I Just Watched...

[LornaHansonForbes]

1 minute ago, calvinnme said:

Maybe it doesn't belong here. Maybe it belongs in a separate thread. But over the last five weeks I have been watching some of the best television I have seen in my life, the five episode miniseries Chernobyl on HBO. It takes some license with the truth, but it is pretty much spot on. And the license it does take with the truth is pretty much explained in the five accompanying podcasts that you can find on youtube. If this miniseries doesn't walk away with every Emmy it is eligible for it will be a great injustice.

Yeah, no. It ABSOLUTELY belongs here...if you want to scroll back to page one, I think the original poster of this thread spelled it out as LITERALLY THIS THREAD IS FOR ANYTHING "I [meaning you] just watched..." whether it's movie, tv, classic or modern, documentary, WHATEVER.

a good deal of us come for recommendations in general (or, in some cases, recommendations for avoiding something...)

and i've been reading a lot about this CHERNOBYL thing and I am intrigued, and it's always nice to get feedback on modern stuff, especially as there's not a lot of modern stuff i know squat about.

so, thanks.

(although, I think the EMMYS are a little silly)

 

[LawrenceA]

5 minutes ago, calvinnme said:

Maybe it doesn't belong here. Maybe it belongs in a separate thread. But over the last five weeks I have been watching some of the best television I have seen in my life, the five episode miniseries Chernobyl on HBO. It takes some license with the truth, but it is pretty much spot on. And the license it does take with the truth is pretty much explained in the five accompanying podcasts that you can find on youtube. If this miniseries doesn't walk away with every Emmy it is eligible for it will be a great injustice.

I read this week that Russian state television has rushed their own Chernobyl movie into production to counter the HBO series. In the new Russian version, an American CIA agent is present when the meltdown occurs...

[LornaHansonForbes]

hear me out on this,

I don't like KISS ME STUPID either BUT, I DO like CIGARJOE- somuchso, in fact, that I value his opinion and am wondering what I missed (and if it crosses my path in the future, I will give it a third(?) fourth(?) try.

part of me GENUINELY FEELS that if KISS ME STUPID had been a full length cartoon (like fully animated) in the vein of those PLAYBOY CARTOONS from the 50's and sixties, it would be GREAT.

[LornaHansonForbes]

2 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:

I read this week that Russian state television has rushed their own Chernobyl movie into production to counter the HBO series. In the new Russian version, an American CIA agent is present when the meltdown occurs...

omg, if given the chance I'D WATCH THE RUSSIAN VERSION IN A FRIGGIN HEARTBEAT!

I bet it's a RIOT.

 

[cigarjoe]

12 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:

Or it could be that I understood all of the jokes and references, and just didn't find them funny.

I can't speak for kingrat, but personally I tend not to share the same comedy tastes with most people. Some Like It Hot is considered an all-time comedy great. To me it's like a bad sitcom. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is reportedly thought to be hilarious by a majority of viewers, yet I thought it was excruciatingly dumb and obnoxious. The same goes for The Three Stooges, Red Skelton, most Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, etc.

What's your opinions of these early TV comedies? Just to get a feel for what you like. 

The Honeymooners

Sargent Bilko

Car 54 Where Are You?

The Abbot and Costello Show

Amos 'n' Andy

[LornaHansonForbes]

I have not watched any classic films for almost a month now !!!! and I broke that streak by watching CITY FOR CONQUEST (1940) this morning...i have to say, I was largely disappointed by it...

I'm not taking the time to get the release dates straight, but it seemed to me as if one of CLIFFORD ODETS'S "Fellow Traveler" writers went to see GOLDEN BOY and then decided to baldly SNATCH the entire premise of the story and re-tell it in a way that sucked less, but had the same sense of SLAPPING THE AUDIENCE REPEATEDLY IN THE FACE WITH SAID WRITER'S DAMN BOLSHEVIK POLITICS.

the first 2/3 dragged, the final act was made a lot better by a STUNNINGLY GOOD ANN SHERIDAN- make-up free; USING her EYES, playing a complicated character with a lot of emotional scenes and she was more real than I've ever seen her before.

CAGNEY is sensational as a blinded boXer. HE HAS SOME DYNAMITE SCENES IN ACT THREE, and the make-up dept at Warner's is to be commended.

