While Latin-jazz and mambo have played a powerful role in Hollywood films through the years, some of the genre’s most powerful moments have not been in movie musicals. Entertaining as they were, the commercial imperatives of big budget Hollywood musicals of the 1940's usually caused any semblance of authenticity to fall by the wayside. But in dramas and mystery films, some pretty solid mambo groves have often been used to highly dramatic effect. The fact that the films themselves were not necessarily "Latin" in theme or focus speaks to how deeply embeded Latin-jazz and mambo had become in popular culture from the mid-1950's onward. As part of our own Academy Awards Countdown, Mamb-O-phoniC will showcase some mambo and Latin-jazz high-points in film history.
Take for example actress Dorothy Malone’s Oscar-winning portrayal of spoiled rich nymphomaniac 'Marylee' in the 1956 Douglas Sirk melodrama Written on the Wind. A huge hit in the '50's, it is today acknowleged as the prototype for 1980's prime- time TV soapers like Dallas, Dynasty, and Falcon Crest. (example: accused by brother Robert Stack of being "a filthy liar!", 'Marylee' responds emphatically, "I'm filthy. Period! "). Mambo becomes a powerful musical analogy for Malone’s “party girl-gone-wild” persona in two key episodes. The first is a party scene where she laughingly leaves a staid Rock Hudson on the dance floor in favor or a more ‘spirited’ mambo partner (underscoring 'Marylee's' propensity to frequently 'change partners' in every way possible...).
In one of the highlights of the film, Malone's 'Marylee' is picked-up by the local cops during a tryst at a seedy motel, and returned to the family mansion. Drunk and unrepentant Dorothy sashays up to her room and clicks on her RCA-Victor hi-fi. As she engages in a torrid 'mambo-striptease’ to the tune "Temptation," the camera shifts back and forth to her oil-baron father who - shamed by his daughter's wanton behavior - collapses and careens down the curved staircase to a bongo beat (click here to view both scenes)!
Solid, tipico music and expert dancing? Hardly. Authentic? Yes, in demonstrating the immersion of Mambo in '50's popular culture. Delicious and cinematically effective? You bet your boxers! Dorothy Malone had been languishing around Hollywood in second-leads and 'B-pictures' for more than a decade. But these memorable mambo scenes helped her win that year's Oscar for "Best Supporting Actress," and to become - albiet briefly - a very big star in late-1950's Hollywood.
In the days leading up to the Academy Awards, tune-in to Mamb-O-phoniC for more installments highlighting the role of films in the immersion of mambo and Latin-jazz into popular culture (...and please, bookmark us and share "Mamb-O-phoniC" with your friends)!
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