The Mexican Spitfire’s Baby (1941)

(On Cable TV, December 2020) To be fair, there’s a really good idea at the heart of The Mexican Spitfire’s Baby, the fourth instalment in an eight-film series where the last seven films are as identical as they are interchangeable. Here, the misleading title sets up the film’s big joke: That when the titular Mexican Spitfire (Lupe Velez, equal to herself) and her featureless husband decide to adopt a French war orphan, they end up with a comely 20-year-old. Once again, the series’ usual comic engines then take over: Leon Errol once again does double duty as likable Uncle Matt and pompous Lord Epping, Velez screams incomprehensible Spanish, attempts to deal with the beautiful war orphan lead to the usual threats of divorce, and so on. While the film’s premise may be different, it soon degenerates into more or less the same kind of comic mayhem as the other films in the series, complete with a too-quick ending. Those waiting for a Mexican Spitfire newborn will have to wait (more or less) until the eighth and last instalment for the series to conclude on the impending arrival of a stork. Until then, The Mexican Spitfire’s Baby is pretty much the baseline standard for a series that took pride in reiterating the exact same formula.