Sombrero (1953)

(On Cable TV, February 2022) While Sombrero features a mildly intriguing opening act that introduces a small Mexican village through fractious beauty contest, little of it sustains the entire film. The Mexican setting, MGM production and cast (with Ricardo Montalbán, and Cyd Charisse once again asked to play Hispanic) may bring to mind 1947’s Fiesta, but Sombrero struggles to maintain the same dramatic intensity—perhaps an artifact of having been adapted from three blended short stories. To be fair, some of the colour cinematography is sumptuous, Yvonne De Carlo looks amazing and Charisse gets a dance number to herself, even if it’s a weird one. But the film fails to take off. As for it being a representation of Latin America in Hollywood, well, it’s probably best not to look closely: The stereotypes run fast and thick and half the actors look as if they’ve been miscast. Yes, sure, Hollywood didn’t know any better then… but that’s not much of an excuse to twenty-first century viewers.