CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
Mischa Redfern
I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
Portia Hilton
Blistering performances.
ptb-8
Imagine if Pufnstuf married Mary Poppins at MGM in 1945. Hmmm. This eyegoggling Technicolor extravaganza set in South America is basically the movie version of the box of chocolates Forrest Gump's Mum warned us about. Unsuspecting viewers might be initially puzzled at the setting and the ideology of the characters. But if you are willing to be patient and be generous about the casting and look forward to a sumptuous feast of color MGM musical effervescence... Well YOLANDA is possibly one of the three top visual treats from that studio. WIZARD OF OZ and THE PIRATE are my votes for the other two. This puts us firmly in a fantasy mode of dreamy musicals with some bitter edges and sexual undercurrent. Read the other comments on this site for YOLANDA they quite well describe some odd things and mostly agree on the film's triumphs: the art direction and the 'Coffeetime' dance number. For me there is an extra musical bonus: The song called "I've An Angel": its breathtaking romantic excitement, the swoon-worthy sexual beauty of Lucille Bremer emerging from her bath to dress in ultra sheer imagery of famed Vargas Girl style.. and the song itself hummed and sung as she bathes, dresses, leaves the house and rushes through the night for a possibly breathless encounter. YOLANDA has many delights, like that chocolate box itself, and it is over ripe and heady. But I am so happy it exists, so delicious a cinematic fruit salad. It cost a mammoth $4million dollars in 1945 and did not return its cost. Made in the days when 'Art for Arts sake" the MGM motto on the ribbon over the growling lion logo, actually meant what it said. YOLANDA (and THE PIRATE) are both genuine art musicals. Know that and you will enjoy.
John Hutchinson- (playwrite2000)
Just came from a full screen showing of Yolanda & the Thief at the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto. This movie has long been a cult favorite of mine. I use the term "cult" because Yolanda is seldom mentioned in the same breath with so many of Arthur Freed's other MGM musicals. Few people have even heard of it. I have a bootleg Beta copy but you won't find a VHS version and certainly not a DVD. Somehow the fantasy element skews the movie's appeal despite its lush pallet, the full throttle performances, and the campiest mis en scene to emerge from Hollywood in the 40s. The opening shot: Sunrise in a field in Patria, a nation that may be a combination of Peru and Bolivia (only without the poverty, the politics or the bad weather) high in a cardboard rendering of the Andes. School children have gathered for class. The teacher is a wise old man who uses a llama as a back rest. The boys (yes, they're all boys) are attentive, well-behaved, and ethnic. Even the tow head in the first row has enough pancake makeup to pass for a native. So what? We're there to learn about the Aquaviva family... rich, benevolent, monopolistic, off beat, the family runs Patria and controls the oil, the beef, the transportation (Pan Aquaviva Airlines). But do we cue the Commies to start marching in the streets, protesting the plight of the poor? No, the Patrianos (or whatever they call themselves) are too busy dancing and singing and selling trinkets to care about their oppression. We are in a world that existed exclusively in the heads of Vincent Minnelli and his production crew. The colors are bright and bold: Emerald greens, umber translucent skies, golden gowns. Minelli's directorial style is a kind of in your face bravado with crane shots for days (true sometimes they get a little bumpy but high altitudes will do that to you). No doubt the writers got their idea of Patria while visiting the bar at the Agua Caliente race track in Tijuana, or taking lunch breaks at Olvera Street. Don't see this movie for its politics (there are none) or the geography (the back lot of MGM) or cultural authenticity (the female vendors in the town plaza wear hats that resemble Bolivian bowlers with colors by Irene). Yolanda and the Thief is truly sui generis. There's never been anything like it before and there hasn't been anything like it since. Minelli made Y&TF and broke the mold. (One question: Who's the guy that keeps bumming cigarettes off Fred?)
