Just perfect...

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

*Spoiler/plot- 1950, An emotional young woman promised to wed an American doctor gets a civics lesson from a bandito general and her town's villagers after a Cholera outbreak during Mexico's revolution era.*Special Stars- Paulette Goddard, Pedro Armendariz, Gilbert Roland,*Theme- People are people all over the world and love is love.*Trivia/location/goofs- A strangely cast film with fair haired and blue-eyed Paulette Goddard. Watch for 'Egyptian No. 7' heavy body make-up in scenes on some 'gringo' performers when needed. Film shot in Mexico.*Emotion- An enjoyable but rather crazy film of early Mexico, banditos, beautiful senoritas, village people, 'The Revolution', and what else? This film is a wonderful character comedy that is well acted. It's worth experiencing, at least once for the emotional acting and fast dialog.

While a distinguished film-maker in his native country, director Fernandez is perhaps best-known today for playing the heinous General Mapache in Sam Peckinpah's seminal THE WILD BUNCH (1969); for the record, later he was also the one to make the titular request in the same director's BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA (1974). This genuinely oddball Western, then, was a Hollywood remake of Fernandez's own previous critical success ENAMORADA (1946) – proving once again that the tradition in Tinseltown of looking for hot properties (when it comes to both subjects and their creators) in foreign lands is indeed a long-standing one; unfortunately, the end result here begins promisingly enough but gradually peters out. Anyway, apart from the director, Pedro Armendariz also reprises his earlier role of the Bandit General (which is how the film was known in the U.K.), while associate producer Paulette Goddard unwisely chose herself for the role of the leading lady. Ostensibly the town beauty, Goddard is far too old for the part but, sporting a completely misconceived schoolgirl look and playing it utterly over-the-top, her performance is forever threatening to bring the whole film crumbling down with it! Luckily, Fernandez gives the whole a remarkably visual texture (straight from the very opening scene in a glass factory) that lends it a presciently "Spaghetti Western" feel and the intermittent, awkward instances of goofy humor (including Goddard sending Armendariz literally flying off his horse into the air with a firecracker!) only serve to reinforce this impression. The third star featured here is Gilbert Roland but his role of the taciturn town priest (and old school friend of Armendariz's) is clearly subservient to the main couple who, inevitably, form a tenuous triangle with Goddard's dullish fiancée. The Mill Creek DVD I watched was a typically substandard edition that failed to do justice to celebrated cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa's (also from the original Mexican production) lyrical shots, and the hiss-laden soundtrack was similarly hard to sit through.

Someone gave a DVD of this film to a coworker as a "gag" gift, and that coworker took her revenge on the rest of us by showing it on a tour bus en route from a day of wine tasting.Perhaps it was a day of wine tasting that contributed to the group's response, but nearly everyone fell asleep during this film. Although I did watch a bit at the beginning before falling asleep myself, I did notice that the film was rife with stereotypes (politically incorrect by today's standards, but probably not for 1950) and overacting (Goddard wants to be Norma Desmond--bulging eyes and intense stares-- but the part was already taken).Someone joked that this wasn't a "B" movie, but a "B-minus" movie. Like most of my coworkers, I give it an "F."

I saw The Torch when it came out in 1950. It was Thanksgiving weekend at Missouri U. in Columbia, and almost all the students were gone. Perhaps that's why this film was ever so briefly scheduled at the local theater. My friend (who later became my husband) and I were amazed that a movie this bad could be distributed and shown in the USA. Also, we were surprised that a movie star like Paulette Goddard would appear in such a film. It was so terrible that we have not forgotten it in 54 years and still laugh about it. I can still hear Paulette Goddard screeching. I can still see Armendariz swaggering in his huge sombrero. I remember acting so broad that even a teenager couldn't stand it. A "dark comedy/drama" indeed. What a ridiculous movie.