Richard Chatten Shot on just the one set crowded with sombreros and flamenco dresses, this tinny studio-bound Hal Roach streamliner is very much a throwback to the early Technicolor musicals 'La Cucuracha' (1934) and 'Dancing Pirate' (1936), and further back still to the concluding Technicolor portion of the 1929 'Rio Rita'.Despite singing a song with the preposterous title "Never Trust a Jumping Bean", of the two femmes the tiny Armida far outshines top-billed opera star Anne Ayars (who looks considerably older than Armida despite being seven years younger). And Armida has two ranches! There's very little plot to speak of, although a brief comic interlude when a character falls into a tub of flour and is taken to be a ghost reminds us that this is a Hal Roach production.

crumpta Ran across this little movie by accident...What caught my eye was the billing of "George Negrete"....I had to watch it to see if that turned out to be Jorge Negrete. It did, and being a huge fan of his singing...well, I had to watch it. He was a really big star in that era in Mexico....I have several of his movies, and as many of his albums I could find. It's a simple movie...minimal plot....very much like an American copy of the style of Mexican movies of that era. A lot of inaccurate mixing of music, dress and accents, but still an amusing comedy with some pretty decent music....and pretty short, so it never really gets boring.

kidboots Obviously at 45 minutes it was only going to be a bottom feature for double bills and also served to introduce Anne Ayars to film audiences. At 22 she looked a lot older, which is probably why she didn't make much of a splash. She featured in "Dr. Kildare's Victory" and "Apache Trail" but only made a few films. She played Cholita, but was outshone by the dazzling Armida as Cuca. Armida was a beautiful Mexican dancer who's early credits include a sultry dance in "The Show of Shows" (1929). Another supporting player to watch was Antonio Moreno as Cholita's uncle, Don Hernandez. He had a huge career starting with bit parts in early Biograph films. His most famous role was as the stuffy boss in "It". When talkies came in he made a number of Spanish language films. He looks very dashing in "Fiesta".Cholita (Anne Ayers) returns to Mexico with her fiancé, pompous radio singer Fernando Gomez (George Givot in a performance that is little more than a caricature). He is a fortune hunter and switches his attentions to Cuca when he thinks she is rich.The Technicolor is there to showcase the vivid Mexican dances of which the film has plenty. Cuca sings and dances to a spirited song "Never Trust a Jumping Bean". Cholita sings "I'll Never Forget Fiesta" and the beautiful "La Golondrina".

Mart Sander This film probably would be of very, very little interest, were it not shot in colour. At least you can enjoy the magical reds and blues that have never been seen again since Technicolor process was replaced with cheaper and inferior ones. Amazingly enough, even as we are people from the 21st century, and are soon to celebrate Technicolor's one hundredth birthday (it began in 1917 with The Gulf Between, first two-strip Technicolor feature which has not survived), we still manage to be raptured by colour in these early films - especially if these only run for 45 minutes. The film features almost no plot, but at least a dozen songs - not bad ones - and the opportunity to see Anne Ayres, who a few years later became the leading lyrical soprano in the Metropolitain and returned to the screen only in 1951, when he was cast as Antonia in Tales of Hoffmann. Incidentally, she was the only woman in that film who actually lip-synced to her own voice. Her acting style is very sober and unassuming, so you might want to check out her other screen appearances.