#golden age of Mexican cinema

[marzimar]

María Félix in Río Escondido (Hidden River) directed by Emilio Fernández (1948)

[hibiscusbabyboy]

Ximena Romo in "María Félix: La Doña" (2022)

She reminds me of Monica Bellucci here, I love ❤️

[citizenscreen]

Katy Jurado, a Force in Two Languages

[soffij]

"Doctor, ¿a usted nunca lo ha besado un hombre en la boca?"

"Decir que a uno le satisface todo es tanto como decir que a uno no le interesa nada. Así se explica que en este rincón del mundo sea yo el hombre más feliz de a tierra."

This may sound ridiculous, but I ship them 🤭

even want to write a fanfic about them, but oh boy, they'll have to wait.

Update: I already wrote a short work on ao3 (I want to write more though, much more), here it is.

[breserker]

so for the books (and my own benefit) i need to watch a lot of golden age of mexican cinema films, of that which i'm the most familiar with Pedro Infante's stuff. it's been slow going because none of this shit is very accessible and at this point in my life I understand Japanese wayyyy the hell better than whatever Spanish I left behind but it'll have to do when there are films that have no subtitles, english, spanish, or otherwise (weeps)

anyway one film i grew up with was La Tercera Palabra (1955) which is not dissimilar to My Fair Lady in some regards. unfortunately while this film was uploaded to youtube about 2 years ago and has nearly a million views, the most recent printing of the film is a 2003 DVD and the criterion collection has like. 1, soon 2 films from this era of Mexican history (for a total of 12 Mexican films at least one if not two of which are del toro's which, don't get me wrong dude. favorite living director. BUT, you feel me. when their French and Japanese and Italian lists sprawl for 90, 100, 200 entries and then there's this wholeeee classical era of a neighboring country's films not--ok rant for a different time)

point being, i THOUGHT the dvd i grew up with, that 2003 printing, had subtitles, if not in english then in spanish. probably not in english. i put in a request at my library like "hey can you find this film with english subs for me please bc it's not just me but my roommate wants to watch it after i hyped it up and the criterion collection--okay RANT FOR ANOTHER TIME". this occurred at 2am. 2 hours later i realize in despair no that 2003 dvd doesn't have eng subs, no release of the film has eng subs anywhere and i'm suddenly struck with the horror that i've only ever seen the film in pure spanish when i thought i had a guideline. so i send another despairing letter to the library like "please disregard that. i'm not drunk but i'm in despair."

well they got it for me anyway, same DVD from my childhood. i tottered home with it yesterday and popped it in and watched it and reader there were no spanish subs either. PURE 1955 audio quality spanish. how did i watch this as a kid.

it was extremely painful to watch as an adult. film is a visual medium so i did understand a lot of story beats, like, you know, i know they're falling in love in this scene. i have no idea why though. some jokes i got. but they were also easy to get. i understood the gist of the plot because i had seen it before (and no thanks to wikipedia, look at this awful stub of an english page. it lists only Sara Garcia as starring, but she's not EITHER of the two main roles, one of which is Marga Lopez (the protagonist) the other of which is Pedro Fucking Infante. yes i have plans to dress up that page at some point because christ this is bad)

either way it's still a fantastic film imo. you can watch it here if you like. the benefit to my viewing is that it's almost 1:1 how Vel watches the film on his tia's massive VHS collection of pedro infante movies, complete with "i get the film and some of the spanish but i can't quote anything nor truly understand the artistry of the dialogue".

[theaskew]

[nathancone]

Finally, a film from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema enters the Criterion Collection!

[seagiri]

i made myself a tf2 oc to ship with demo. say hi to jaimito.

hes a milkman hired by tf industries to deliver imported milk specifically to the red/blu base because local milk is radioactive (he has his own logo!! hes important)

[frostedmagnolias]

Lupe Vélez

[bashed-r4t]

Serenata / Ojos tapatíos As sung by Jorge Negrete and Pedro Infante in Dos tipos de cuidado (1953) dir. Ismael Rodríguez

[smuggsy]

Nosotros Los Pobres (1948) dir. Ismael Rodríguez.

[fisarmonical]

Ramon Novarro, MGM

[soffij]

My first published fic!

Rating: Not Rated

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: F/M

Fandoms: Me ha besado un hombre (1944), Cine de Oro Mexicano

Relationship: Luisa/El doctor

Characters: Luisa/Luis, El doctor

Additional Tags: Age Difference, personaje travesti, Crossdressing, época de oro cine mexicano, Period-Typical Homophobia, no beta we die like the real Luis, no beteado aquí se muere como el auténtico Luis

Language: Español

[hycinthrt]

eurydice and persephone from a hadestown au thats been in my mind for a while, set in in the first half of 20th century mexico, and if that sounds vague its because it is. im still not sure which decade exactly, i was thinking mexican revolution first but i love the aesthetic of the golden age of mexican cinema so much

i wanted to guide myself by 'times being what they are, hard and getting harder all the time' but that could literally be all of them

