Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Nothing could possibly prepare you for this movie, which is actually several movies interwoven in one. The only thing you need concentrate on is the incandescent presence of Ninon Sevilla in the title role as Elena Tejero, first an obedient middle class daughter wearing horrid plaid dresses and retarded hairdos that suddenly falls into hard times and her work/career runs the gamut quickly from secretary/waitress to cabaret dancer/prostitute. This is a film you will never forget if only because the intense gesturing and posturing (there is no acting here) of Ninon Sevilla is too delicious for words, it needs to be seen, and several times, to be appreciated. I will summarize by stating that her first cabaret appearance is directly related to the "ritual oriental dance" that was a sleazy feature of adventure/film noir and even horror movies since the days of Pola Negri in "The Eyes of the Mummy", which I believe is the first one. The Oriental dance here is set in never-never Arabia, with polyester harem pants, for the girls, false beards for the lascivious men in the marketplace that tug at Ninon's curvaceous forms. Her outfit is not to be missed: A square box hat-turban combination, a necklace of many false karats and veils a plenty. Her orientalized movements are hilarious and jerky, but her sensuality and raw animal charisma comes through to save the day, and I am sure the appreciative male audience back then rewarded this performance with far more erections than laughter. But this is nothing compared to her "Tropical" number which will follow later. We first see Ninon in her dressing room nonchalantly supporting a headdress that consists of two full pineapples with branches and leaves on her head. Although she looks like a giant insect that has sprouted antenna, she acts and moves so convincingly as the "cabaretera" that we start to think this is normal, then she jumps into her elaborate Brazillian number, heavily influenced by Carmen Miranda and in the midst of a cloud of fog her headdress is transformed into a basket of bananas with foil accents that are just too divine for words. You can imagine that this flaming volcano of a dancer would naturally attract as a husband an ultra conservative, nerdish lawyer (Ruben Rojo as Mario Cervera) from one of "the best families in Guadalajara" which here in the States would have translated as a Republican from a Texas oil clan. He also happens to be the son of a the "evil" woman that owns the cabaret where Elena was transformed from studious secretary into dancing harlot. This middle aged woman character, Rosaura Cervera (played by Andrea Palma) is so outlandish, yet believable when one thinks that she anticipated the Mayflower Madam in Manhattan by almost half a century, that it deserves a study of its own, not to mention a seminar for split personality experts. Her demeanor and looks is that of a Latin Marlene Dietrich, cigarette holder included, and she is obviously Elena's nemesis. Their double entendre conversations from the moment they meet again as 'decent' women are the blueprint of drag queen competition dialogs, accompanied by a cavalcade of sudden tragic expressions, fits of fluttering from multi-leveled eye-lashes, twisting of the mouths into serpent-like lip acrobatics, all of which could turn plumbers into female impersonators if adequately imitated with patient study, which actually makes this film a true primer for drag studies. There are many more twists and turn to the story which includes a film-noir jewelry heist, the unbridled passion of an escaped criminal, a murderous, deformed, yet loyal friend of Elena's, and so much more excitement than this summary could possibly describe. An extraordinary creation of kitsch that anticipates Latin soap operas by a generation, this is a groundbreaking document of B cinema, film noir and gender studies.

