WATCH: The Gay Desperado

One of the very few advantages of hot, muggy, smoky, sleepless nights is watching old movies on Turner Classic Movies. Last night it was The Gay Desperado, starring a very young Ida Lupino, the always entertaining Leo Carrillo, and opera star Nino Martini. Directed by Rouben Mamoulian in 1936, the story involves a band of Mexican train robbers who want to become American-style gangsters, a runaway rich kid and his fiancé, Mexican and American police, and a supposed bandit who wants to be an opera singer. It doesn’t matter that the plot is silly, there’s lots of great music. And who would ever guess that a radio station pick-up band would know the music to Celeste Aida!

Born in Verona, Nino Martini was a popular operatic tenor of the 1930s and 1940s who split his time between the New York Metropolitan Opera and Hollywood. At the Met he sang mostly the bel canto roles of Bellini, Rossini, and Donizetti, as well as the heavier Puccini and Verdi roles. He appeared in seven other films through 1948.

The film was produced by Mary Pickford and distributed through her United Artists company. Let’s hope there are more movies like this in the vault. Who knows how long these sleepless night will last!