We’ve partnered with the SF Public Library to present a special series examining the women of the golden era who made significant contributions to the silver screen. Join us Monday, September 25th at Koret Auditorium located at the SF Public Library at 100 Larkin Street in San Francisco for this special one day series starting at 12 pm. All screenings are free to the public.
Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost – 75th Anniversary Spotlight
Monday, September 25 at 3:30 PM
Mexican Spitfire is an 8 film series from RKO Pictures made between 1940 and 1943 starring Lupe Vélez and Leon Errol. The movies are comedies featuring the character Carmelita Lindsay (played by golden era star Lupe Velez), a lovable and tenacious Mexican singer who leaves her career in Mexico to meet Dennis Lindsay, a loving and handsome American businessman. In Mexican Spitfire Sees a Ghost, the sixth film in the series, Carmelita and Uncle Matt find themselves in a haunted house, but the “ghosts” are actually enemy spy agents who are trying to frighten away visitors in order to develop a nitroglycerin bomb.
SF Poet Laureate and SFSU Contemporary Latina/Latino Literature Professor, Alejandro Murguia, will introduce the film with some words about Lupe Velez.
Directed by Leslie Goodwins
Starring Lupe Vélez, Leon Errol, Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers, Elisabeth Risdon, Donald MacBride, Minna Gombell
Release date June 26, 1942
Running time 75 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English
High Noon – Golden Globes Spotlight
Monday, September 25 at 2 PM
In Hadleyville, a small town in New Mexico, Marshal Will Kane (played by Gary Cooper), newly married to Amy Fowler (Grace Kelly), is preparing to retire. The happy couple is departing for a new life, raising a family and running a store in another town; but word arrives that Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), a vicious outlaw whom Kane sent to jail, has been released, and is arriving on the noon train. Helen Ramírez (played by golden era star Katy Jurado), who was once Miller’s lover, and then Kane’s is caught in a past that won’t let her go. Jurado’s steely seductress performance earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture–the first Latina to ever win one.
Directed by Fred Zinnemann, Produced by Stanley Kramer, Screenplay by Carl Foreman, Starring Gary Cooper, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Grace Kelly, Otto Kruger, Lon Chaney Jr., Harry Morgan, Eve McVeagh
Release date July 24, 1952
Running time: 85 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English
Doña Diabla/Lady Devil
Monday, September 25 at 12 PM
No one is born evil. Golden era screen legend Maria Felix plays Angela, a woman who suffers the blow of a messy divorce while pregnant. Her heartbreak forces her to harden which earns her the name Doña Diabla/Lady Devil in cinematically stunning upper crust 1940’s Mexican society. Her old wounds cloud her relationships even with the most eligible of suitors. One turning into a family affair that unfolds with outstanding performances from Maria Felix, Víctor Junco, and Perla Aguiar under the direction of Tito Davison.
Directed by Tito Davison
Starring María Félix, María Félix, Víctor Junco, Adrián Villanueva, Crox Alvarado, José María Linares-Rivas, Perla Aguiar
Release date: 28 January 1950
Running time: 95 minutes
Country: Mexico
Language: Spanish
For more info email gini [at] sflatinofilmfestival [dot] org.
