This is a gas.Its Mexican, and in the Spanish tradition that everything goes: all sorts of narrative devices and all sorts of plot types are sliced and diced and served in a sort of salsa that makes sense.Its old fashioned floor show musical, but sexier. Its old fashioned noir, but with more unlikely circumstance than usual. Its soap opera with more overt mugging than on daytime TeeVee. Its justice, and romance and white slavery. And it works, which is the miracle that is the most attractive.The noir elements are in the simple plot: girl on the street gets sold into slavery to a woman whose rich son she subsequently marries out of spite — and then falls in love with him. Emotional blackmail of the deepest, blackest kind as turnabout for sexual villainy of the blackest kind.The strange thing is that they clearly designed the thing so that the musical numbers are the most attractive. Our innocent daughter is in her enforced sex slave mode when we first see them and we are supposed to ogle the same as the smarmy men who gather around and reach for her. Later, even after she does not have to, she reverts to this, the implication being that the sexual beast has been irreversibly unleashed.But that's just what attracted the millionaire son, right? That raw, innocent sex? And that's what is supposed to attract us.I guess its okay, if you are a Mexican audience, because she's Cuban, and therefore relatively wild in that way.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

"Aventurera" is a very good melodrama - meaning a drama spiced with musical numbers. But the drama turned, with the passing of time, into comedy. Well, anyway by seeing the picture I had the feeling that the actors were not really taking their part so seriously; what I mean is that it felt like they were having fun - the melodrama with its conventions, its stock characters and innumerable twists, had no surprises in store for them. "Aventurera" has so many and such fantastic twists, right from the beginning, that is absolutely hilarious. The plot, as such, borders on the incredible, the coincidences abound - one is almost reminded of Buñuel. The objective of the film is naturally to entertain and for doing it, everything is allowed. The only thing demanded of the public was a complete suspension of disbelief and they were only too happy to comply.The stereotyped roles presented by "Aventurera" demanded a stylized interpretation, so the film is a melodrama with a light touch - it tells a tragic story sprinkled with musical numbers. It entertains and thrills; the acting is not hysterical, on the contrary one could say that it's almost good-humored. Is this a contradiction? No, it isn't. The film woks well - it just tells a sad story with a smile on the eyes. And here enters the heroine.Niñon Sevilla is wonderful - I'm not speaking of her acting qualities, because good acting was not demanded for her character and would only spoil the film. Niñon Sevilla is beautiful and full of charisma and charm. Her presence fills the screen. She's a naive, naughty and sensual woman - she really shines! One can say that the film is carried by her. But it would be unjust not to mention other actors such as Tito Junco (El Guapo), Andrea Palma (Rosaura) and Miguel Inclan (Ringo). One can detect a feeling of camaraderie among the actors throughout the film.There's a musical number where Niñon Sevilla, dressed as Carmen Miranda, sings "Chiquita Bacana" in Portuguese! "Aventurera" is a really good film - it's a melodrama like no other. You'll laugh your belly out and Niñon Sevilla will charm your weary eyes.

