I know this is going to offend a lot of fans, but "Weekend in Havana" does not come anywhere near "Down Argentine Way" or "That Night in Rio" both of which were made around the same time. Certainly, Carmen Miranda (the main attraction of the movie) has more to do in this, bus the talent of Alice Faye is wasted, and I felt it needed someone like Charlotte Greenwood to really lift the tempo and interest. No need to recap the story as it is one that has been done before many times, but I do give full marks for the Technicolor which was absolutely brilliant (in more ways than one!). John Payne and Caesar Romero were adequate, and it was good fortune to have some of the standard actors in Leonid Kinsky, Billy Gilbert and Sheldon Leonard to help move it along.

Despite the super-lovely Alice Faye's top billing, exotic Carmen Miranda manages to steal the show. She not only has the pick of the songs, the liveliest dances and the most colorful costumes, but shares the movie's funniest moments with Cesar Romero. Mind you, Alice is most attractively photographed, does wear some beautiful clothes, and does get to sing the haunting "Tropical Magic", one of Harry Warren's loveliest tunes. (Harry, incidentally, hated the picture. He loved Alice, but was somewhat ambivalent about Carmen Miranda and John Payne with "his limited and rather ordinary singing voice." Harry also complained that Fox treated him badly, forcing him to work night and day for four weeks because Carmen had scheduled the movie between other engagements. "I turned out a lot of music, some of which was dropped from the picture. I fell ill and was hospitalized for three months with pneumonia. When I returned to the studio, I found I'd been taken off salary for the whole time, whereas Mack Gordon had been kept on. Waving my walking stick, I stormed into Zanuck's office but his yes-men wouldn't let me see him. Maybe Zanuck knew nothing about it, but his lieutenants did. They were horrible people." In Fox's defense, it should be pointed out that Mack Gordon did write lyrics for "Romance and Rhumba" during Harry Warren's absence).To my surprise, John Payne's role is more of a character part than that of a romantic lead. It's the lively, personable Cesar Romero who not only shares most of the comedy with both Alice and Carmen, has some delightful run-ins with the heavy (Sheldon Leonard), but supplies romance as well.The comedy is also helped out by George Barbier as the peppery president and Billy Gilbert as a self-important innkeeper. In the scenes with both these expert comics, Payne plays the fall-guy. And he makes an amusing job of it too.Walter Lang has directed with his customary expertise and no-one will feel short-changed by the lavish Miranda dance numbers choreographed by Hermes Pan.

Fox makes ample use of their stock company players--ALICE FAYE, JOHN PAYNE, CARMEN MIRANDA, CESAR ROMERO, as well as a bevy of dependable supporting actors to make sure that their technicolor investment in WEEKEND IN HAVANA pays off. Unfortunately, it's a routine assignment for all concerned. The script is light, even for a Fox musical.Faye had better musicals at the studio and is saddled with playing a rather pushy department store clerk who expects to get the royal treatment in Havana after her cruise is interrupted by a shipwreck. Naturally, a handsome corporate man (Payne) is assigned to take care of her "vacation" in Havana, and therein lies the nub of the plot. Everything that follows is quite predictable, including misunderstood romantic complications, but the end result is nevertheless entertaining.Both Alice and Carmen Miranda have opportunities to demonstrate their prowess with a song and John Payne makes an attractive partner for Faye. Cesar Romero plays a Latin charmer with his usual confident air. It's all very pretty in Fox's typically garish technicolor but fails to stay in the memory as some of Faye's other films do since there's nothing especially memorable about either the plot or the music.

The production team behind this film would have benefited if they had done research for the movie by taking a real weekend in Havana. It appears the studio executives flew down to Rio instead. How else did they come up with music and costumes that are more Brazilian than Cuban?Maybe the studio thought of this as a vehicle for Carmen Miranda, the charismatic Brazilian star. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense at all to have turned everything into a samba flavored musical that is completely out of character with its setting of the romantic allure Havana of the 40s.The music is mildly entertaining. We know what will happen and how it will end, yet, we stay with a movie that has been done better before. Walter Lang directed on auto pilot because there is nothing in the film that shows anything new that we haven't seen before.Alice Faye plays a Macy's sales lady on a Caribbean cruise. Ms. Faye is a charming presence in the film. John Payne is the man who is sent to deal with the possible problem caused by the accident of the ship and ends up falling madly in love with the sales woman. Cesar Romero is suave as the gambler that tries to endear himself to the woman he thinks is an heiress. Carmen Miranda is the singing sensation at the Casino Madrileno. "Weekend in Havana" is an inoffensive way to spend a little more than an hour and a half with these characters.