''María Eugenia'' is a 1943 Mexican

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 ...

directed by Felipe Gregorio Castillo and starring

María Félix María de los Ángeles Félix Güereña (; 8 April 1914 – 8 April 2002) was a Mexican actress and singer. Along with Pedro Armendáriz and Dolores del Río, she was one of the most successful figures of Latin American cinema in the 1940s and ...

, alongside

Manolita Saval Manolita Saval (5 February 1914 in Paris, France – 23 August 2001 in Mexico City, Mexico) was a Spanish actress and singer. Family and life She was born in Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimat ...

and

Rafael Baledón Rafael Baledón Cárdenas (25 November 1919 – 6 May 1994) was a Mexican actor, director, screenwriter, and producer of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. He worked in both film and television. Life Rafael Baledón was on 25 November 1919 in C ...

. The film's sets were designed by the art director

Manuel Fontanals Manuel Fontanals (1893–1972) was a Catalonian Spanish-born art director who settled and worked in Mexico during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Early years The son of the cabinetmaker Tomàs Fontanals i Sivilla and his mother Rosa Mateu, Man ...

Cast

as María Eugenia *

as Raquel *

as Carlos * Jorge Reyes as Ricardo *

Virginia Manzano Virginia Manzano (November 24, 1912 – February 18, 1985) was a Mexican film actress.Pitts p.212 Selected filmography * '' The Eternal Secret'' (1942) * '' The Rock of Souls'' (1943) * '' María Eugenia'' (1943) * '' The Two Orphans'' (1944) * ...

as Julia *

Mimí Derba María Herminia Pérez de León, better known as Mimí Derba (9 October 1893 – 14 July 1953) was a Mexican actress, screenwriter, and film director, considered the first female film director in Mexico. Early life At the age of seventee ...

as Doña Virginia * Eugenia Galindo as Doña Matilde *

Salvador Quiroz Salvador Quiroz (1892–1956) was a Mexican film actor.Kohner, p. 355 Selected filmography * ''Michael Strogoff'' (1944) * ''Summer Hotel'' (1944) * '' My Memories of Mexico'' (1944) * '' The Black Ace'' (1944) *'' The Disobedient Son'' (1945) * ...

as Doctor *

Alejandro Cobo Alejandro Cobo Higuera (1904 – 21 March 1950) was a Spanish-Mexican actor. He worked in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, in films such as ''Virgen de medianoche'' (1942), '' The Eternal Secret'' (1942), ''The White Monk'' (1945), ''Hermoso ...

as Jefe de María * Alfredo Varela as Martín * Ignacio Peón as José María * Consuelo Segarra as Rosa *

Carolina Barret Carolina Barret (21 October 1916 – 13 October 2010) was a Mexican film actress.Agrasánchez p.160 Selected filmography * '' Such Is My Country'' (1937) * ''Narciso's Hard Luck'' (1940) * ''The Unknown Policeman'' (1941) * '' La razón de la cu ...

as Mulata * Antonio Bedolla as Pedro *

Julio Ahuet Julio Ahuet was a Mexican film actor. He appeared in more than a hundred and thirty films during his career, including '' Women Without Tomorrow'' (1951), '' Here Comes Martin Corona'' (1952), and the El Santo film ''Profanadores de tumbas'' (1966 ...

as Emeterio *

Toña la Negra Antonia del Carmen Peregrino Álvarez (2 November 1912 – 19 November 1982), known by her stage name Toña la Negra (Toña the Black Woman), was a Mexican singer and actress of partial Haitian ancestry, known for her interpretation of boleros and ...

* Eva Beltri *

Trío Calaveras Trío Calaveras is a Mexican guitar and vocal trio, notable for its performances and recordings with the pop singer Jorge Negrete. History ''Calaveras'', in Spanish, means "skulls". The original members of the trio in the 1930s were Guillermo ...

* Son Clave de Oro * Hermanos Huesca *

Alfonso Bedoya Benito Alfonso Bedoya y Díaz de GuzmánSan Antonio Light, Dec. 17, 1957, p. 20 (April 16, 1904 – December 15, 1957) was a Mexican actor who frequently appeared in U.S. films. He is best known for his role in ''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre ...

Roberto Cañedo Roberto Cañedo Ramírez (30 March 1919 – 16 June 1999), better known as Roberto Cañedo, was a Mexican actor of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. During his career, he appeared in over 300 films. Cañedo received two Ariel Award for Best Act ...

Production

''María Eugenia'' was the first film María Félix made after her film debut in ''

El Peñón de las Ánimas ''The Rock of Souls'' (Spanish: ''El Peñón de las Ánimas'') is a Mexican movie produced in 1943, directed by Miguel Zacarías and starring Jorge Negrete and María Félix.Baugh, p. 80 It is the first movie to star María Félix, one of the lege ...

''. During filming, Félix caused a stir while shooting the opening scene of the film, which featured her in a white bathing suit, attracting publicity to Félix. It is the only film in Félix's filmography where she appeared in swimwear. It was the only film directed by Felipe Gregorio Castillo, who afterwards became a film censor.

Reception

In his book ''Más allá de las lágrimas: Espacios habitables en el cine clásico de México y Argentina'', Isaac León Frías collects

Emilio García Riera Emilio García Riera (born 17 November 1931 in Ibiza, Spain – died on 11 October 2002 in Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico) was a Spanish-born Mexican actor, writer and cinema critic. He has written exhaustively on Mexican cinema of 1929 and 1976, lea ...

's view of the film, calling it a "terrible melodrama." The book ''Archivos de la Filmoteca'' refers to the film as a sign of how "the Mexican melodrama asso subject to conventions and norms" at the time, noting that the film was directed by a later film censor. María Félix herself would later refer to the film in her autobiography as "a film that had no other importance than to give me experience."

References

External links

* 1943 films 1943 drama films Mexican drama films 1940s Spanish-language films Mexican black-and-white films Films scored by Manuel Esperón 1940s Mexican films {{1940s-Mexico-film-stub