The Cervantes Center of Arts & Letters will celebrate the birth centennial of Mexican actor-singer superstar Tito Guízar (1908–1999) with a screening of the 1936 cowboy musical ("charro") Alla en el rancho grande / Over at the Big Ranch this evening at 7pm at USC's Leavey Library Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles. Free admission. (Parking at Figueroa St. – Gate # 3; for more information/RSVP.: 310 526 1480.)
The film will be presented in Spanish with English subtitles. Following the screening, Guízar's daughter and son, actress Lilia Guízar and singer Tito Guízar Jr., will take part in a q&a session.
Directed by Fernando de Fuentes, Over at the Big Ranch stars Guízar, Esther Fernandez, Rene Cardona, Emma Roldan, Chaflan, Lorenzo Barcelata, and Manuel Noriega (Guizar's father-in-law).
The synopsis below ("action dancing" sounds pretty cool, but "cockfighting"?? Ugh!) is from the USC website:
Singing cowboys, golden-hearted bandits and fair senoritas made this movie a box-office phenomenon, hailed by historians as the vanguard of the Mexican "charro" genre. Popular radio singer Guízar is cast as itinerant ranchhand Jose Francisco, who falls in love, in spite of himself, with duckling-turned-swan Cruz (Esther Fernandez). It's essentially a Cinderella story, with a bit of Mexican "action dancing" and cockfighting.
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Tito Guizar el Grande!
Thirty years ago I found an LP for Tito Guizar in a used records shop. Since then I have become a Tito "addict". He embellishes Spanish singing and can't have enough of his soothing voice and style, which I must hear many times on a daily basis. AAAh! how it calms the soul!!!
They should have a Tito retrospective north of the border.