Cine Mexicano can be likened to Hollywood reflected in a fun-house mirror but it's also an exotic world with a unique style all it's own and the "cabaretera" is without doubt the most outrageous film-cycle of "La Epoca de Oro". These pulp-fiction film-noir musical extravaganzas are considered camp today and this one, starring the incredible Ninon Sevilla, is a classic example. The genre abandoned Mexican cinema's often potent blend of primitive superstition and baroque religious symbolism in favor of mixing lurid over-the-top situations with outré musical production numbers. AVENTURERA throws in everything but the kitchen sink and it could never have been made in Hollywood, that's for sure. Although it differs in it's particulars, this film bears some resemblance to Joan Crawford's FLAMINGO ROAD of the previous year. It also works the other way around. The Joan's over-heated Deep South potboiler would have made a fantastic cabaretera if they'd expanded Crawford's carnival cooch-dance and later had her become the hottest musical entertainer in Lute Mae's whorehouse.AVENTURERA careens from one melodramatic situation to the next from the outset and never lets up. There's adultery, suicide, rape, drugs, blackmail, murder (real and attempted), cat-fights, betrayal, lust and vengeance amid a fiery rumba or two. When schoolgirl Elena's adulterous mom runs off and her dad kills himself, she runs away to a sleazy border town where she's taken advantage of by an underworld pimp/gangster. She's drugged, raped and sold to Rosaura, an icy queen bee madame with a mute "familiar" who has a very persuasive way a knife. Rosaura could scare the pants off Sydney Greenstreet any day. How Elena rises to become the top attraction of the cathouse/cabaret is only one of the many jaw-dropping plot developments. She eventually leaves the sporting life behind and moves up in the world. She's about to marry into millions when she meets her prospective mother-in-law ...Roseaura (don't ask)! There's a few more surprises as Elena, bitter but ambitious, sets out for revenge, but little does she know there's a man from her past looking to even the score. J. Hoberman of "The Village Voice" wrote that The British Institute's anthology, Mexican Cinema, calls the cabaretera "profoundly subversive works that even garnered the attention of the French press." What AVENTURERA subverts is conventional Hollywood formula and deep-dish political interpretation. It's the world, not the ruling class, that's decadent and corrupt and, unlike Joan Crawford's FLAMINGO ROAD, in the end all you have is yourself.Ninon Sevilla, like Maria Montez, takes her role very seriously and the Cuban dynamo throws herself into the role of Elena with delirious abandon. Just try to look away from her musical numbers as Americans old enough to remember will re-live the old "Chicquita Banana" TV commercials. Alternating between pert-and-sassy and divinely trashy, Ninon gyrates on bizarrely cluttered sets with fanny-twitching verve. She has a "special relationship" with her tambourine and the sensuous way she caresses herself (like Jean Harlow did before the still camera) will have the imaginative preparing for melt down. Over-ripe dialog abounds (at one point Elena exclaims "My life has only been the road to perversion!") and there's an unforgettable title tune ("And he who awaits the sweet honey of your kiss/Must pay the price in diamonds for your sin")! Repeated viewings are always a treat, especially when the mind and eyes wander over the sets, cars, fashions and even the cast-extras. I loved every over-wrought minute of it!From an interview with Ninon ("La Rumbera") Sevilla in "The Village Voice" Aug. 27, 1996: "Speaking Spanish in a thick Cuban accent punctuated by loud laughter, Sevilla says that she keeps on working (in small parts in soap operas) because she loves to be loved. 'I have so many fans, of all ages, that adore me. I am amongst the most famous artists, you know? They still call me the living diva.' Sevilla still possesses the long curly blonde hair ('I'm a real blonde, you know.') and a huge wardrobe of fur coats from the golden years of her movie-making past. She lives in a Mexico City apartment filled with silver crafts and memorabilia. When asked to attend a public homage, Sevilla always dresses the part. Born in old Havana, the "Queen of the Tropics" came to Mexico in 1946. With (director) Alberto Gout, she completed a brilliant cycle of films that include AVENTURERA and SENSUALIDAD. 'I was his muse', Sevilla says. Sevilla no longer dances the rumba on-stage, but she assures me that she continues to do so in private life. 'Whatever tune is playing, I'll dance to it, caballero!" Viva AVENTURERA!

I hope no one adds to that excellent plot summary, because the less you know about the story going into it, the better this movie is. I only wanted to add that one of the delights of "Aventurera" is that it features several of the best singers and musicians of Mexico in that era, beginning with the title song by Agustín Lara.I didn't rate the movie because I think it's in a class of its own. I know there are other related films in the noir+musical vein, but in terms of talent and plot twists, there is nothing quite like "Aventurera."And ¡Brava! for Ninón Sevilla. I just learned from this site (10 Oct 05) that she is still alive, and still working.

Take a Lana Turner impersonator, a melodramatic plot from a Douglas Sirk film, stir with Busby Berkeley dance routines and more than a little film noir shadows and fog, and you will have "Aventurera," a camp classic that provides 101 minutes of entertainment with a lot of fun and laughs.It has a plot that goes on and on, the sort of story that would have been packed between the lurid covers of a '50's paperback. "The mother of the man she loved was the madam who'd turned her into a harlot," the banner across the cover would have read. And, indeed, this is the core situation of the plot, which has a strong narrative thrust. Had it been a novel, this would have been a page-turner, an all-night read.Director Alberto Gout and screenwriters Alvaro Custodio and Carlos Sampelayo must have watched a great many American films during the 40s and then simply stitched together a film taking a little bit from this film and a little bit from another.The robbery sequence, definitely like an American film noir, distinctly recalled "Crisscross" with Burt Lancaster. But other scenes had a definite noir look as well. The nightclub in Rosaura's brothel and her office, with its window that looked down on the customers seemed taken directly from "Gilda." Fog-shrouded streets resembled those of any number of noirs I've seen (foggy finale of "The Big Combo").The dance numbers, all of which were superfluous to the plot, were influenced by 20th Century Fox musicals that featured Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda.Had this been an American film, it would not have pleased the Hays Office for it is explicit in making clear that Elena becomes a prostitute. It's never obscene or vulgar; there are no nude scenes. Elena's rape is never shown, and when she appears the following morning to confront the madam, Rosaura, demanding to be let out of the brothel, all of her makeup is in place. Yet the scenes of the brothel show men and women, often obviously drunk, their arms about each other, pairing off and traipsing up the stairs to bedrooms from the nightclub. In one upstairs room, we see several couples sitting on couches kissing. The Hays Office would have demanded that such scenes be deleted.Another thing that interested me about this film: all of the lead actors look very American. Ninon Sevilla, who plays Elena, obviously a graduate of the Lana Turner School of Dramatic Arts, acts with the Turner flashing eyes and flaring nostrils. Andrea Palma, the madam, reminded me of Corale Browne with a touch of Gloria Swanson thrown in. Ruben Rojo, who played Mario, was very handsome in an American leading man way (think Zachary Scott). However, the "bad guys" looked stereotypically Mexican. It seemed to me that the filmmakers were using actors that would make this film acceptable to Americans, though I don't know if the film received an American release back in 1949.Don't take it seriously. Just enjoy!