- published: 11 May 2014
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Fiesta is an American Technicolor musical-drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1947, starring Esther Williams, Ricardo Montalbán, Mary Astor and Cyd Charisse. The film was directed by Richard Thorpe and written by George Bruce and Lester Cole. The film focuses on Mario Morales (Ricardo Montalbán), a bullfighter who wants to be a composer, and his twin sister, Maria Morales (Esther Williams), who wants to be a bullfighter even though she is a woman. When Mario runs away to study music, Maria takes his place in the ring to lure him back.
The film was shot on location in Puebla, Mexico. This was Montalbán's first credited role in a Hollywood film, and resulted in him being offered a contract by the studio. It was also the first of three films pairing Williams and Montalbán, the other two being On an Island with You (1948) and Neptune's Daughter (1949).
Fiesta was the first time Williams's name was billed above the title.
The film took longer than expected because Thorpe decided that he did not want the bulls killed. However, this led to the bulls attacking the stuntmen, four of them ending up in the hospital, and two of them barely surviving after being gored in the groin due to infections caused by the dirt on the bulls' horns. (Williams was doubled by men. After years of swimming, her shoulders were broad and her backside was flat, and had a different body build that that of a bullfighter and a visible difference on film.) Not killing the bulls made the Mexican people angry, which didn't help, since they were already angry that their own toreadors could not star in the film. At the end of filming, the unit manager, Walter Strohm convinced Thorpe to kill the bulls, even though they cost $1000 each.
Actors: Gianni Pulone (actor), Mimmo Poli (actor), Riccardo Petrazzi (actor), Franco Pesce (actor), Pietro Ceccarelli (actor), Furio Meniconi (actor), Salvatore Baccaro (actor), Víctor Israel (actor), Federico Boido (actor), Nello Pazzafini (actor), Gianni Garko (actor), Gianni Garko (actor), Fortunato Arena (actor), Cris Huerta (actor), George Rigaud (actor),
Genres: Western,Actors: Richard Alexander (actor), E.H. Calvert (actor), Stanley Andrews (actor), Sam Ash (actor), George Anderson (actor), A.S. 'Pop' Byron (actor), Robert Barrat (actor), Don Beddoe (actor), Monte Blue (actor), Ward Bond (actor), Dick Botiller (actor), Ed Brady (actor), Harry A. Bailey (actor), Ernie Adams (actor), Wheaton Chambers (actor),
Plot: One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California. But financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows' agent, gambler Sid Campeau; Campeau's partner Dick Allen is Jeff's war buddy and rival suitor for engineer's daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?
Keywords: american-civil-war, bank-president, based-on-novel, blizzard, buffalo, business-competition, chase, cheyenne-wyoming, civil-engineer, donkey