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Jefferson's quote on divine resistance is flashed to illuminate the end of the Machado regime, after which the Cuban senate is seen casually approving an oppressive new law. Havana in 1933 is a land of fear, passing out pamphlets earns a young activist a hail of bullets on the university steps. His sister (Jennifer Jones) joins the underground movement out of vengeance and falls for the terse zeal of the radical from New York (John Garfield), her home becomes the group's hideout as they dig a tunnel under the cemetery and toward the despot. "A poet who cannot write becomes a workman," the operario (Gilbert Roland) puts a tune to it: "What is wrong and what is right/ Will be decided with dynamite." On location with pickaxe against rock, John Huston foresees Kanal and The Battle of Algiers. Ramon Novarro bespectacled and gray is a grave chief, the conscientious aristocrat (David Bond) falls to pieces in the pit and wanders the market with an ignored confession. Urgent surrealism gooses the claustrophobia: Explosives inside rumba drums, a Christ mosaic crashing in the middle of a shootout, a nightmare recounted to Garfield smeared with red clay. As the government jackal in dapper white fedora, Pedro Armendáriz offers a virtuosic rehearsal for El Bruto, thunderclap and all—menacing the heroine while slurping crab and gulping rum, he decries the Yanks for their lack of romanticism, "they are incapable of a large sentiment." Jones with machine-gun in hand embodies Mao's vision of the female warrior ("Spirited and attractive, with a five-foot rifle..."), the Hustonian punchline turns out to be history arriving just five minutes too late for a Hollywood happy ending. Lester's Cuba indicates an adjustment. With Wally Cassell, José Pérez, and Morris Ankrum. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |