''Girl from Havana'' is a 1940 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Lew Landers Lew Landers (born Louis Friedlander, January 2, 1901 – December 16, 1962) was an American independent film and television director. Biography Born as Louis Friedlander in New York City, Lew Landers began his movie career as an actor. In 1914, ...

and written by

Malcolm Stuart Boylan Malcolm Stuart Boylan (April 13, 1897 – April 3, 1967) was an American screenwriter, writer, and founder of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. Screenwriting Boylan entered the entertainment industry as a stage actor while working as a newspa ...

and Karl Brown. The film stars

Dennis O'Keefe Dennis O'Keefe (born Edward Vanes Flanagan, Jr., March 29, 1908 – August 31, 1968) was an American actor and writer. Early years Born in Fort Madison, Iowa, O'Keefe was the son of Edward Flanagan and Charlotte Flanagan, Irish vaudevill ...

Claire Carleton Claire Carleton (September 28, 1913 – December 11, 1979) was an American actress whose career spanned four decades from the 1930s through the 1960s. She appeared in over 100 films, the majority of them features, and on numerous television ...

Victor Jory Victor Jory (November 23, 1902 – February 12, 1982) was a Canadian-American actor of stage, film, and television. He initially played romantic leads, but later was mostly cast in villainous or sinister roles, such as Oberon in ''A Midsummer N ...

Steffi Duna Steffi Duna (born Erzsébet Berindey; 8 February 1910 – 22 April 1992) was a Hungarian-born film actress. Hungarian dancer Born in the Eastern name order in Budapest of Czech extraction and nicknamed Stefi (Stefánia) by her friends and fam ...

, Gordon Jones and

Bradley Page Bradley Page (September 8, 1901 – December 8, 1985) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1931 and 1943. Selected filmography * '' Sporting Blood'' (1931) - Eddie Frazier (uncredited) * '' X Marks the Spo ...

. The film was released on September 11, 1940, by

Republic Pictures Republic Pictures Corporation (currently held under Melange Pictures, LLC) was an American motion picture production-distribution corporation in operation from 1935 to 1967, that was based in Los Angeles. It had studio facilities in Studio City an ...

Plot

Woody and Tex, a pair of American oilmen working in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, both fall for a beautiful young woman they simply call "Havana." The more prosperous suitor is Tex, who just earned a $2,500 bonus due to Woody planting explosives to bring oil up in his derrick, but the oil comes up in Tex's instead. Tex doesn't share the bounty that sets the two against each other. Woody bets Tex in love when Havana is more smitten with Woody, who lands in jail after using Havana's

loaded dice Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing ga ...

in a

craps Craps is a dice game in which players bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice. Players can wager money against each other (playing "street craps") or against a bank ("casino craps"). Because it requires little equipment, "street c ...

game. Woody, fired from his job, is sprung by pal Tubby Waters, who is then killed by a man named Drenov in a fight when he tries to protect Woody. Woody avenges him by killing Drenov, whose job he is promptly offered as a gunrunner to Captain Lazear, a revolutionary. Sensing that he is in grave danger, Havana ventures into the jungle to find Woody near a hidden storehouse of ammunition. explosives and weapons including

Tommy gun The Thompson submachine gun (also known as the "Tommy Gun", "Chicago Typewriter", "Chicago Piano", “Trench Sweeper” or "Trench Broom") is a blowback-operated, air-cooled, magazine-fed selective-fire submachine gun, invented by United Stat ...

s and

hand grenades A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade ge ...

. There she encounters Lazear's jealous girlfriend, Chita, and pretends she and Woody are married. Tex arrives to help Woody fight off the revolutionaries using the smuggled arms, then is by their side again when Woody and Havana are actually wed.

Cast

as Woody Davis *

as Havana *

as Tex Moore *

as Chita * Gordon Jones as Tubby Waters *

as Cort *

Addison Richards Addison Whittaker Richards, Jr. (October 20, 1902 – March 22, 1964) was an American actor of film and television. Richards appeared in more than three hundred films between 1933 and his death. Biography A native of Zanesville, Ohio, Richa ...

as Harrigan *

Abner Biberman Abner Warren Biberman (April 1, 1909 – June 20, 1977) was an American actor, director, and screenwriter. Early years Biberman was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, later moving to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He gained early acting experien ...

as Captain Lazear * William Edmunds as Ricco *

Trevor Bardette Trevor Bardette (born Terva Gaston Hubbard; November 19, 1902 – November 28, 1977) was an American film and television actor. Among many other roles in his long and prolific career, Bardette appeared in several episodes of '' Adventures of S ...

as Drenov *

Jay Novello Jay Novello (born Michael Romano, August 22, 1904 – September 2, 1982) was an American radio, film, and television character actor. Early life Novello was born in Chicago to Joseph Romano and Maria (Salemme) Romano. He had three sibling ...

as Manuel *

Frank Lackteen Frank Lackteen (born Mohammed Hassan Lackteen August 29, 1897 – July 8, 1968) was an American film actor best known for his antagonistic roles. He appeared in nearly 200 films between 1915 and 1965, including several Three Stooges shorts. ...

as Captured smuggler

Soundtrack

* ''Girl from Havana'' Music by

Jule Styne Jule Styne (; born Julius Kerwin Stein; December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994) was an English-American songwriter and composer best known for a series of Broadway musicals, including several famous frequently-revived shows that also became s ...

Lyrics by Sol Meyer and George R. Brown * ''Querido, Take Me Tonight'' Music by Jule Styne
Lyrics by Sol Meyer and George R. Brown * ''Terrace Rhumba'' Music by Cy Feuer * ''Midnight Tango'' Music by

William Lava William "Bill" Benjamin Lava (March 18, 1911 – February 20, 1971) was a composer and arranger who composed and conducted music for feature films as well as that for the Warner Bros.' ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' animated carto ...

References

External links

* 1940 films American drama films 1940 drama films Republic Pictures films Films directed by Lew Landers Films scored by William Lava American black-and-white films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films {{1940s-drama-film-stub