James Francis Durante (1893-1980) had what in Britain might be called a Marmite personality: some people loved him, others hated him. For some, a little went a long way. (Personally, I’m a fan.) But what is undeniable is that Jimmy Durante had the longest career of any performer starring in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals. It began in 1931, ended in 1962, and included eleven pictures across all four decades.
Durante started out in show business playing ragtime piano, and developed humour out of the musical performance. This led to vaudeville, and then radio, with time spent as part of a three-man comedy act.
He made his film debut in 1930, at Paramount’s New York studios. By the following year he was in Hollywood, working for Metro. Jimmy Durante, throughout his career, moved seamlessly between films, Broadway, radio, records and, later on, television. In 1934, for example, he made films in New York because he was appearing on Broadway in Jumbo, which he would film twenty-eight years later.
Durante was sometimes the leading man in films; for instance, Palooka (1934), where he got top billing over Lupe Velez. More often, however, he was third or fourth billed, providing comic support.
Durante’s first MGM musical, this time billed below Lupe Velez, was The Cuban Love Song. This was followed by Broadway to Hollywoodand Hollywood Party (playing versions of himself), then Student Tour, Two Girls and a Sailor, Music for Millions, Two Sisters from Boston, It Happened in Brooklyn, This Time for Keeps, On an Island with You and, finally, Billy Rose’s Jumbo.
Durante’s last big screen appearance was in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), but he continued to work on television.
María Guadalupe Villalobos Vélez (1908-44) was one of a small group of Mexican actors–others included Ramon Novarro and Dolores del Rio–to become stars during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Velez started out by performing in Mexico’s version of vaudeville, before moving to the United States and appearing in a Hal Roach short with Charley Chase when she was eighteen. Her first feature film, The Gaucho (1927), in which she had a starring role, was made in the same year.
Velez had started learning English as a young teenager during a period living in Texas, and had no problem in transitioning to sound films. Habitually cast in Hispanic roles, she often exaggerated her very slight accent when acting. Velez developed a stereotyped reputation as a fiery, volatile character both on and off the screen, which led to her starring in a series of eight pictures about Carmelita Lindsay, the Mexican Spitfire.
The private life of Lupe Velez was of great interest to sections of the press, and she had highly-publicized relationships with, amongst others, Gary Cooper, Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, and Johnny Weismuller, whom she married.
Velez starred in two MGM musicals, The Cuban Love Song and Hollywood Party.
She took her own life at a young age, while pregnant, during what is now believed to have been a period of serious mental illness.
1917. In San Francisco’s Chinatown, three marines–Terry, Romance and O O Jones–are on shore leave and getting tattoos [Tramps at Sea]. O O, who refuses to tell his friends what the initials stand for, is unhappy with the tattoo of his girlfriend Elvira. He is taunted by his friends, they fight and, as always, end up in the brig.
Romance (Ernest Torrence) and O O (Jimmy Durante), with Terry (Lawrence Tibbett) at the wheel, out to see the sights in Havana
Just before their ship leaves for Cuba, Terry’s brother John brings Terry’s fiancee Crystal on board to say goodbye. Crystal pretends to be happy with Terry’s wandering life, but cries after he leaves her.
In Havana, Terry and his friends are escaping by car from the husbands of three married women when they hit a peanut vendor’s cart. Romance and O O flee the scene. The owner of the cart, Nenita Lopez, causes a fuss and is outraged when Terry kisses her.
At the police station, Nenita wants to press charges until she discovers Terry could get 20 years. With Terry’s help, she runs away to get help, and Terry is freed when his crewmates, led by Romance and O O, arrive en masse outside the station.
Terry tracks down the cabin where Nenita lives with her aunt and uncle. She tries to be standoffish, but succumbs to Terry’s charm.
Nenita (Lupe Velez) gets to know Terry
Later, Terry and his friends join Nenita at a picnic where she dances seductively [Spanish Song]. Terry and Nenita walk together and she explains the meaning of a lullaby [El Manisero (The Peanut Vendor)].
On Carnival Day, Terry and Nenita meet again. He helps her sell her peanuts [El Manisero], then they spend the rest of the day together [The Cuban Love Song]. They arrive back at Nenita’s home in the middle of the night. Terry follows Nenita into her room and tries to force himself on her, but she resists. Terry leaves after Aunt Rosa almost catches him, having decided not to force Nenita into anything. Nenita follows him outside and they make love in his car.
Later, Terry receives a letter from Crystal, gently complaining that he has not written to her. All the crew going on shore leave have to provide details of where they are going, because the ship is on a war footing. Terry finds Nenita has left home after quarreling about him with Aunt Rosa. She wants to follow Terry wherever he goes. Terry advises her to go back, but she refuses.
