The greatest movie ever made..!

Really Surprised!

Let's be realistic.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This film reminds me of the odd song "Perhaps Love" which inexplicably paired John Denver with Placido Domingo the opera singer! Yes, "The Cuban Love Song" features an on-screen pairing that just defies common sense--with the classically trained opera singer, Lawrence Tibbett, playing opposite his on-screen pal, Jimmy Durante!! And, to make things even more bizarre, the love interest was the Mexican bombshell, Lupe Valez!! Talk about a strange melange of actors!The film casts Tibbett as a singing Marine, Terry. While I am sure Tibbett was a lovely person in real life, he sure didn't look like a Marine...more like a society boy with his cute little mustache and prep school manners. I honestly think Hollywood just didn't know what to do with the guy...all they knew was that he had a great voice. Heck, in another film they paired him with Laurel & Hardy, though the film, "The Rogue Song", has been lost. These odd pairings might help explain why Tibbett only appeared in six films and soon returned to the opera stage...only returning for a few television appearances later in life. As for the film, it's mostly an excuse to hear Tibbett as well as Valez sing...and their voices don't exactly complement each other. Tibbet's voice, even with the primitive sound used in this film, is incredible...and Valez's lacks the power and style of his. They are mismatched when it comes to singing...and their falling in love is equally strange and mismatched. Worth seeing mostly because of its curiosity value. Fortunately, if you need to see it, the print on YouTube is amazingly crisp. Too bad there are no subtitles, however, as sometimes it would have helped in understanding Valez.

This is not a particularly enjoyable movie, and that is strange.It tells the story of an American serviceman, Lawrence Tibbett, who gets shore leave in Cuba in 1914 and becomes involved with - I won't say falls in love with - a lively Cuban peanut seller. They spend some fun time together - and, as we learn later, conceive a child - before Tibbett is called back to the U.S. to serve in World War I.Ten years later, by then a married man in the States, Tibbett hears a Cuban song and sets off for Cuba again, in search of the peanut vendor. He discovers that she has died, but also discovers the child he fathered with her. He takes the child back to the U.S. with him and his wife, in the closing scene, agrees to take him back with the boy.In 1931, when this movie was made, this would have been a story about interracial sex - perhaps love. Tibbett's American wife, like Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, agrees to take the child of her husband with a woman of a different race. There is no chance for a marriage for the Cuban woman and the American man - he shies away when she proposes it - because of what was seen as the racial barrier. He has no problems having a good time with her, but marriage is another issue.Still, he can't forget her. Whether that is just sexual desire, or whether there is also an element of love in there, the movie never makes clear.As a result, Tibbett's character comes off as somewhat exploitative, and therefore unappealing, at least for modern viewers.I guess this could have been a male fantasy back in 1931, but today that is hard to swallow.I will say, though, that Tibbett's singing in his few numbers is very impressive. His recordings, while good, do not capture the sound of his rich voice the way this movie sound track did. He is also a very natural actor, unlike some other operatic singers who tried Hollywood in the 1930s.This is not a good movie, but it is an interesting example of how pre-Code Hollywood treated certain racial issues.

A very interesting and quite fun little film featuring Lawrence Tibbett. Yes the story is creaky, the film is too short and some of the dialogue is pretty routine. But against all that in the film's favour we have nice production values, wonderful music full of zest and authentic flavour, a fiery Lupe Velez, a zany Jimmy Durante and Ernest Torrence who provide the amusing comedy nicely and a truly terrific turn from the master baritone himself Lawrence Tibbett both in presence and particularly in singing. The direction is also pretty good, The Cuban Love Song goes at a snappy pace while not slowing down too much in the slower interludes and the stars seem to be having fun. All in all, interesting and worth seeing for Tibbett. 7/10 Bethany Cox

One of these fine days when Fidel Castro can no longer fog a mirror and the President of the United States no longer has a brother who's Governor of Florida and dependent on exiled Cuban votes, we'll be back to visiting Cuba as before and updated versions of Cuban Love Song will be made again.Probably not with a transplanted opera singer like Lawrence Tibbett though. In Cuban Love Song he's Terry Burke, devil may care, upper middle class average Joe who just has to get some wild oats sowed before settling down to married life with Karen Morley. He joins the Marines to do it and the ship he's stationed on, puts into Havana for liberty shortly before American entry into World War I.He sure finds his wild oats in Lupe Velez, Havana peanut vendor, grows them and sells them. They get one wild liberty together before Tibbett has to go to war. So the question is, who will Tibbett eventually settle down with? Remember this film is before the code so the answer isn't obvious. In fact those oats had some consequences.Tibbett got good reviews for Cuban Love Song and a couple of hit songs came out of it. The title song sold a few records and the Peanut Vendor Song started a rhumba craze during the Depression. As sidekicks to Tibbett, Ernest Torrance and Jimmy Durante provide the same comic relief as Laurel and Hardy did for him in his debut in The Rogue Song. Lawrence Tibbett had a magnificent baritone voice and opera lovers should not miss any chance to hear it.