In Caliente (1935) Review - Tequila, Tired Jokes, and Dolores Del Río

Is it worth the time?

If you like 1930s musicals where everyone talks at 100 miles per hour and the sets look like giant wedding cakes, then yes. You should watch this today if you need something light that doesn't ask much of your brain.

You will probably hate this if you want a plot that makes sense or if you can't stand old-fashioned 'funny' accents. It is very much a product of 1935, for better or worse.

The Vibe

I watched this late at night and honestly, the first twenty minutes are just Pat O'Brien being very loud. He plays Larry Lawrence, an editor who is basically a professional alcoholic and a jerk to everyone.

He’s got this nervous energy that makes me want to drink a glass of water just watching him. He’s supposed to be charming, I guess? But mostly he just seems like he needs a long nap and a salad.

Then the movie moves to Mexico—well, a Hollywood version of Mexico—and everything gets much prettier to look at. The resort is called Agua Caliente, and it looks like the kind of place where nobody ever has to work a real job. It reminds me a bit of the setting in Monte Carlo Madness, but with more palm trees and way more tequila.

Dolores Del Río is the whole movie

The second Dolores Del Río shows up on screen, the movie finally starts. She plays Rita Gomez, the dancer Larry trashed in his magazine without ever actually seeing her perform. She is stunning. Like, the camera seems to be in love with her face in every single shot.

She finds out who Larry is and decides to make him fall in love with her just to break his heart. It’s a classic trope, but she plays it with this sharp, mean little glint in her eye that I really liked. You can tell she's having fun being slightly villainous.

There is a scene where she is wearing this massive white dress and just staring at him, and you can practically feel the movie's budget going up. Pat O'Brien looks like he doesn't know what hit him. I don't blame him.

Random things I noticed

• Edward Everett Horton is in this, playing the sidekick again. He does that flustered, 'oh dear' thing he always does. It’s comforting, like a familiar pair of socks, even if it's predictable.
• The musical number "The Lady in Red" is the highlight. It goes on forever. At one point, I forgot what the actual story was about because there were just so many people dancing.
• Wini Shaw sings the song, and she’s got this great, brassy voice. But the way the scene is cut, it feels like it belongs in a completely different film.
• There’s a weird comedy trio called the Canova Family. They are... a lot. They do this hillbilly comedy bit that feels like it crashed into the movie from a different dimension. It’s not really funny, just loud.

The Pacing

The middle of the movie drags a bit. There’s a lot of back-and-forth about whether Larry will find out the truth. It’s one of those plots that would be over in five minutes if people just talked like normal humans.

I found myself looking at the background actors more than the leads during the dialogue scenes. Some of the extras in the dining room scenes look genuinely bored, which cracked me up. One guy in the back is just aggressively eating a piece of bread while the main characters have a dramatic moment.

It has that same loose, slightly chaotic energy you find in March of the Wooden Soldiers, where the world feels very artificial but somehow still fun to be in. It's not "realistic," but who cares? It's a musical.

Final thoughts

The ending is rushed and sort of silly. Everything gets wrapped up with a quick apology and a dance. It’s not deep. It’s not trying to be The Battles of a Nation or some grand statement on life.

But the dance numbers are actually impressive. The choreography has this geometric perfection that you don't see anymore. It makes you realize how much work went into these 'silly' movies back then.

Watch it for Dolores Del Río's costumes and the way the shadows fall in the nightclub scenes. Don't watch it for the jokes about Larry's hangover. Trust me on that one.

It's a decent way to spend ninety minutes if you just want to look at something pretty and hear some catchy tunes. Just don't expect it to stay in your head for more than an hour after the credits roll.