A stunningly young ARTHUR KENNEDY is in it- he's handsome and likeable, but he gets annoying near the end when his character- Cagney's brother from the slums MAKES IT BIG as a SERIOUS COMPOSER ARTISTE WITH DAN DURYEA HAIR (which to be fair, Arthur WERKS)

there was also a chocking scene near the end where three chorus girls are preactically nude in black lace see through outfits.

The opening credits moved SUSPICIOUSLY FAST...like each name was onscreen for- I swear less than 3 seconds; also they used the music from the same year's ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO also directed by Litvak...

I have a sense this was a troubled production, according to imdb, some scenes were directed by JEAN NEGULESCO when Litvak had an "eye injury" that kept him off set

Did BETTE DAVIS put out one of her AMERICAN SPIRITS on ANATOLE'S cornea during a particularly demanding day of reshoots on ALL THAT HEAVEN...?

Only the soundstage walls could tell you.

 

edit- i forgot to mention, ELIA KAZAN has a supporting role as a real two-faced Rat Bastard. He was (needless to say?) excellent in the part.

[LawrenceA]

1 minute ago, cigarjoe said:

What's your opinions of these early TV comedies? Just to get a feel for what you like. 

The Honeymooners

Sargent Bilko

Car 54 Where Are You?

The Abbot and Costello Show

Amos 'n' Andy

I seldom found The Honeymooners funny, although a line or two here and there was good. I detest Phil Silvers. I only saw Car 54 once or twice, so I couldn't really say on that one. Abbott & Costello I found funny when I was a kid, but as I got older, Lou's shtick got old, too. I never liked Amos 'n' Andy.

I'm not trying to be snobbish. If anything, I laugh at sillier and stranger stuff. Absurdity, and playing with conventions, I often find funny. I love early Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields. I never liked Laurel & Hardy much, though. From there my humor jumps to the 60's and Peter Sellers/Goon Show, and Monty Python, and then on to Saturday Night Live and SCTV. I'm not thoroughly familiar with his work, but from what I've seen I like Ernie Kovacs. 

I'm not passing judgment on anyone else for liking other comedy, or disliking what I enjoy. Comedy is the most subjective genre, as you can't really argue that someone is wrong if they are laughing, which is the hoped for end result. And I'm not absolutist about the ones I listed not liking, either. I'm sure there are lines of dialogues or physical business that I'd laugh at here or there.

[laffite]

14 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

omg, if given the chance I'D WATCH THE RUSSIAN VERSION IN A FRIGGIN HEARTBEAT!

I bet it's a RIOT.

 

Yes, right on. It may even make Lawrence laugh. I'm jesting, Lawrence, but that Some Like It Hot is like a bad sitcom surprises me. Am I wrong to opine that you seem to react negatively to movies that "try to hard" to be funny. I think to notice a thread there in your remarks. Not a slam, just a guess. I thought MAD MAD MAD WORLD was a great comic effort if not necessarily a great movie. I laughed so hard I hurt when Jonathan Winters ripped that house down. But that says more about Winters than it does the movie, perhaps. Anyway I apparently have a "blind spot" (if I may so term it) as well, as I think that BLAZING SADDLES is in the bad sitcom category. In fact it gives "bad sitcom" a bad name, it's more like a protracted and agonizingly atrocious tv skit. 

Yike, this post should have been in answer to you, Lawrence, directly. I hope you don't mind if I use the side door.

[cigarjoe]

We just got a different sense of humor, I can watch those I listed (they are some of my favorites and had sort of vaudevillian roots) also The Beverly Hillbillies, F Troop, The Adams Family, and I Love Lucy, but can't take much of say Gilligan's Island, McHale's Navy or Green Acres for very long.

[speedracer5]

I saw Kiss Me Stupid once and did not like it.  However based on CigarJoe's review, I think I'm going to give it another try. I like the 60s sex comedies, especially the ones that are able to get away with racier content.  I loved Some Like it Hot, but disliked Irma La Douce.  

