Pan-Americana (1945)

(On Cable TV, September 2021) American WW2 propaganda movies took many forms, and one of them could even be to exemplify the FDR administration’s “Good Neighbor” policies, which promoted friendship with Latin American nations. What this means in the context of a rather silly romantic comedy is that the protagonists of Pan-Americana follow a beauty contest featuring the lovely ladies of Mexico and southward — and that the film is crammed with Latin music and dance. Veteran writer-director-producer John H. Auer’s intention proves nobler than his execution — clichés and stereotypes abound in this film, clearly playing on American prejudices about what south-of-the-border beauties could look like. As a low-budget effort largely shot on Hollywood soundstages, Pan-Americana never could have been shot in colour and that’s regrettable given the costumes and musical numbers featured here. Still, the stereotypes are not mean-spirited, and the film can boast of some better-than-average repartee between the antagonistically romantic couples. Furthermore, let’s not minimize the unique appeal of the music — few movies were focused on Latin American performers at the time, and it manages to capture some entertainers rarely seen elsewhere in Hollywood history. While few will claim that Pan-Americana is a great film, it does offer something special compared to other movies of the time and gets at least a footnote entry for that alone. (Reaching for a dual-bill companion, the best I can do are the Latin American birds of the animated Disney film The Three Caballeros.)