Search - Victimas del Pecado on DVD

Great Mexican Melodrama in Overpriced DVD release

Kardius | USA | 07/04/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Victims of Sin is a black-and-white Mexican melodrama about motherhood and prostitution in the slums and cabarets of Mexico City built around the talents of Cuban star Ninon Sevilla (Aventurera) and directed by Emilio El Indio Fernandez (Maria Candelaria), one of Mexicos most important filmmakers of the 1940s and early 1950s. Like Aventurera, also on DVD, the film is great and fun in an excessive, apparently campy, sort of way, so if you dont like over-the-top melodramatics you will probably think it is just a bad film, since its greatness lies precisely in the excesses of its plot, acting, and musical numbers. As for the DVD, the only merit is making a classic Mexican film available to US audiences with English subtitles. Other than that, the quality of the DVD is substandard, with no extra features and a hideous menu."

Victims of Sin

Edgar Soberon Torchia | Republic of Panama | 09/22/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Víctimas del pecado" is one of the most over-the-top melodramas ever made by Emilio (El Indio) Fernández. The reason may be the presence of Cuban star Ninón Sevilla in the leading role, whose screen persona and religious faith permeate the story, the dance numbers, and even the tone of this genre film. It is one of the "películas de cabareteras" (cabaret dancer films) that were so popular in México. In these musical melodramas, brutish men seduced and abandoned young women who would become prostitutes, but for a chance of destiny, they had the opportunity to become singers or dancers. This chance transcended the bleakness in their lives and transformed them into icons of female supremacy, even in the machista frame where the films were conceived. Ninón, a well-known santería practitioner in real life, and daughter of Changó in this Yoruba religion, plays Violeta, a strong-willed dancer-prostitute that works in Cabaret Changó, where she performs sensual African dance numbers, and sings Panamanian songs as "La Cocaleca". Violeta wants to become a star and leave the seedy nightclub, but she gets into trouble with a pimp (Rodolfo Acosta, in outrageous pachuco outfits, swings on the dance floor, turns into violent fits of rage, admonishes a prostitute in French, and shows her how to strut.) He forces another woman to get rid of her newborn, but Violeta rescues the baby literally from the garbage can and decides to keep him to herself. She eventually gets help from Santiago (Víctor Junco), the owner of another nightclub who goes around town followed by a mariachi band that provides him with a soundtrack! Tragedy is a prerequisite in these films, so the story follows the usual pattern of fall and redemption, although tinted with Violeta's (and Ninón's) strong personality and raw sexuality, adding a different angle (also present in Rossana Podestà's character in "La red", an almost forgotten film by Fernández) than the usual suffering of all the tearful female characters in his films, mostly played by Dolores del Río or Columba Domínguez. Violeta dances and sings for survival, she argues and fights in constant revolt against the cabaretera's destiny. "Víctimas del pecado" is a true joy, a real gem, with musical performances by Cuban superstar Rita Montaner, Mexican singer Pedro Vargas, and Dámaso Pérez Prado, the Mambo King. Call it camp if you will, but it is one of the outstanding pieces of the golden era of Mexican cinema and one of the best films by El Indio Fernández."