The Half-Naked Truth (1932)

(On Cable TV, March 2021) After seeing the entire Mexican Spitfire series, it’s hard not to seek out other movies featuring Mexican-born Lupe Velez, not only one of Hollywood’s most striking beauties of the 1930s but also one of the few Latin actresses to find success playing explicitly Latin characters. The Half-Naked Truth finds her in the middle of her Hollywood career, well-established but not yet the headliner she would later become. Here she plays a hot-tempered dancer, often only a prop for the true protagonist of the film, a publicity agent doing his damnedest to promote his client. Velez is always worth looking at, of course, but even she becomes a supporting player to Lee Tracy’s unhinged performance as a motormouth hustler. The comedy is fast and absurd and intense — far more than you’d expect from a 1930s film, excluding the screwball genre. But it works — although the film eventually drives to a somewhat underwhelming conclusion, and seems to be missing a third act somewhere. It’s useful to note that many members of the film’s crew would go on to do bigger things later on, such as director Gregory La Cava going to much-better comedies such as My Man Godfrey. Still, even as an early work for everyone involved, it’s more than watchable.