I do not find The Honeymooners funny.  I don't find Jackie Gleason's loud and mean shtick funny.  Though I do think he's the best part of Smokey and the Bandit. I also dislike Abbott and Costello, I tire of their routines very quickly.  Something that starts out clever, like their "Who's on first?" routine, starts out funny then goes on way too long, to the point where I'm irritated by it and want it to end. I love Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers, but can only take The Three Stooges in short bursts.  Phil Silvers' shtick is also unfunny. Jerry Lewis gets on my last nerve.

I love I Love Lucy and I love Green Acres.  But I can only take The Beverly Hillbillies and Gilligan's Island for so long.  

I watched some of the Ernie Kovacs show earlier this year.  I think I liked it, but I also had no idea what was going on. 

I tire of characters whose main gimmick is being dumb or clumsy. It gets old really quickly.

[LawrenceA]

24 minutes ago, cigarjoe said:

We just got a different sense of humor, I can watch those I listed (they are some of my favorites and had sort of vaudevillian roots) also The Beverly Hillbillies, F Troop, The Adams Family, and I Love Lucy, but can't take much of say Gilligan's Island, McHale's Navy or Green Acres for very long.

I watched I Love Lucy a lot when I was a kid, as one of my sisters was obsessed with it. I enjoyed it quite a bit, even if I eventually got tired of seeing it over and over again. I liked The Addams Family, and to a much lesser extent, The Munsters, but that was due to the horror tie-in. I can't say I was fond of the others you listed. I went through a Leave It to Beaver phase when I was a kid. Strangely enough, despite my southern upbringing, we never really watched The Andy Griffith Show on a regular basis, although we watched it on occasion.

[speedracer5]

Just now, LawrenceA said:

I watched I Love Lucy a lot when I was a kid, as one of my sisters was obsessed with it. I enjoyed it quite a bit, even if I eventually got tired of seeing it over and over again. I liked The Addams Family, and to a much lesser extent, The Munsters, but that was due to the horror tie-in. I can't say I was fond of the others you listed. I went through a Leave It to Beaver phase when I was a kid. Strangely enough, despite my southern upbringing, we never really watched The Andy Griffith Show on a regular basis, although we watched it on occasion.

I never tire of I Love Lucy.  I liked The Munsters more than The Addams Family.  There was a period when I was in high school where one of the channels (The Family Channel, maybe?) played Leave it to Beaver and My Three Sons.  I used to enjoy watching those.  If I recall, I liked Leave it to Beaver more than My Three Sons. I love The Andy Griffith Show, though I've really only seen the black and white Don Knotts episodes and a handful of the color ones.  The show wasn't the same without Knotts. I never watched Gomer Pyle though.  They took my least favorite character on 'Andy' and gave him his own show.  I would have loved a Barney Fife show. 

[LawrenceA]

Sherlock Holmes - Series One (1964-1965)

BBC television adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's characters, with Douglas Wilmer as Holmes, and Nigel Stock as his comrade Dr. Watson. The DVD set contained 10 episodes plus the original pilot, while the remaining two episodes are incomplete and were not included. I found the show rather dull and artless. Wilmer isn't bad, really, but the scripts and/or direction didn't give him much to work with, despite working from Doyle's source materials. Stock doesn't make much of an impact as Watson, playing it more along the slightly-befuddled line of Nigel Bruce in the 40's films. I enjoyed guest appearances by Peter Wyngarde, Patrick Wymark, and Joss Ackland as villainous characters, and Peter Madden made for an adequate Inspector Lestrade. The BBC didn't get around to a second series until 1968, by which time Wilmer, who didn't like working on the first series, refused to return. He was replaced by Peter Cushing.

Source: Warner/BBC DVD

[ElCid]

1 hour ago, speedracer5 said:

I never tire of I Love Lucy.  I liked The Munsters more than The Addams Family.  There was a period when I was in high school where one of the channels (The Family Channel, maybe?) played Leave it to Beaver and My Three Sons.  I used to enjoy watching those.  If I recall, I liked Leave it to Beaver more than My Three Sons. I love The Andy Griffith Show, though I've really only seen the black and white Don Knotts episodes and a handful of the color ones.  The show wasn't the same without Knotts. I never watched Gomer Pyle though.  They took my least favorite character on 'Andy' and gave him his own show.  I would have loved a Barney Fife show. 

Beaver, Sons and Griffin are on some of the Over the Air networks, which are also carried on some cable channels.  Beaver and Sons are usually in the morning. 

