Another Dawn

I loved this film. Have been watching Mexican films for several months on a regular basis. Most have been fodder from the 50's and 60's that center on machismo and helpless females. This one is different. My first impression is how the female star Andrea Palma, looked line Marlene Dietrich! She carried the film with her pivotal role as a former love interest to one of my favorite Mexican actors Pedro Armendariz and her current husband played by Alberto Galan. This lady is one tough cookie. The constant in this film is the absolute flawless photography of Mexican legend Gabriel Figueroa and the direction of the film's director Julio Bracho. Everything is 1st class about this film, especially compared with the parochialism of Mexican cinema of the late 30's. The Noir! Plenty of it, night shadows, men wearing sunglasses at night, gangs of thugs, a jilted husband. This film is awash with shadows, drawn guns and cigarettes. No, there is no dumb and wicked blond, although the heroine uncharacteristically for Mexican films, fired a bullet into the gut of an axe wielding bad guy! This Bracho film pointed Mexican cinema into the stylistic center of world cinema of the war years. Tough and gritty like the Third Man (1949), Casablanca (1942), in an urban setting filled with night-life characters. But alas, the Mexican public won out over dirty and gritty movies with their support of films filled with music, tequila, bumbling comics and macho good guys punching out bad guys in night clubs and cantinas galore! Not until Luis Bunuel's "Los Olvidados", did Mexican cinema regain the level of storytelling accomplished in this film by director Bracho. I gave this film a 9 mostly because Pedro's performance was script acting, reciting lines using that marvelous Pedro Armendariz allure without the experience and seasoning he would quickly attain.