he's a British tourist.