By Luis Reyes
Catch up on Old Hollywood’s pioneering Latino stars in a number of New on Demand DVD title releases from Warner Bros. Archive Collection.
Margo Albert and Warner Baxter
Baxter
Actress Margo Albert, who founded East Los Angeles Lincoln Park, Plaza De La Raza co stars as Rosa, the wife of legendary Californio bandit Joaquin Marietta in the film Robin Hood Of El Dorado (1936) which was filmed on location in the Sierra foothills of California where the 19th century story takes place. It is a straightforward sympathetic portrayal of the Californio uprising against rapacious Yankee intrusion into California in 1849.
Non-Latino Warner Baxter was then Hollywood’s choice (some things never change in Hollywood) to play Joaquin Murrieta since he won an Academy Award as Best Actor a few years previous playing The Cisco Kid in a series of popular films.
Ricardo Montalban sings and dances in the Technicolor MGM musical Sombrero, (1953) with a script by Mexican born writer, Josefina Niggli based on her own novel of the same name.
Montalban also takes on the role of a Mexican Government undercover police officer battling early manifestations of drug cartels in the action thriller Sol Madrid (1968).
Spanish born Superstar actress/singing sensation Sarita Montiel who worked in both Mexican and Spanish films, found her way to Hollywood to co-star as what else, a Native American maiden, opposite Rod Steiger and Charles Bronson in Samuel Fuller’s Technicolor Western classic Run Of The Arrow (1957).
This film is a precursor to Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves in that it is the story of a disillusioned Civil War veteran, who forsakes everything and finds a life among the Native American tribes of the American South West.
Anthony Quinn, in his first leading role co -starred opposite his wife actress Katherine DeMille in a sentimental tale of a Native American family who strike oil on their land and enter a prize winning horse in The Kentucky Derby in Black Gold (1947) which also features Chinese American actor Willy Louie. These videos are remastered from the original negatives and offer superb visual quality for vintage movies of the particular era. These films can be ordered from the Warner Bros archive Collection or can be viewed on the Warner Bros Archive Collection streaming service
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