''Vidalita'' is a 1949 Argentine comedy film 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 Rosario, Sa ...

and produced by

Emelco Emelco was an Argentine film studio. In 1946, Emelco reportedly had annual contracts with 530 theatres in Argentina, representing all of the first run and major second run and neighborhood theatres. It also had opened an office in New York City. ...

. Considered transgressive for the time, it stars

Mirtha Legrand Rosa María Juana Martínez Suárez (born 23 February 1927), known by her stage name Mirtha Legrand (″Legrand″ being a portmanteau for the French , "the great") is an Argentine actress and television presenter. With an 80-year career, Legran ...

as the title character, a girl who cross-dresses as a gaucho to be able to take charge of her grandfather's estate. Fernando Lamas 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

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 ...

* Fernando Lamas * Amalia Sánchez Ariño *

Oscar Valicelli Oscar Valicelli (1 July 1915 – 11 October 1999) was an Argentine film actor. Filmography * ''La Mary'' (1974) dir. Daniel Tinayre …Ubaldo * ''Balada para un mochilero'' (1971) dir. Carlos Rinaldi …El Moncho * ''Desnuda en la arena'' (19 ...

Milagros de la Vega Milagros de la Vega (1895–1980) was an Argentine stage and film actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern med ...

* Leticia Scury

Reception

The film was poorly received by the media related to

Peronism Peronism, also called justicialism,. The Justicialist Party is the main Peronist party in Argentina, it derives its name from the concept of social justice., name=, group= is an Argentine political movement based on the ideas and legacy of Ar ...

. According to Saslavsky, they "find that a gaucho represented by a girl in disguise is a lack of '' machismo'', of '' criollismo''." 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, 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.

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