[cigarjoe]

1 hour ago, speedracer5 said:

I never tire of I Love Lucy.  I liked The Munsters more than The Addams Family.  There was a period when I was in high school where one of the channels (The Family Channel, maybe?) played Leave it to Beaver and My Three Sons.  I used to enjoy watching those.  If I recall, I liked Leave it to Beaver more than My Three Sons. I love The Andy Griffith Show, though I've really only seen the black and white Don Knotts episodes and a handful of the color ones.  The show wasn't the same without Knotts. I never watched Gomer Pyle though.  They took my least favorite character on 'Andy' and gave him his own show.  I would have loved a Barney Fife show. 

I watched I Love Lucy a lot to, The Munsters was a bit dumber however it did have Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis who I loved from Car 54 Where Are You? I also watched Leave it to Beaver and Andy Griffith but as you said it wasn't the same without Knotts.

[speedracer5]

7 minutes ago, cigarjoe said:

I watched I Love Lucy a lot to, The Munsters was a bit dumber however it did have Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis who I loved from Car 54 Where Are You? I also watched Leave it to Beaver and Andy Griffith but as you said it wasn't the same without Knotts.

I thought the Munsters was funny, though yes I agree it was sort of dumb.  I didn't like The Addams Family.  I just didn't find that show funny. The funniest thing about the Munsters was how they thought of themselves as your average everyday family.  They pitied poor Marilyn because of her looks. Lol. One of my favorite episodes has Herman struck by lightning.  He is horribly "disfigured" and emerges looking like Fred Gwynne, sans makeup.  The family and Herman are shocked by how hideous he looks.  They even go to a plastic surgeon asking him to restore Herman's looks, but the doctor thinks they're bonkers and refuses.  Herman ends up getting struck by lightning again, and his looks are restored. 

The Don Knotts-less 'Andy Griffith' brought us more Gomer and the boring Howard Sprague.  The best thing about Howard Sprague was his mother.  Deputy Warren was no replacement for Barney Fife.

[EricJ]

5 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

I can't speak for kingrat, but personally I tend not to share the same comedy tastes with most people. Some Like It Hot is considered an all-time comedy great. To me it's like a bad sitcom. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is reportedly thought to be hilarious by a majority of viewers, yet I thought it was excruciatingly dumb and obnoxious. The same goes for The Three Stooges, Red Skelton, most Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, etc.

Some Like It Hot is good if you can imagine showing it to today's audience and imagining the reaction you'd get--Like in the similarly all-out One, Two, Three, Billy Wilder knew that un-PC humor is funnier if you consciously dive in and wallow in it, and you'll suffer for it if you only timidly dip a toe.  "Kiss Me Stupid", OTOH, shows that if you float somewhere in the middle, all you'll get is Stupid.

I will concur that IaM4W is excruciatingly bad (during the never-ending highway chases, I kept flashing back on Roger Ebert's famous comment about the Cannonball Run movies), but would rebut the others with enforced film-school showings of "You Nazty Spy", The Court Jester, The Nutty Professor (imagine that Jerry isn't "imitating Dean Martin", but had a grudge against Frank Sinatra...), and anything with Red in live concert.   I doubt they'll change your mind--as I'm guessing yours is the type that doesn't change easily--but at least it'll cut down on using them interchangeably in the same sentence.  😀

2 hours ago, speedracer5 said:

I thought the Munsters was funny, though yes I agree it was sort of dumb.  I didn't like The Addams Family.  I just didn't find that show funny. The funniest thing about the Munsters was how they thought of themselves as your average everyday family. 

I grew up on the Munsters, but just now--this week--finished getting through a newly-purchased boxset of The Addams Family, and what was I thinking all those years?

The key to finding the Addamses funny is the question we always wondered as kids:  WAS John Astin deliberately trying to play Gomez as Groucho Marx?  (Ie., making wisecracks with his cigar, reacting to things with comically formal exuberance, and then leaping on Morticia Margaret-Dumont-style every time she spoke French?)  If you go into the show on the premise of thinking "Yes", it's one of the most ingeniously funny sitcoms of the 60's--Producer Nat Perrin worked with the Marxes in his early days, writing gags for "Duck Soup" and "The Big Store", and he captures the same rebellious note of comic anarchy, it's actually more in the spirit of watching "a Marx Brothers TV series" than You Bet Your Life was with Groucho.  

