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THE GAY DESPERADO of the Mexico Imaginario Program Presented at the 23rd FICM

Gustavo R. Gallardo

Rouben Mamoulian's The Gay Desperado (1936) was presented at the 23rd edition of the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) as part of the Mexico Imaginario program.

Il Cinema Ritrovato co-director Ehsan Khoshbakht presented the film, with festival Founder and Director Daniela Michel in attendance. 

“The story of Mamoulian filming in Mexico is perhaps even more interesting than that of other Hollywood directors in the country,” Khoshbakht said of the Georgian filmmaker.

In The Gay Desperado, Mexican bandit Braganza and his men watch an American gangster movie, which inspires them to imitate the characters, sparking a fight at the movie theater.

Chivo, an employee at the venue, calms the crowd with his melodious singing. Braganza recruits him as his entertainer, dresses him up as a bandit, and forces him to rob an American couple, Bill Shay and Jane, who are crossing the border to get married.

“Although this film is set in Mexico, it was shot in the United States, and in some ways Mamoulian channels the influence of the great Soviet master Sergei Eisenstein in his film ‘Viva Mexico,’” Khoshbakht explained.

And he added: “This is perhaps the closest thing to the real Mexico of lights, shadows, and architecture, the closest even to Mexican films, the most authentic recreation of Mexico in Hollywood.”