I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Shot on just the one set crowded with sombreros and flamenco dresses, this tinny studio-bound Hal Roach streamliner is very much a throwback to the early Technicolor musicals 'La Cucuracha' (1934) and 'Dancing Pirate' (1936), and further back still to the concluding Technicolor portion of the 1929 'Rio Rita'.Despite singing a song with the preposterous title "Never Trust a Jumping Bean", of the two femmes the tiny Armida far outshines top-billed opera star Anne Ayars (who looks considerably older than Armida despite being seven years younger). And Armida has two ranches! There's very little plot to speak of, although a brief comic interlude when a character falls into a tub of flour and is taken to be a ghost reminds us that this is a Hal Roach production.

In the late 30s and early 40s, the Hal Roach Studio switched from making comedy shorts to longer-length B-movies. Most were about an hour long, though I have no idea why "Fiesta" is only 45. Regardless, it's a strange Hollywood version of life in the Mexican countryside--one that is very sanitized and full of happy peasants and singing.When the film begins, the big boss-man of the town announces a fiesta because his daughter, Cholita (Ann Ayars) is returning. However, everyone is a bit surprised when she shows up with a fiancé-- especially since poor Jose thought she was his. Soon this fiancé proves to be a real drip so Jose decides to play a trick on him and pretends to be a bandit. Can he possibly win back Cholita or is the woman destined to be married to a haughty jerk?This is a musical with a rather thin plot. The opening number is very nice but I had no idea what they were singing about as it was in Spanish. The second number, however, was awful, as the woman singing lead had a voice high pitched enough to cause dogs to bark and glass to explode! Apart from this, the rest of the songs are okay and the film a mildly entertaining affair if you have very low standards and expectations. Kind of like silly fluff, really.

Ran across this little movie by accident...What caught my eye was the billing of "George Negrete"....I had to watch it to see if that turned out to be Jorge Negrete. It did, and being a huge fan of his singing...well, I had to watch it. He was a really big star in that era in Mexico....I have several of his movies, and as many of his albums I could find. It's a simple movie...minimal plot....very much like an American copy of the style of Mexican movies of that era. A lot of inaccurate mixing of music, dress and accents, but still an amusing comedy with some pretty decent music....and pretty short, so it never really gets boring.

Remember when W.C. Fields, introducing twins, claimed that one was the world's largest midget, and the other was the world's shortest giant? Well, this film could be called either the cinema's longest short, or the cinema's shortest feature, take your pick. And it's actually pretty good. It's all about a young girl who returns from Mexico City with her new fiancé, only to have her old boyfriend, who has been waiting for her to return, try to scare the pompous man off. Yes, it all happens in less than 50 minutes, and includes several fun musical numbers including the silly but entertaining "What do you do with a jumping bean?", as well as several numbers in Spanish.Throw in some colorful costumes and houses that look like the Munchkinland set from "The Wizard of Oz" and add on some nice color photography (which resembles the MGM Travel Talks series), and you have a pleasant little musical feature. The cast is pretty adequate, but the choreography by LeRoy Prinz is most memorable. Anne Ayres is about as realistic as a Mexican girl as Charleton Heston was as a Mexican man in "A Touch of Evil". The stereotypes of the pleasant peasants, people of such good nature that they have to force themselves to lie in order to go to confession, and then go back to confession to confess that they lied about lying, is rather silly. Some of the comical moments seem a bit forced, but what else can you expect in a Hal Roach comedy? Simply enjoy the music and the color.