Lisa "Wednesday" Loring, on the commentary, said she used to handle the Addams/Munsters debate at fan conventions by saying not only that the Addams was a Marx comedy, but the Munsters was a Three Stooges comedy:  In their comedies, the Stooges thought they were responsible go-getting entrepreneurs, would set out to get jobs as plumbers or housepainters, and because they were knuckleheads, make a mess of it...The Marxes, OTOH, would invade some fortress of respectability, like the opera or cruise ships, bring their own brand of logic, and respectable society would be powerless to stop them.  On their shows, the Munsters tried to be average everyday members of suburbia, and didn't know why everyone ran away at the sight of them--But on the Addams' show, someone would try to take advantage of the Addams' fortune or influence, and once inside the mansion, soon wished he hadn't, and would run out the door with our heroes happily unscathed, and unaware than anything had ever posed a threat to them.  

[LawrenceA]

Beach Ball (1965)  -  5/10

Paramount tries to do their own beach movie, with mixed results. Edd Byrnes stars as Dick, who's trying to manage his buddies' rock trio (Robert Logan, Aron Kincaid, and Don Edmonds) into a successful act. When they come up short for paying their instrument rental fees, Dick comes up with a plan to hoodwink a university for the money to buy their own equipment. The school sends four young ladies (Chris Noel, Mikki Jamison, Brenda Benet, and Gail Gilmore) to oversee the expenditure, with the expected romantic results. Also featuring Anna Lavelle, James Wellman, Jack Bernardi, and Dick Miller as "Cop #1". With musical performances by The Supremes, The Four Seasons, The Righteous Brothers, The Walker Brothers, and the Hondells. The fictitious band in the film, "The Wrigglers", perform the most songs, generic surf-rock/teen idol stuff. The comedy is bad, Edd Byrnes is terrible and brings nothing but his meager name recognition to the table, and the movie looks cheap. However, the women are gorgeous and often in bikinis, the music is pretty good if silly and imminently forgettable, and there's a big custom hot rod show at the end.

Source: internet, ripped from a TCM showing back in 2012, it's sole airing.  

 

[kingrat]

2 hours ago, cigarjoe said:

What's your opinions of these early TV comedies? Just to get a feel for what you like. 

The Honeymooners

Sargent Bilko

Car 54 Where Are You?

The Abbot and Costello Show

Amos 'n' Andy

Didn't see much of Honeymooners or Bilko growing up. As a kid I loved Car 54 and can still sing the title song. Our family also watched Amos 'n' Andy, which my parents had followed since it was a radio show. I Love Lucy was another favorite, and we liked the early Andy Griffith seasons. Didn't follow it when Don Knotts left, if I recall. I've always loved the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Buster Keaton, and Charlie Chaplin. Not Chaplin in Limelight, however; the flea circus bit is a perfect example of trying to be funny and not succeeding and being painful to endure. Didn't see much of Abbott and Costello as I was growing up, but now I laugh at their movies and the Hope/Crosby Road movies. I always loved Carol Burnett, but Tim Conway is more in the "trying to be funny" category for me.

I like some of Wilder's comedies, especially Some Like It Hot. I've been told that Irma La Douce was the most financially successful of Wilder's films (I know, how is that possible?), and that's why he concentrated on comedy later in his career. A friend has commented that he generally likes all of Wilder's dramas, which usually have some comic elements, but is overall less fond of Wilder's comedies, even though Wilder is best known for comedy.

I think Kiss Me, Stupid reflecis Wilder's attempt to come to terms with the changing audience tastes and the changing environment for filmmaking. Most of the established directors who were Wilder's contemporaries had problems with this, too.

[cigarjoe]

The humor in Kiss Me Stupid is a kin to what used to be prevalent on TV. A lot of risque stuff got around the TV Production code in various ways, Groucho's You Bet Your Life, and late night TV The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson for a prime example. You'd even see in on game shows like Hollywood Squares, and The Newlywed Game.  

