''Vidalita'' is a 1949 Argentine

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed and co-written by

Luis Saslavsky Luis Saslavsky (April 21, 1903 – March 20, 1995) was an Argentine film director, screenwriter and film producer, and one of the influential directors in the Cinema of Argentina of the classic era. Personal life Saskavsky was born in Rosar ...

and produced by Emelco. Considered transgressive for the time, it stars Mirtha Legrand as the title character, a girl who cross-dresses as a

gaucho A gaucho () or gaúcho () is a skilled horseman, reputed to be brave and unruly. The figure of the gaucho is a folk symbol of Argentina, Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, and the south of Chilean Patagonia. Gauchos became greatly admired and ...

to be able to take charge of her grandfather's estate.

Fernando Lamas Fernando Álvaro Lamas y de Santos (January 9, 1915 – October 8, 1982) was an Argentine-American actor and director, and the father of actor Lorenzo Lamas. Biography Argentina Fernando Álvaro Lamas y de Santos was born in Buenos Aires, Ar ...

stars as the captain of the fort, who falls in love with Legrand's character "to the point that he is willing to marry her without knowing if she is a man or a woman".

Cast

* Mirtha Legrand *

Narciso Ibáñez Menta Narciso Ibáñez Menta (; August 25, 1912 – May 15, 2004) was a Spanish theatre, film, and television actor. Biography Born in Langreo, Asturias, Spain, Ibáñez Menta made his first stage appearance at the age of seven at the Teatro La Come ...

Amalia Sánchez Ariño Amalia Sánchez Ariño (1883–1969) was a Spanish-born Argentine stage and film actress.Richard p.275 She appeared in more than fifty films during her career. Selected filmography * '' The Wicked Carabel'' (1935) * ''Blood Wedding ''Bloo ...

* Oscar Valicelli * Milagros de la Vega *

Leticia Scury Leticia Scury, also spelled Leticia Scuri, (c. 1890 – 27 April 1950) was an Argentine actress. In 1928 she joined the Compañía Dramática de la “Casa del Arte”in Montevideo, Uruguay. She entered film in 1938 in Mario Soffici's ''Kilómetro ...

Reception

The film was poorly received by the media related to Peronism. According to Saslavsky, they "find that a gaucho represented by a girl in disguise is a lack of ''

machismo Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being " manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1930s and 1940s best defined as hav ...

'', of ''

criollismo ''Criollismo'' () is a literary movement that was active from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century throughout Hispanic America. It is considered the Hispanic counterpart to American literary regionalism. Using a realist ...

''." Writing for '' Página/12''s LGBT periodical ''Soy'' in 2022, Adrián Melo stated:

In a key scene, Vidalita-Legrand finds herself in the situation of sharing a room where Lamas bathes naked and in another she dances with him in front of a people who are shocked to see two passionate men together. Only for this 1949 film directed by Luis Saslavsky, Legrand would deserve to enter the eternal sky with stars of the LGTBIQ world. There is probably nothing in Argentine cinematography—neither before nor after—so deliciously erotic and transgressive in relation to sexual dissidence, nor so subversive in dealing with two founding topics of nationality and local hegemonic masculinity: being a gaucho and being a soldier.

Raúl Manrupe and María Alejandra Portela described it as a "mythical work and an accursed classic." In 2022, it ranked 51st in the list of

The 100 Greatest Films of Argentine Cinema The 100 Greatest Films of Argentine Cinema (Spanish: ''Las 100 mejores películas del cine argentino''), also known as the Survey of Argentine cinema (Spanish: ''Encuesta de cine argentino''), are a series of opinion polls carried out to establis ...

, a poll organized by the specialized magazines ''La vida útil'', ''Taipei'' and ''La tierra quema'', which was presented at the

Mar del Plata International Film Festival The Mar del Plata International Film Festival ( es, Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata) is an international film festival that takes place every November in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina. It is the only competitive feature fes ...

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id =, title =Vidalita 1949 films 1940s Spanish-language films Argentine black-and-white films Argentine musical comedy films 1949 musical comedy films 1940s Argentine films

Cast

Reception

See also

References

External links