- The Mambo Kings
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The Mambo Kings 
The Mambo Kings movie posterDirected by Arne Glimcher Produced by Arnon Milchan
Arne GlimcherScreenplay by Cynthia Cidre Based on The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by
Oscar HijuelosStarring Armand Assante
Antonio Banderas
Cathy Moriarty
Maruschka DetmersMusic by Carlos Franzetti
Robert KraftCinematography Michael Ballhaus Editing by Claire Simpson Studio Le Studio Canal+
Regency Enterprises
Alcor FilmsDistributed by Warner Bros. Release date(s) March 1, 1992 Running time 104 min. Country United States Language English Box office $6,742,168 (domestic) The Mambo Kings is a 1992 drama film starring Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas. Directed by Arne Glimcher in his directorial debut, the film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos. The Mambo Kings tells the story of César and Nestor Castillo, brothers and aspiring musicians who flee from Cuba to America in search of the American Dream.
Contents
Plot
In the early 1950s, Cuban brothers and musicians César (Assante) and Nestor (Banderas) flee from Havana after getting into a violent dispute with the mobster owners of a club where they performed.
Eventually ending up in New York, the brothers work at menial jobs while attempting to revive their musical careers. At a nightclub where Cesar briefly crashes the act of mambo star Tito Puente, they make new friends and connections, as well as meeting cigarette girl Lanna Lake (Cathy Moriarty), who falls quickly into a love affair with César.
Nestor, in the meantime, remains oblivious to other women while continually composing his ode to his lost Cuban love, Maria. He writes version after version of the same ballad, "Beautiful Maria of My Soul", until by chance one day he encounters Dolores (Maruschka Detmers), a shy but attentive young woman who wishes to become a school teacher. When she becomes pregnant, they decide to get married.
Fate intervenes one night at a club, where the Castillo brothers have a part-time job. Nestor's love ballad captures the interest of one of the customers, who turns out to be the Cuban bandleader and American television star Desi Arnaz (played by his son, Desi Arnaz, Jr.). After a pleasant evening in Nestor's and Dolores' modest home, Arnaz generously invites the struggling Castillos to sing and act on an episode of his smash sitcom series, I Love Lucy.
Cleverly intercutting footage of Banderas and Assante into an actual I Love Lucy episode (where the brothers' characters appear to actually be interacting in a scene with Lucille Ball), the film depicts the rise to prominence of César and Nestor as overnight stars.
Fame does not last, however. Nestor is not as ambitious as his brother and desires nothing more than to own his own small club. He is in love with Dolores, but lacks the passion he felt for his beloved Maria back home. César, meantime, suppresses his true feelings, that a woman like Dolores would actually be perfect for him.
There are tragic consequences one snowy night when the Castillo brothers' car veers off the road and into a tree. César is in the back seat and barely hurt, but Nestor, driving the car, is killed. The life of César, shattered, is never the same. To honor his brother's memory, César opens his own small club, which is well received. Dolores pays him a visit at his club and asks him to sing Nestor's song for her.
Production
Development
The Mambo Kings marked the directorial debut of Arne Glimcher, a powerful art dealer in New York City. Prior to directing the film, Glimcher had produced previous films such as Gorillas in the Mist, and The Good Mother.
Glimcher had been a big fan of mambo music, and heard that Oscar Hijuelos was writing a book relating to the subject. Glimcher wanted to read the book before it was even published. Hijuelos sent Glimcher a manuscript of the book, which Glimcher read before buying the rights to make a feature film. Hijuelos’ book, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love was published in 1989 and went on to win a 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. [1]
Casting
From the beginning, Glimcher had actors Antonio Banderas and Armand Assante in mind to play the Castillo brothers. Assante had appeared in minor supporting roles, and had not yet broken out as a major star; Banderas, a Spanish movie star, was best known for his work in the films of Pedro Almodóvar. Executives at Warner Bros., however, wanted Jeremy Irons to play César and Ray Liotta to play Nestor. Both actors had received critical acclaim for their performances in Reversal of Fortune and Goodfellas respectively, and the studio felt that they would appeal to a wider audience.[1]
Glimcher fought hard for Banderas, who was looking to make an international breakthrough in his first English-speaking role. Despite Banderas’ total lack of English skills at the time, Glimcher thought he would be perfect for the film. Through a translator, Glimcher told Banderas to work on improving his English for a month and then come to Hollywood for a screen test. Banderas wound up making a screen test opposite Jeremy Irons, which the executives at Warner Bros. loved. However, Glimcher thought Irons was the wrong choice to play Cesar; while he enjoyed Irons' performance, Glimcher still felt that Armand Assante was an ideal choice to play Cesar.[1]
Annabella Sciorra was originally set to play Nestor’s new love interest Delores. Sciorra had to pull out, however, due to a scheduling conflict. Maruschka Detmers stepped in to take over the role just two weeks prior to filming. Glimcher cast actress Cathy Moriarty as César's girlfriend Lanna Lake, having loved her performance in Raging Bull. [1]
In an effort to bring some authenticity to the mambo world of the 1950s depicted in The Mambo Kings, Glimcher hired legendary real-life musicians Tito Puente and [[Celia Cruz] and James JT Taylor to appear in small roles.[1]
Release
Reception
Upon its theatrical release on March 1, 1992, reviews for The Mambo Kings were generally positive. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that the film "runs on pure emotion", and that it "celebrates the mysterious power of a music that can make you feel like dancing and bring you to your knees."[2] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half stars of four, writing the film's "story is as old as the movies, but The Mambo Kings is so filled with energy, passion and heedless vitality that it seems new, anyway."[3] Desson Howe of the Washington Post wrote that the film "is so pumped up with life it threatens to burst. It's beautifully filmed and flashily edited. It pulsates with rhythmic ecstasy. It throbs, it sweats, it pounds, it undulates." As of 2009, the film currently a 78% rating on the online review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on a total of 18 reviews.[4]
Music
Main article: The Mambo Kings (soundtrack)The film received an Academy Award Best Original Song nomination for its original song, Beautiful Maria of My Soul, which was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the same category. The film's song was also nominated for the Grammy Awards' "Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television" category, along with a second number from the soundtrack, Mambo Caliente. Latin music legends Celia Cruz, Tito Puente and Arturo Sandoval performed on the soundtrack album.
Stage play
The film became a stage musical in 2005, with lyrics by Arne Glimcher and music by Carlos Franzetti. An out-of-town tryout in San Francisco included Esai Morales, Christiane Noll, David Alan Grier, Jaime Camil, Cote de Pablo and Justina Machado, but the production never opened on Broadway.
References
External links
Categories:- English-language films
- 1992 films
- 1990s drama films
- 1990s musical films
- American musical drama films
- Directorial debut films
- Films based on novels
- Films directed by Arne Glimcher
- Films set in the 1950s
- Films set in Cuba
- Films set in New York City
- French drama films
- Warner Bros. films
- Regency Enterprises films
- StudioCanal films
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