Viva Villa!

Viva Villa! is a 1934 American Pre-Code film starring Wallace Beery as Pancho Villa and was written by Ben Hecht, adapted from the book Viva Villa!. The film was shot on location in Mexico and directed by Jack Conway. There was uncredited assistance with the script by Howard Hawks, James Kevin McGuinness, and Howard Emmett Rogers. Hawks and William A. Wellman were also uncredited directors on the film.

The film is a fictionalized biography of Pancho Villa starring Beery, Leo Carrillo and Fay Wray. The supporting cast features Donald Cook, Stuart Erwin, Henry B. Walthall, Joseph Schildkraut and Katherine DeMille.

Cast

Villa

A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity, sometimes transferred to the Church for reuse as a monastery. Then they gradually re-evolved through the Middle Ages, into elegant upper-class country homes. In modern parlance 'villa' can refer to various types and sizes of residences, ranging from the suburban "semi-detached" double villa to residences in the wildland–urban interface.

Roman

In ancient Roman architecture a villa was originally a country house built for the élite. Pliny the Elder, writing in the first century CE, identified several kinds of villas:

Pancho Villa

Francisco (Pancho) Villa (born José Doroteo Arango Arámbula; 5 June 1878 – 20 July 1923) was a Mexican Revolutionary general and one of the most prominent figures of the Mexican Revolution.

As commander of the División del Norte (Division of the North) in the Constitutionalist Army, he was the veritable caudillo of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. Given Chihuahua's size, mineral wealth, and proximity to the United States of America, it provided him with extensive resources. Villa was also provisional Governor of Chihuahua in 1913 and 1914. Villa can be credited with decisive military victories leading to the ousting of Victoriano Huerta from the presidency in July 1914. Villa then fought his erstwhile leader in the coalition against Huerta, "First Chief" of the Constitutionalists Venustiano Carranza. Villa was in alliance with southern revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, who remained fighting in his own region of Morelos; however, the two revolutionary generals briefly came together to take Mexico City after Carranza's forces retreated from it. Later, Villa's heretofore undefeated División del Norte engaged the military forces of Carranza under Carrancista general Álvaro Obregón and was defeated in the 1915 Battle of Celaya. Villa's army then collapsed as a significant military force.

Viva

Viva may refer to:

Arts and entertainment