[LawrenceA]

1 hour ago, EricJ said:

Some Like It Hot is good if you can imagine showing it to today's audience and imagining the reaction you'd get--Like in the similarly all-out One, Two, Three, Billy Wilder knew that un-PC humor is funnier if you consciously dive in and wallow in it, and you'll suffer for it if you only timidly dip a toe.  "Kiss Me Stupid", OTOH, shows that if you float somewhere in the middle, all you'll get is Stupid.

I will concur that IaM4W is excruciatingly bad (during the never-ending highway chases, I kept flashing back on Roger Ebert's famous comment about the Cannonball Run movies), but would rebut the others with enforced film-school showings of "You Nazty Spy", The Court Jester, The Nutty Professor (imagine that Jerry isn't "imitating Dean Martin", but had a grudge against Frank Sinatra...), and anything with Red in live concert.   I doubt they'll change your mind--as I'm guessing yours is the type that doesn't change easily--but at least it'll cut down on using them interchangeably in the same sentence.  

My dislike for One, Two, Three had nothing to do with "un-PC humor". I don't recall what exactly was supposed to be "un-PC" about any of it, unless being funny is "PC", in which case, yeah it was "un-PC" in spades. I thought it was just manic loudness and obnoxious desperation, which is basically the same complaint I have with It's a Mad...World. 

I watched The Court Jester in the last year or so, and enjoyed it. It was easily the best of Kaye's films that I've watched, which is about 5 or 6 of them.

I also liked The Nutty Professor, although it's been 35+ years since the last time I watched it. I've seen 4 or 5 of the Martin/Lewis movies, and The Patsy, The Delicate Delinquent, The Ladies Man, Cinderfella, and The Family Jewels out of his solo efforts (excluding The King of Comedy, a personal favorite, for obvious reasons)

[LawrenceA]

To Sleep with Anger (1990)  -  6/10

From writer-director Charles Burnett, this film focuses on a black family with deep southern roots now living in L.A. When an old family friend (Danny Glover) shows up on their doorstep one day, he's invited to stay for a while. His seemingly benevolent exterior seems to belie a possibly diabolical spirit beneath, as his mere presence seems to cause all of the family's little quarrels and troubles to explode into violence, illness and tragedy. Co-starring Mary Alice, Paul Butler, Richard Brooks, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Carl Lumbly, Vonetta McGee, Julius Harris, Reina King, Sy Richardson, and Ethyl Ayler. This was a disappointment for me, as I was expecting a lot given its reputation. Director Carl Burnett was also responsible for the Important Cinema Classic Killer of Sheep (1978), which was also massively disappointing to me, so perhaps I should expected less. I enjoyed the blend of folklore and modern settings, and the cast is very good. The script is too murky, though, and a lot of the dialogue sounded artificial. The film's production values are sub-par too, similar in look to a 80's-era TV movie. However, much like Killer of Sheep, this is a highly respected film, so your opinion will most likely not jibe with mine. This was added to the National Film Registry in 2017.

Source: The Criterion Channel

 

[cigarjoe]

I saw It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World in 1963 as a ten year old on the big screen with my friends and it was a pisser. I still enjoy parts of it. 

Maybe the age you were and the general zestiest prevalent at the time when you saw it has something to do with it's appreciation or not. The cast was like a who's who of comedy. 

[cigarjoe]

Getting back on subject watching the Doris Day Tribute half -assed, got it on basically as background noise. 

Love Me or Leave Me (1955) was the best of what I haven't seen
Calamity Jane (1953) wasn't that interesting
 

[LawrenceA]

Buena Vista Social Club (1999)  -  5/10

Music documentary from director Wim Wenders focusing on the title music group, mostly old Cuban musicians and singers assembled by American guitarist and film composer Ry Cooder. The film gives brief profiles on many of the participants, and how living in post-revolution Cuba has shaped their lives. The film takes an even tone, and no political or social judgments are made. Much of the film is a recording of a concert of the group performing songs from their Grammy-winning album. This had a larger impact when released and scenes of Cuba were few and far between on US screens. This is also came out when there was a Latin music boom, helping raise this film's profile. I recall reading about it quite a bit at the time. I wasn't thrilled with the music, which greatly diminishes the enjoyment factor. I don't know, maybe I'm just in a bad mood. Or maybe I'm just generally a miserable ****.

Source: The Criterion Channel