Singin' and Dancing Back in Time.: Week end in Havana(1941)

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Week end in Havana(1941)

Week-End in Havana( 1941). Directed by Walter Lang. Cast: Alice Faye and Carmen Miranda. Faye was pregnant during filming.

Week-End in Havana, is about Nan Spencer (Alice Faye), a sales clerk in the lingerie department at Macy’s, is asked to sign a waver after the cruise ship she’s on has an accident and she knows why the accident occurred. Nan, decides to vacation in Havana. Williams tries to entertain her, but realizes that the man who tried to pick her up (Cesar Romero) at a nightclub might be a better choice. To make things more complicated, Monte (Romero) is involved with Rosita Rivas (Carmen Miranda) who becomes jealous. Jay Williams should be in New York getting married, but finds himself in Havana a bit longer than he planned.

Alice made five films with John Payne within four years: Tin Pan Alley (1940), Week-End in Havana and Great American Broadcast( 1941) and The Gang’s All Here and “Hello, Frisco, Hello” (1943).

Wonderful music makes it enjoyable to watch on a rainy day when you want to travel to beautiful Havana.
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Soundtracks:

"A Week-End in Havana"
Music by Harry Warren
Lyrics by Mack Gordon
Sung by Carmen Miranda in the opening number with chorus and band
Reprised by an offscreen chorus during the montage in Havana
Played as background music often

"Rebola a Bola (Embolada)"
Music by Aloysio De Oliveira and Nestor Amaral
Lyrics by Francisco Eugênio Brant Horta
Sung in Portuguese by Carmen Miranda in a nightclub.

"When I Love, I Love"
Music by Harry Warren
Lyrics by Mack Gordon
Sung by Carmen Miranda at a nightclub

"Tropical Magic"
Music by Harry Warren
Lyrics by Mack Gordon
Spanish lyrics by Ernesto Piedra
Sung in Spanish by an unidentified trio in a nightclub
Reprised by Alice Faye
Reprised by Alice Faye and John Payne on a hay wagon
Reprised a cappella by Leonid Kinskey
Played as background music often

"Romance and Rhumba"
Music by James V. Monaco
Lyrics by Mack Gordon
Sung by Alice Faye and Cesar Romero while dancing, the other dancers

"The Man with the Lollypop Song"
Music by Harry Warren
Lyrics by Mack Gordon
Sung by lollypop vendor Nacho Galindo outside Arbolado's

"The Ñango (Nyango)"
Music by Harry Warren
Lyrics by Mack Gordon
Sung by Carmen Miranda at the nightclub
Sung and danced to by the chorus
Danced to by Alice Faye and John Payne

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Bob Fosse

Was a musical theater choreographer and director, screenwriter and film director. He won an eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction. He was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning for his direction of Cabaret. He was identified with his third wife, Gwen Verdon. She was both the dancer/collaborator who he choreographed much of his work and, together with dancer/choreographer Ann Reinking, a guardian of the Fosse legacy after his death. Fosse is considered to be one the most influential coreographers of the 20th Century.

Esther Williams.

JANE POWELL

After rising to fame as a singer in her home state of Oregon, Powell was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer while still in her teens. Once there, the studio utilized her vocal, dancing and acting talents, casting her in such musicals as Royal Wedding, with Fred Astaire, A Date with Judy, with friend Elizabeth Taylor and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, with Howard Keel. In the late 1950s, her film career slowed, only to be replaced with a busy theater and television career.Click picture to enter websight.

Jeanette MacDonald

Singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow) and Nelson Eddy (Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie, and Maytime). During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars (The Love Parade, One Hour With You, Naughty Marietta and San Francisco), and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in grand opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of most influential sopranos of the 20th century. Click picture to view fan website.

Joan Crawford.

Click picture to view website. Joan Crawford, born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre. Starting as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford began a campaign of self-publicity and became nationally known as a flapper by the end of the 1920s. In the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money and by the end of the 1930s

Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Richard Rodgers (1902 – 1979) and Oscar Hammerstein II (1895 – 1960) the songwriting duo, on our musical page. They created many popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age. With Rodgers composing the music and Hammerstein writing the lyrics, five of their shows, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music. They won thirty-four Tony Awards, fifteen Academy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and two Grammys. Click picture to read movie reviews.

Cab Calloway

Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s. Calloway's band featured performers including trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, New Orleans guitar ace Danny Barker, and bassist Milt Hinton. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86 .Click picture to view official website.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Week end in Havana(1941)

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