Movie star Lili Damita is making a publicity tour of a Latin American country, in the company of her would-be fiance, coffee magnate Fred Keating, and suite. Local politician Francisco Flores del Campo, exiled to the countryside by the military government, rides to the train to serenade Miss Damita. Publicists Tiffany Thayer and Jean Chatburn think it would be a great story if "local bandit kidnaps movie star" and everyone agrees, so it's off to del Campo's hacienda. While they're running through the usual sorting-out of couples, the generals decide this would be a great chance to get rid of this thorn in their side. It's also a musical, with half a dozen operetta numbers.
It's a great idea for a comedy, but the situations are resolved too easily, few of the jokes are sharp enough -- although Miss Chatham gets a nice one, when she says "Of course I dream of love. Pass the ketchup" -- and the silliness never gets off the simmering stage. Writer-director Crane Wilbur's script isn't sharp enough to make me laugh; when I watched it, I kept thinking of gags that would make it better, and that's a bad sign. Of course, Miss Damita and Mr. del Campo were not working in their native languages, and that makes jokes more difficult, but the humor never gets much better than Miss Chatburn taking off her glasses to become beautiful.
It's a great idea for a comedy, but the situations are resolved too easily, few of the jokes are sharp enough -- although Miss Chatham gets a nice one, when she says "Of course I dream of love. Pass the ketchup" -- and the silliness never gets off the simmering stage. Writer-director Crane Wilbur's script isn't sharp enough to make me laugh; when I watched it, I kept thinking of gags that would make it better, and that's a bad sign. Of course, Miss Damita and Mr. del Campo were not working in their native languages, and that makes jokes more difficult, but the humor never gets much better than Miss Chatburn taking off her glasses to become beautiful.