For Spanish actor Antonio Banderas the path towards true international stardom included appearing in Hollywood films that would ultimately make him into one of the greatest romantic leads of world cinema. That didn’t happen overnight and his Hollywood debut - The Mambo Kings, 1992 period musical drama directed by Arne Glimcher, although interesting, was hardly a smashing success at the box office.
The film is based on The Mambo Kings Play the Songs of Love, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Oscar Hijuelos. The plot begins in 1952 Havana where two Castillo brothers – singer and drummer Cesar (played by Armand Aassante) and trumpet player Nestor (played by Banderas) - run afoul of local gangster and have to save their lives by emigrating to United States. While Cesar is enthusiastic about his new home, Nestor is nostalgic towards Cuba and can’t forget Maria Rivera (played by Talisa Soto), beautiful woman he had to abandon, unaware that she is the very reason why Castillos had to escape the island. Brothers support themselves by working menial jobs by day and spend most of their nights in night clubs trying to revive their musical careers as members of mambo band. Both find love with very different women – Cesar with statuesque cigarette girl Lanna Lake (played by Cathy Moriarty) and Nestor with aspiring schoolteacher Delores Fuentes (played by Maruschka Detmers). Nestor, who is still carrying torch for Maria, who serves as inspiration for his song “Beautiful Maria of My Soul”, is reluctant to commit to Delores until she gets pregnant. In the meantime, Cesar hampers brothers’ career by refusing to sign contract with influential manager Fernando Perez (played by Roscoe Lee Brown), but a chance meeting with fellow Cuban musician Desi Arnaz (played by Desi Arnaz Jr.) allows brothers to taste fame through appearance in popular television sitcom I Love Lucy. In that moment brothers realise that they want separate things – Cesar wants to become star while Nestor wants to settle down and own small club.
The Mambo Kings represented directing debut of Arne Glimcher, who also co-produced the film and co-wrote film’s theme song with Robert Kraft. For Glimcher, until that time best known as art dealer, the film was labour of love, inspired by his friendship with novel’s author and love of mambo music. Relatively large budget was invested in the project, with many good musical numbers, costumes, props, art direction by Dean Tavoularis and plenty of period detail captured through cinematography by Michael Ballahaus. The Mambo Kings is a very good film for those who are fascinated by 1950s America and mambo music. Appearances of musicians like Tito Puente (who plays himself) and Cuban singer Celia Cruz are matched by Desi Arnaz Jr. who plays his real life father. However, all this great effort is undermined by weak script by Cynthia Cidre, which had not only limited the epic content of original novel into small time period, but also had characters cliched and underwritten. This reflected on the very varied quality of acting. While Armand Assante, despite his role being limited, chews scenery and does remarkable job, easily overshadowing Banderas who was still struggling with English language at the time. Character of Delores is poorly written and Dutch actress Maruschka Detmers, despite being physically attractive, lacks proper chemistry with Banderas. Another problem for the film is Glimcher being too much in love with theme song and using it too much; even with different lyrics and versions being played, that might become tiresome for many segments of the audience. Despite more than decent reviews and Los Lobos’ rendition of “Beautiful Maria of My Soul” becoming big hit, The Mambo Kings didn’t actually connect with cinema audiences. However, it still can be recommended for mambo enthusiasts and fans of Antonio Banderas who used this film as good stepping stone for the more iconic roles in the future.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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