Rumba

The team of George Raft and Carole Lombard who at the time this film was made were doing a little off set kanoodling had scored well in Bolero, so much so that Paramount decided another dance film was in order for them. Instead of in Europe like Bolero, Rumba takes place in Cuba and then New York City, taking advantage of the current dance craze sweeping the country.

Raft's a half Cuban, half American living down there because he fled the country to avoid some gangsters he'd run afoul of. He's dancing first with Iris Adrian and then with Margo, but rich heiress Carole Lombard sweeps him off his nimble feet.

Carole and George do a mean Rumba in the film as well. The ending here unlike Bolero is not as dramatic or tragic, but that in itself makes Rumba a lesser feature. Lynne Overman is around as a former newspaperman and Raft's manager. Overman is quite adept at creating a media frenzy for Raft, in fact his talents are what causes the climax to occur.

It's not as good a film as Bolero and the team of Raft and Lombard broke up off screen as well so no more films were made with the two of them. Still it's a pleasant enough film and a chance to see George Raft the dancer on screen.

If you didn't know George Raft (also known as the man who turned down Casablanca) got his start as a ballroom dancer, you've got to rent one of his early movies, in which he shows off his dancing skills. I picked Rumba because I thought any movie full of rumba dances couldn't be bad.

Well, the laugh's on me. This movie is really stinky. George Raft may be very handsome, and it's fun to see him flapping his legs during a few specialty numbers with the beautiful Margo, but if you're actually looking for a good movie, this isn't it. Carole Lombard costars as a society girl who accidentally annoys George by winning a lottery ticket he got swindled out of. Later when she sees him dancing at a nightclub, she likes the way he moves and asks for private lessons. That's about it. You can watch it if you want to, but have another movie handy for a double feature.

George Raft may have cut quite a swath through the women of Hollywood, but I'm afraid that, for me, his image will never recover the look of him in a girl's blouse. Yes, it's modeled on flamenco costumes, but with little ruffles covering him from neck to waist, George looks as if he has put his head through a little girl's petticoat.

The rest of Rumba is similarly anaphrodisiac. Carole Lombard, playing a bored socialite, looks half asleep, even in moments of fear and passion, and the dances, supposed to be Latin American sensual-sensational, are very mild stuff. In the final number, the chorus girls and boys seem to be getting it on far more than the two principals, who do a standard Astaire-Rogers dance, and needless to say it is mediocre.

The one, unexpected plus here is the Mexican actress Margo. Lovely, sensual, and sensitive, she is so much more womanly that Carole Lombard that only enforced patriotism would keep George fixated on the icy Carole.

George Raft is a dancer at a Havana night club. He meets super-rich Carole Lombard, and they start an affair. However they are both proud, touchy individuals, and she goes back home to marry Monroe Owsley. Or does she?

Produced to follow up the success of BOLERO, this musical drama uses the dance numbers as pauses rather than accede to the burgeoning style that the Astaire-Rogers unit was producing at RKO, as portraying the performers' emotions. Director of Photography Ted Tetzlaff shoots things in Dutch angles and Velez and Yolanda stand in for the two whenever possible. Miss Lombard's dancing in the earlier film had been rather elementary, so in this one, they delay it until the end, and have Raft and her twirling about each other in medium close-up.

Director Marion Gering took a break from Sylvia Sidney weepers to add this one to his resume. That's probably why Gail Patrick is so good in her role as Owsley's sister and Miss Lombard's best friend. Samuel Hinds also appears briefly as Miss Lombard's half-witted father, and does the job well, if that's a thing.

"Rumba" is George Raft's best Latino film and that's not saying much. He at least gets to play a New Yorker, albeit a New Yorker of Cuban descent hanging out in Havana because gangsters in the States are out to get him. That idea is actually more exciting than the events that play out.

Carole Lombard gets some strong closeups and looks lovely. She plays a bored socialite a little too well, never seeming to rise above ennui even when she's dancing. She gets some nice little bits of dialogue but mostly could have phoned this one in.

Because of his sensual Latin looks, Paramount seemed insistent on making Raft do the sensual Latin dances. Sure, he could dance the rumba OK, but it is nothing like the hot style of dancing that made him famous as the "fastest dancer in New York" back in the '20s. Only in the first dance number in "Rumba" do we get a very brief glimpse of this.

Overall, this is hardly an important film for anyone - but look fast: Ann Sheridan is among the mass of dancers.