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Dolores del Río (Flying Down to Rio, Flor silvestre)—to begin with, dolores is so RADIANTLY BEAUTIFUL, even more so in action then in images, its like she emits a literal glow. marlene dietrich (a close friend and rumored lover) considered her "the most beautiful woman who ever set foot in hollywood". she was the first mexican actress to become a major success in hollywood, rising to fame in the silent era and becoming an influential icon of beauty and glamor in the art deco age, though she was not thrilled with the exoticizing parts often pushed on her. in the mid 1940s having tired of the controlling hollywood studio system she returned to mexico, saying "I wish to choose my own stories, my own director and cameraman. I can accomplish this better in mexico", and proceeded to become a pivotal figure in the golden age of mexican cinema, making a string of masterpieces with directir emilio fernández and cinematographer gabriel figueroa. i love this anecdote about the insane art deco mansion she and her then-husband cedric gibbons lived in in the 30s, as related by david niven: "Dolores had a large sunny room on the first floor containing a huge and inviting bed. Gibbons lived in comparative squalor in a small room immediately below. The only connection between these rooms was by way of a stepladder, which could be lowered only when a trapdoor in the floor of Dolores room had been raised. There was a long stick with which, we conjectured, he signaled his intention or hopes by rapping out signals on the floor of his wife’s bedchamber." heres a pinterest album with a billion hot pictures of her

Fay Wray (King Kong)— the original scream queen!! she started acting in silent comedies as a teenager and got her first big break when erich von stroheim cast her as the lead in the wedding march. her career started to take off starring in silent movies at paramount, and she survived the transition to sound smoothly - josef von sternberg’s weird proto-noir thunderbolt was one of her first sound films. she began to make horror movies in the early 1930s, such as doctor x and mystery of the wax museum, both filmed in beautiful two-strip technicolor (which looked like this if you're curious. i just think it's neat!), as well as the vampire bat, the most dangerous game, and of course the boy himself, king kong. a little on how she worked with her most famous costar: “Although Kong appeared huge, the full figure was a model covered with rabbit hair, standing only 18 inches tall, that was filmed one frame at a time by stop-motion photography artist Willis O'Brien and his crew. The 5ft 3in Wray only knew one part of the ape's body when she was grasped in an articulated 8ft long hand. Hence the title of her 1989 autobiography, On The Other Hand. ‘I would stand on the floor,’ she recalled, ‘and they would bring this arm down and cinch it around my waist, then pull me up in the air. Every time I moved, one of the fingers would loosen, so it would look like I was trying to get away. Actually, I was trying not to slip through his hand.’” (link)

This is round 2 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Dolores del Rio:

There's so much! She started in Silent films and successfully transitioned to sound, She is the first woman to wear a two piece swimsuit on screen & popularized the bikini!, She transitioned back to Mexican Cinema in the late 1940s and was a leading lady of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema including staring in Maria Candelaria--the first Mexican film to win the palm d'Or at Cannes. She was literally studied for her beauty & was considered a beauty ideal in both the USA & Mexico--there's a whole section on her Wikipedia page about how beautiful everyone thinks she was. She never actually had a feud with any of the female stars she was rumored to feud with despite the fact that press & Hollywood culture attempted to pain them in competition... She remained a leader in Mexican theater & Cinema through her own production company. Mexican painter Diego Rivera: "The most beautiful, the most gorgeous of the west, east, north and south. I'm in love with her as 40 million Mexicans and 120 million Americans who can't be wrong" (quote source: Wikipedia)

*fan self* Leading actress in silents and early Hollywood. Lover of Orson Welles until she got fed up with him, friend of Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo. When she got tired of Hollywood executives typecasting her as a stereotypical spitfire (and trying to force her to feud with Lupe Velez as a publicity stunt), she ditched Hollywood and became a major star of Mexican cinema, where she got to play rounded characters

Had a career in American cinema in the 20s and 30s and considered one of the most important figures in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema (30s to 50s).

Marlene Dietrich said Dolores was the most beautiful woman to set foot in Hollywood

Joan Crawford: "Dolores became, and remains, as one of the most beautiful stars in the world."

One of the few Latin American women working in the Hollywood industry to make it big not just in hre home country but internationally. In 1931, Photoplay magazine declared that Mexican film actress Dolores del Rio had the "best figure in Hollywood." (which I know not necessarily a good barometer) but! it shows that many people looked at her for her beauty and sought to emulate her. Famous for her years-long love affair with actor and director Orson Welles, who was 10 years her junior if that's anything.

We need more hispanic representation in this!! Del Río is one of the most important actresses of her time as she was one of the first Mexican movie stars to break through to Hollywood! She’s unbelievably sexy and an absolute icon. Thank you :)

Fay Wray:

Actress prominently known for starring in horror, she was one of cinema's original "scream queens". She knocks it out of the park whenever she's with the horror genre, bringing a depth and likability to characters that would other be flat and boring characters.

An early scream queen, name me another woman who could look so beautiful while so disheveled and scared for her life

She was name-dropped not once but TWICE in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. She's arguably the original Scream Queen.

[parasitic-saint]

last surviving frame from Only The Flesh Is Divine's first and only screening back in 1963

thinking abt redrawing this scene of espiritismo 1962 with my priest and devil hmmm...