Cine Mexicano can be likened to Hollywood reflected in a fun-house mirror but it's also an exotic world with a unique style all it's own and the "cabaretera" is without doubt the most outrageous film-cycle of "La Epoca de Oro". These pulp-fiction film-noir musical extravaganzas are considered camp today and this one, starring the incredible Ninon Sevilla, is a classic example. The genre abandoned Mexican cinema's often potent blend of primitive superstition and baroque religious symbolism in favor of mixing lurid over-the-top situations with outré musical production numbers. AVENTURERA throws in everything but the kitchen sink and it could never have been made in Hollywood, that's for sure. Although it differs in it's particulars, this film bears some resemblance to Joan Crawford's FLAMINGO ROAD of the previous year. It also works the other way around. The Joan's over-heated Deep South potboiler would have made a fantastic cabaretera if they'd expanded Crawford's carnival cooch-dance and later had her become the hottest musical entertainer in Lute Mae's whorehouse.AVENTURERA careens from one melodramatic situation to the next from the outset and never lets up. There's adultery, suicide, rape, drugs, blackmail, murder (real and attempted), cat-fights, betrayal, lust and vengeance amid a fiery rumba or two. When schoolgirl Elena's adulterous mom runs off and her dad kills himself, she runs away to a sleazy border town where she's taken advantage of by an underworld pimp/gangster. She's drugged, raped and sold to Rosaura, an icy queen bee madame with a mute "familiar" who has a very persuasive way a knife. Rosaura could scare the pants off Sydney Greenstreet any day. How Elena rises to become the top attraction of the cathouse/cabaret is only one of the many jaw-dropping plot developments. She eventually leaves the sporting life behind and moves up in the world. She's about to marry into millions when she meets her prospective mother-in-law ...Roseaura (don't ask)! There's a few more surprises as Elena, bitter but ambitious, sets out for revenge, but little does she know there's a man from her past looking to even the score. J. Hoberman of "The Village Voice" wrote that The British Institute's anthology, Mexican Cinema, calls the cabaretera "profoundly subversive works that even garnered the attention of the French press." What AVENTURERA subverts is conventional Hollywood formula and deep-dish political interpretation. It's the world, not the ruling class, that's decadent and corrupt and, unlike Joan Crawford's FLAMINGO ROAD, in the end all you have is yourself.Ninon Sevilla, like Maria Montez, takes her role very seriously and the Cuban dynamo throws herself into the role of Elena with delirious abandon. Just try to look away from her musical numbers as Americans old enough to remember will re-live the old "Chicquita Banana" TV commercials. Alternating between pert-and-sassy and divinely trashy, Ninon gyrates on bizarrely cluttered sets with fanny-twitching verve. She has a "special relationship" with her tambourine and the sensuous way she caresses herself (like Jean Harlow did before the still camera) will have the imaginative preparing for melt down. Over-ripe dialog abounds (at one point Elena exclaims "My life has only been the road to perversion!") and there's an unforgettable title tune ("And he who awaits the sweet honey of your kiss/Must pay the price in diamonds for your sin")! Repeated viewings are always a treat, especially when the mind and eyes wander over the sets, cars, fashions and even the cast-extras. I loved every over-wrought minute of it!From an interview with Ninon ("La Rumbera") Sevilla in "The Village Voice" Aug. 27, 1996: "Speaking Spanish in a thick Cuban accent punctuated by loud laughter, Sevilla says that she keeps on working (in small parts in soap operas) because she loves to be loved. 'I have so many fans, of all ages, that adore me. I am amongst the most famous artists, you know? They still call me the living diva.' Sevilla still possesses the long curly blonde hair ('I'm a real blonde, you know.') and a huge wardrobe of fur coats from the golden years of her movie-making past. She lives in a Mexico City apartment filled with silver crafts and memorabilia. When asked to attend a public homage, Sevilla always dresses the part. Born in old Havana, the "Queen of the Tropics" came to Mexico in 1946. With (director) Alberto Gout, she completed a brilliant cycle of films that include AVENTURERA and SENSUALIDAD. 'I was his muse', Sevilla says. Sevilla no longer dances the rumba on-stage, but she assures me that she continues to do so in private life. 'Whatever tune is playing, I'll dance to it, caballero!" Viva AVENTURERA!

I hope no one adds to that excellent plot summary, because the less you know about the story going into it, the better this movie is. I only wanted to add that one of the delights of "Aventurera" is that it features several of the best singers and musicians of Mexico in that era, beginning with the title song by Agustín Lara.I didn't rate the movie because I think it's in a class of its own. I know there are other related films in the noir+musical vein, but in terms of talent and plot twists, there is nothing quite like "Aventurera."And ¡Brava! for Ninón Sevilla. I just learned from this site (10 Oct 05) that she is still alive, and still working.