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Santa Reviews

1932
1 hr 30 mins
Drama
NR

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Santa was based on the incredibly popular novel by Mexican author Don Federico Gamboa. So beloved was the original novel that audiences were predisposed to adore the film, whether it was any good or not. The story concerns the romantic travails of the homely pianist (Carlos Orellana) of a seedy house of "ill repute." The hero harbors a seemingly hopeless love for the house's prettiest inhabitant, played by the curvaceous Lupita Tovar. When the girl is injured in an accident, the pianist sacrifices his all to finance a life-saving operation -- but will his grand gesture turn out to be futile? Santa represented the first directorial effort of Spanish film idol Antonio Moreno.

A blind piano player in a Mexican brothel falls for one of the girls who works there. She needs an operation to save her life and the piano player manages to pay for the surgery. Based on a popular Mexican novel, the film was a critical success south of the border. By American standards, however, SANTA suffers from poor production values. The story is sentimental, and the directorial style seems inadequate, using far more close-ups than necessary. The sound is atrocious and often unintelligible. Actors can only do so much under such circumstances and the ensemble here could not compensate for production standards far below those of Hollywood.