Terry spends his furlough with Nenita, but war is declared while he is away. O O and Romance lead an expedition up the river to bring back Terry [The Cuban Love Song]. Nenita realizes what is happening and packs her bags, saying she will go back home. She tries to pretend everything is fine, but finally she cries in his arms.
Terry, Romance and O O are sent to France, and Terry is seriously injured.
Back in America, Terry is cared for by his brother and Crystal. He despairs of ever getting better and tells Crystal he cannot marry her. When she refuses to listen, he tells her about Nenita and says he would go back to her if he could. Crystal says that is okay, but she is the one he needs right now.
Ten years later, Terry is in a nightclub celebrating his tenth anniversary with Crystal. The band plays the song Nenita used to sing [El Manisero] and he becomes thoughtful. Finally, Terry walks out of the nightclub.
The reunion of OO, Romance and Terry
Walking down the street, Terry comes across Romance, whom he has not seen for many years. Together, they go to the apartment where O O lives with Elvira and their many children. Elivira reveals that O O’s initials stand for Oswald Obadiah.
They all get drunk and make so much noise that the police are called. When they are released from the police station, Romance calls it a night. Terry and O O find themselves by the docks and O O goes to find a drugstore. Left alone, Terry’s guilt about not returning to Nenita grows [The Cuban Love Song] and he boards a ship bound for Havana. O O follows him, under the impression it is the Hoboken ferry.
In Havana, Terry searches for Nenita, and eventually learns that she is dead. He visits her grave and meets a young boy who turns out to be Nenita’s son, and whose name is also Terry. The boy has never met his father, but Nenita always said that he would come back one day. Terry takes his son back to New York, where Crystal meets them off the boat. She is happy to become a mother to young Terry. Terry and Crystal kiss.
Agostino Borgato (1871-1939) was a theatre actor in Italy and the UK prior to emigrating to America in 1925. He had also appeared in a number of Italian films from 1910 onwards, and directed five in the period 1918-21.
Borgato made his American screen debut in 1925, eventually appearing in around sixty films. After the introduction of sound, he played a variety of foreigners, though obviously with an emphasis on Italians. He was also cast in foreign-language versions of Hollywood films.
Borgato acted in seven MGM musicals: A Lady’s Morals, The Cuban Love Song, Broadway Melody of 1936, Rose-Marie, Maytime, The Firefly and Swiss Miss.
Gilbert Emery Bensley Pottle (1875-1945) was a successful author and playwright (sometimes under the name Emery Pottle) both before and during his career as a screen character actor. At least one of his plays, The Hero (1921), has been revived in the 21st century.
Following some stage acting, Emery made his first film, for Vitagraph, in 1921, but only appeared in one other silent film. From 1929 onwards, however, he accumulated around 80 credits.
Emery only appeared in one MGM musical, A Lady’s Morals, but he also contributed to the screenplays of a number of pictures, one of which was The Cuban Love Song.
Jack Mintz (1895-1983) had a varied career in the film world that took him from Monty Banks in 1926 to Troy Donahue in 1963.
Mintz worked as an assistant director, including on MGM musicals Free and Easy and The Cuban Love Song. He was also a contributing writer on The Wizard of Oz and Presenting Lily Mars. He also worked from time to time as a dialogue coach and assistant to the producer.
Mintz was, for a period in the 1940s, in charge of purchasing for Poverty Row studio Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), which must have involved handing budgets of dozens of dollars.
Harold G Rosson (1895-1988), commonly known as Hal, was one of Hollywood’s most prestigious cinematographers. He filmed over 150 pictures in a career spanning more than fifty years.
Rosson began his career in 1908 as a teenager, acting bit-parts for the Vitagraph Studios in his native New York. He subsequently worked for Famous Players-Lasky as a general dogbody, then moved to Hollywood to work as a cinematographer for MGM’s predecessor, Metro Pictures.
In the 1920s, Rosson frequently photographed Marion Davies, Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson. Then he signed a contract with MGM, where he spent the bulk of his career. He had ambitions to be a director, but studio executive Eddie Mannix told him he was far too good as a cameraman to ever be allowed to direct.
Rosson shot Jean Harlow in four films, and was briefly married to her.
Rosson photographed twelve MGM musicals, including two of the most venerated, The Wizard of Oz and Singin’ in the Rain. He started out with Madam Satan, claiming he learned more fromDeMille than anyone else in the business. He went on to shoot The Prodigal, The Cuban Love Song, The Cat and the Fiddle, No Leave, No Love, Living in a Big Way, On the Town, I Love Melvin and Dangerous When Wet. He also did uncredited work on The Chocolate Soldier.
