Week-End in Havana (1941)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Why so much hype?

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Alice Faye is on a vacation to Havana by cruise ship that she saved up for and had eager expectations for a good time, when the ship encountered problems. Everyone else on board signed a waiver saying this wasn't an inconvenience and that they could get on another cruise ship! But Alice Faye had to be back to work in a short time and could not take a vacation any other time, despite all the courteous cooperativeness of John Payne, the agent of the company. He finally offers her the Havana vacation and her expenses to be paid by the company. The catch is she won't sign the waiver (to not sue) until after she had the good time promised. John Payne is ordered to be at her side at all times, despite the fact he is engaged to be married and the wedding will have to be postponed due to Alice's vacation. What movie musical problems! Enter Cesar Romero, who thinks she's rich! John does not like him, but Alice keeps thinking, where's this good time you've been promising me? She's taking it with Cesar. Then, there's Carmen Miranda who likes Cesar, or does she? He was her manager, but he kept borrowing her money for gambling. With Ms. Miranda's colorful musical numbers, this to-do over Alice's good time and complications to boot, this makes for an upbeat and fun film for a weekend in Havana!

Splashy TCF musical with an imaginative plot, but also with an unfortunate lineup of undistinguished musical numbers. Payne's supposed to keep Faye happy on her Havanna vacation so she won't sue his cruise ship line. That might be okay if Payne didn't have an impatient fiancée, Wright Jr., waiting back home. Worse, Faye wants romance and thinks she's found it with handsome gold-digger Romero. But what happens when the greedy Romero doesn't pan out. Payne's got a big juggling act to do. And through it all, Miranda rhumbas her way, sporting a permanent smile and a half dozen top-heavy hats. The mystery is how she gets them to stay on.Faye's her usual winning self, while Payne gets to go Tarzan-like shirtless. But together they do make a compelling couple, as a dozen of these TCF musicals show. Meanwhile, Romero and Wright get to model some impressive high fashion, as compensation, I guess. Fortunately, director Lang keeps the circus running smoothly, but don't let all that splashy Technicolor overwhelm you. Nothing special here, just a truckload of eye-catching Hollywood escapism.

The film begins with a cruise ship getting stuck on a reef. The cruise line sends one of its execs (John Payne) to meet the passengers in order to placate them and get each one to sign a release. However, one (Alice Faye) is not so easily satisfied and refuses to sign. After all, she cannot afford to take another trip a couple weeks later and she insists that the cruise line owes her a vacation and NOW! So, to avoid a lawsuit, he arranges for the woman to be flown to Havana to be wined and dined in style. She is happy but won't sign the release until AFTER the trip is over--as it COULD still be a lousy vacation. So, to be sure the vacation is great, he arranges for a local ne'er-do-well (Cesar Romero) to romance her. The problem is that he already has a girlfriend (Carmen Miranda)--and she's one jealous lady! What's next? Well, it's pretty predictable but quite entertaining.This picture is pretty much what you'd expect from a film from this studio--some very nice Technicolor, a few songs and a lot of fun. While none of "Week-End in Havana" is certainly NOT a great film, it is a decent little time-passer and is worth seeing. It's also one of Miranda's best films, as she's used more effectively than in many of her Fox movies.By the way, at the 73 minute mark, you can catch a brief glimpse of Hugh Beaumont--but look fast or you'll miss him.

The production team behind this film would have benefited if they had done research for the movie by taking a real weekend in Havana. It appears the studio executives flew down to Rio instead. How else did they come up with music and costumes that are more Brazilian than Cuban?Maybe the studio thought of this as a vehicle for Carmen Miranda, the charismatic Brazilian star. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense at all to have turned everything into a samba flavored musical that is completely out of character with its setting of the romantic allure Havana of the 40s.The music is mildly entertaining. We know what will happen and how it will end, yet, we stay with a movie that has been done better before. Walter Lang directed on auto pilot because there is nothing in the film that shows anything new that we haven't seen before.Alice Faye plays a Macy's sales lady on a Caribbean cruise. Ms. Faye is a charming presence in the film. John Payne is the man who is sent to deal with the possible problem caused by the accident of the ship and ends up falling madly in love with the sales woman. Cesar Romero is suave as the gambler that tries to endear himself to the woman he thinks is an heiress. Carmen Miranda is the singing sensation at the Casino Madrileno. "Weekend in Havana" is an inoffensive way to spend a little more than an hour and a half with these characters.