Viva Villa!: A Review

 

VIVA VILLA!

I was wary when I heard that Wallace Beery was playing Francisco "Pancho" Villa in a biopic. While the casting is still a bit jarring, I was surprised at how much I liked Viva Villa! thanks to some excellent work in front and behind the camera.

After seeing his father killed by a wealthy landowner, young Pancho Villa kills that landowner and flees into the night. Decades pass, and now the adult Pancho Villa (Beery) has come to keep his war against the powerful going. He may have found a surprising ally in Don Felipe (Donald Cook), who seems sympathetic to the peons' plight. Also sympathetic is Don Felipe's sister, Teresa (Fay Wray), who is also quite attractive. 

There will be no romance between Villa and Teresa however for a variety of reasons. First, Villa is married, though exactly to how many women is a subject for debate. Second, sequestered American reporter Jonny Sykes (Stuart Erwin) warns Teresa not to wave at Villa, which for some reason is his cue to make his moves. 

Finally, there is the growing Mexican Revolution itself. Villa finds a hero in another Pancho of sorts: the elegant intellectual Francisco Madero (Henry B. Walthall). Madero is sincere in wanting to improve the lot of Mexicans like Villa, and the general takes a liking to his little man. With that, Villa agrees to use his men to overthrow the dictator Porfirio Diaz and make Mexico great again. Villa also commandeers Sykes to be his personal de facto press agent to the world.

Villa has military successes, culminating with the capture of Ciudad Juarez. However, he is also reckless, disobedient and ultimately pushed out of both the revolution and Mexico itself. Exiled in nearby El Paso, Villa is devastated and angry when he learns that Madero has been assassinated. It is now up to Pancho Villa to restore the revolution and punish those who went after his little buddy and hero. It means a falling out with Felipe and Teresa, a falling out that will have ultimately deadly consequences for some of them.

It would shock no one that Viva Villa! is wildly historically inaccurate. Villa, for example, was never President of Mexico, which the film has him as. Villa's assassination was more than likely political rather than personal. It is surprising that Viva Villa! opted for this retelling of history given that Villa had been killed in 1923, a mere nine years before Viva Villa! premiered. 

However, I think Viva Villa! was not interested in history but in a mix of mythology and even comedy. On those levels, the film is a great success. 

The Villa in Viva Villa! is almost a sweet innocent, not buffoonish per se but with a few quirks. He could be menacing, even psychotic, like in Beery's first scene. Sweeping in to avenge the unjust killing of peons, he storms into the kangaroo court with their corpses, sitting them down to serve as a "jury" against the wealthy landowner who had them killed. Villa from time to time mockingly addresses the jury, asking them what they want him to do. It is clear that Villa is enraged at the extrajudicial murders and will hold those responsible to justice. Beery, to his credit, makes Villa here eerily dark and dangerous.

However, for most of Viva Villa! Wallace Beery makes him almost endearingly sweet. He, for example, explains to a general why he won't follow the orders he's been given. "You give me orders that I like, fine, then I do what you say. Otherwise, I do as I say". Beery as Villa does not say this in a belligerent or angry when he says this. Rather, he says this in an almost apologetic and sweet manner. It tells us that Pancho Villa is not a terrible man. He's actually a bit of an innocent, one who kills but who also is quite pleasant.

We see this also when he is President. Complaining loudly that his ministers do nothing but talk about the budget rather than the land reform he and Madero wanted, he berates them for not having the money for anything. However, he, Pancho Villa, has come up with his own brilliant and logical solution. He merely has printers literally make more money. If you need money, you just make more money. Villa goes so far as to arrest the printers who dare ask for payment. The logic of hyperinflation escapes the President. The adding of doves to the currency rather than the bulls he demanded, however, does not.

Beery's Villa does have something of a moral nature. He, for example, agrees to assault a town because Sykes had already reported that he had, and Villa does not want to disappoint a friend. He also chides two of his men for trying to take some treasures home when he decides to resign the Presidency. However, Ben Hecht's screenplay gives this a bit of humor when Villa himself takes a gold bull. We do not dislike Villa for this brazen act of hypocrisy. Instead, given how Beery has played Villa, we end up finding it endearing. 

Beery has a warmth and again, sweetness when it comes to Villa. I think people now would fiercely condemn the casting of Wallace Beery as Pancho Villa, and to be fair his stabs at an accent do fall short. However, thinking on it, I think General Villa would have been tickled at the idea of having a major star at the time like Wallace Beery play him. Giving Beery credit where it is due, he did a good job if it was to show Pancho Villa as a bit of a charming, childlike rogue.

There is a running gag of him marrying almost every beautiful woman he meets. The one he could not get is Teresa, though not for lack of trying. Few people would try a pickup line like, "Are you in the Revolution too?".

Walthall was nobility itself as the moral, idealistic Madero. Wray's Teresa was excellent: sincere in her concern for peons that eventually morphed into contempt for her former ally Villa, albeit due to his actions to avenge Madero. Leo Carillo balanced menace and mirth as Sierra, Villa's second-in-command. Sometimes cruel, sometimes silly, Carillo did an equally strong performance.

One of the highlights in Viva Villa! is the cinematography. The film had two cinematographers. One of them was Charles G. Clarke. The other was James Wong Howe, who could go on to be ranked among the greatest of all time. While it is difficult to impossible to know who shot what, I think we can pick out the scenes that Howe filmed. In particular are the night scenes when Villa is ordering the killing of the Federales. The use of shadows to counter the killings is beautifully filmed. My sense is that this scene, some dance hall numbers, and Madero's introduction were made by James Wong Howe. I may be wrong, but they are well-shot.

Viva Villa! is open about being more fiction than fact. Its opening title crawl says, "It is fiction woven out of truth and inspired by a love of the half-legendary Pancho and the glamorous country he served". A legend in his own time, Villa's myth grew right after his death. It is a legend that will not fade into history and one enhanced by Viva Villa! While it may not be history, it is entertaining, and I think even the General would not object to that. 

1878-1923

DECISION: B-