TxMike
Fred Astaire established such a reputation as a "good guy" (i.e. "Daddy Longlegs"), it is a bit of a shock at first to see him playing a scoundrel. In "Yolanda and The Thief", Astaire (45) plays Johnny Riggs, a second rate con man. But he gets more than he bargained for in this light, formulaic romantic comedy with a nice twist at the end. I had not heard before of Lucille Bremer who plays Yolanda Aquaviva, just turning "of age" (probably 18 or 21, even though she was 28 here), and leaving the convent and orphanage run by the nuns, to travel to the fictitious Hispanic country where she was to assume oversight of her inheritance, land and a beautiful home with an old aunt and a full staff. As she was leaving the old Mother Superior gave her a talk, and warned of the "dishonest" people she might encounter. So sheltered and naive was Yolanda, she had a bit of trouble comprehending the idea of "dishonest" people. This movie came out in 1945, the year I was born. It was shot in color, and is very natural looking. Not a great movie, but a fun movie for fans of Astaire, and he does a couple of dance numbers with Bremer, who also was a gifted dancer and an adequate singer.The rest of my comments contain SPOILERS, BE WARNED. As Johnny and his sidekick Victor Trout (Frank Morgan, who earlier played the Wizard in Oz) were looking over a wall for an opportunity, he heard Yolanda praying in the garden to her guardian angel, for help managing the money and business of her estate. Johnny decided to play "Mr Brown", her guardian angel, meets her, she takes it all in, and agrees to sign papers to give Johnny power of attorney over all her wealth as her sign of trust in him. He and Victor plan to run away and cash out the $Million in bonds that they lifted from her residence, but keep running into Mr. Candle, who just won't get out of their way. Also, it seems that the custom in this small country is, signing over power of attorney is a sign that the two are getting married. As Johnny and Victor try to leave the country by train, Mr. Candle is there again. It turns out that Mr. Candle really is Yolanda's guardian angel, and insists that Johnny marry her, which he does, knowing that he had better treat her right, because Mr. Candle would always be watching!
harry-76
Vincent Minnelli loves pure beauty, and in "Yolanda and the Thief" he's in heaven.Here he has the unbridled luxury of reveling in rich colors, stylish costumes, imaginative dream sequences, and a carnival dance scene that's breathtaking.With Arthur Freed and Harry Warren's tuneful songs, music supervision by Roger Edens and direction by Lennie Hayton, the score simply glows.
Right from the start, "This is a Day for Love" spans a colorful countryside, moving into a processional and to a lovely convent setting. At midpoint, there's a fantasy through cobblestone streets, to a "magical" pond (from which a remarkable "apparition" emerges) to a multileveled plane with assorted choreographic groupings.This complex fantasy undoubtedly inspired Gene Kelly six years later in developing his great ballet sequence of "An American in Paris." The expansive MGM sound stages are fully utilized in both executions to their fullest.Then the show-stopping "Coffee Time" choreography by Eugen Loring, and deftly danced by Fred Astaire, Lucille Bremer and company, is a masterpiece of concept and execution.Starting off with a lone female trio stepping and clapping off-beat in 5/4, a startling 4/4 song is suddenly superimposed upon the "ground"--with dance and clap movements clearly continuing in 5/4. To add to the "tour de force, a slower pas de deux emerges in the irregular meter, only to be followed by the corps' return to the regular, with everything "taken out" in combined meters. It's really something to see this dance, which is obviously the result of many weeks of painstaking work from a number of departments, so smoothly executed. Astaire is on top of his form, with Bremer right there every step of the way. They make as beautiful a pair here as in the lovely "This Heart of Mine" number from "Ziegfield Follies." As for Minnelli, he must have been ecstatic throughout this picturesque production. Mildred Natwick shines in her hilarious role as Aunt, and Frank Morgan and Leon Ames provide able support. The script itself is a serviceable backdrop for the art departments' joining the music team in having a field day crafting a very beautiful production.
As for Minnelli, this was certainly among his happiest hours in filmmaking.
