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VHS : Viva VillaIn association with Amazon.comstarring: Wallace Beery, Fay Wray, Leo Carrillo, Donald Cook, Stuart Erwin directed by: Howard Hawks, Jack Conway, William A. Wellman  Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786302717723 Format: Black & White, NTSC ISBN: 6302717728 Label: MGM (Warner) Manufacturer: MGM (Warner) Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: MGM (Warner) Release Date: September 01, 1998 Running Time: 115 minutes Studio: MGM (Warner) Theatrical Release Date: April 27, 1934 Sales Rank: 6089 Related Items: Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Complete Print ExistsArticles refer to the scene where Fay Wray's character is whipped while she laughs and claim that it was edited because of the newly enforced Production Code in July 1934. This is not accurate. In the 1960s, on either New York channel WNEW 5 or WCBS 2, that scene was shown regularly whenever "Viva Villa" was aired. There was also an additional scene showing Leo Carillo's character lining up 3 federal troops at a time, front to back, and shooting them with one bullet to save ammunition. Both scenes ... Read More Rating: - +1/2. Progressive, given the era it was made inWallace Beery stars in this surprisingly raw, graphically violent (and yet, somehow somewhat sentimentalized) Hollywood version of the life of Pancho Villa, one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution. Character actor Leo Carillo, infamous as a latino Uncle Tom for his portrayal as Pancho in the "Ceesco Keed" series, here costars as Sierra, Villa's blandly sadistic lieutenant, and Faye Wray appears as an aristocratic lady who catches Villa's fancy. Ben Hecht's sharp, no-nonsense script is politically ... Read More Rating: - Hollywoody Radicalism During The New DealThe other reviewers are certainly correct in lambasting "Viva Villa!" as unhistorical and even, by contemporary sensibilities, offensive in certain characterizations. But what is moving, and even inspiring, is the film's recognition of the injustice of a society in which the poor and wretched are treated contemptibly, as if they were little more than animals. Villa's ferocity (as portrayed by the incomparable Beery, a hard and difficult man in a role made for him), the cold cruelty of Leo Carrillo's character, ... Read More Rating: - Wallace Beery as Pancho Villa.The historical accuracy of this lavish film is nil except that it does depict the sheer wholesale violence of the Mexican Revolution, in which whole villages disappeared off the maps forever. It also was filmed closely enough in time to the events depicted that the costumes are quite accurate, and I think that I read that some actual footage from the era was mixed into the movie, but I'm not positive of that. This film stands out as the best and most worthwhile Pancho Villa effort so far simply because of ... Read More Rating: - Lusty entertainment but no historical documentThis film purporting to be an historical drama of Villa's exploits is often more like a comic operetta. The script by Ben Hecht is often nose-thumbing and satirical and the film often debunks Villa as a child-like, egotistical and lecherous bandit (a bravura and quite amusing performance by Beery). His blood-thirsty side-kick (Leo Carillo) is straight caricature. As a rip-roaring entertainment Viva Villa fits the bill quite nicely, for historical accuracy and fairness--look elsewhere. Interesting foot-note: ... Read More Browse for similar items by category:
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