Editing Viva Villa!

{{Short description|1934 film by Howard Hawks, Jack Conway, William A. Wellman}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Viva Villa!
| image          = Viva Villa poster.jpg
| caption        = Film poster
| director       = [[Jack Conway (filmmaker)|Jack Conway]]<br>'''Uncredited:'''<br>[[Howard Hawks]]<br>[[William Wellman]]
| producer       = [[David O. Selznick]]
| writer         = [[Ben Hecht]]<br>Uncredited:<br>[[Howard Hawks]]<br>[[James Kevin McGuinness]]<br>Howard Emmett Rogers
| based_on       = {{based on|''[[Viva Villa! (book)]]''<br>1933 book|Edgecumb Pinchon<br>O. B. Stade}}
| starring       = [[Wallace Beery]]<br>[[Fay Wray]]<br>[[Leo Carrillo]]
| music          = [[Herbert Stothart]]
| cinematography = [[Charles G. Clarke]]<br>[[James Wong Howe]]
| editing        = [[Robert J. Kern]]
| distributor    = [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]
| country        = United States
| released       = {{film date|1934|4|10}}
| runtime        = 115 minutes
| language       = English
| budget         = $1,022,000<ref name=mannix>{{cite journal|first=H. Mark|last=Glancy|title=MGM film grosses, 1924-1948: The Eddie Mannix Ledger|journal=Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television|volume=12|number=2|year=1992|pages=127–144|doi=10.1080/01439689200260081}}</ref><ref name=mannixa>{{cite journal|first=H. Mark|last=Glancy|title=Appendix|journal=Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television|volume=12|number=S2|year=1992|pages=1–20|doi=10.1080/01439689208604539}}</ref>
| gross          = $1,969,000 (worldwide rentals)<ref name=mannix /><ref name=mannixa />
}}

'''''Viva Villa!''''' is a 1934 American [[Pre-Code Hollywood|pre-Code]] [[Western (genre)|Western]] film directed by [[Jack Conway (film-maker)|Jack Conway]] and starring [[Wallace Beery]] as Mexican revolutionary [[Pancho Villa]]. The screenplay was written by [[Ben Hecht]], adapted from the 1933 book ''[[Viva Villa! (book)|Viva Villa!]]'' by Edgecumb Pinchon and O. B. Stade. The film was shot on location in [[Mexico]] and produced by [[David O. Selznick]]. There was uncredited assistance with the script by [[Howard Hawks]], [[James Kevin McGuinness]], and Howard Emmett Rogers. Hawks and [[William A. Wellman]] were also uncredited directors on the film.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}

The film is a fictionalized biography of [[Pancho Villa]] starring Beery in the title role and featuring [[Fay Wray]], who had played the [[leading lady]] in ''[[King Kong (1933 film)|King Kong]]'' the previous year. The supporting cast includes [[Leo Carrillo]], [[Donald Cook (actor)|Donald Cook]],  [[Stuart Erwin]], [[Henry B. Walthall]], [[Joseph Schildkraut]] and [[Katherine DeMille]].

==Plot==
After seeing his poor father lose his land and be whipped to death for protesting, young Pancho Villa stabs one of the killers, then heads off into the hills of [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua, Mexico]] during the 1880s. As a grown man, Villa and a band of rebel bandits, including his trusted ally Sierra, kill wealthy landowners and become heroes to their fellow "peons".

A wealthy aristocrat, Don Felipe, arranges an introduction for Villa to the distinguished and eloquent [[Francisco Madero]], who resents what has become of Mexico under the rule of president [[Porfirio Díaz]] and persuades Villa to help him fight for liberty, not just for personal gain. The coarse and illiterate Villa is humbled in the presence of Madero and agrees to fight for his cause. He also is attracted to Don Felipe's beautiful sister Teresa, although there are many women in Villa's life, including one he is married to, Rosita.

Villa's exploits are made even more colorful by an American newspaper reporter, Johnny Sykes, to whom Villa has taken a great liking. While drunk, Sykes is misinformed and reports that Villa has already overtaken the village of Santa Rosalia in a great victory for his men. Disobeying the orders of Madero and the arrogant General Pascal, simply to help his newspaper friend, Villa stages a raid on Santa Rosalia, as well as on Juarez.

Madero ultimately assumes office in Mexico City, then commands Villa to disband his personal army. Villa agrees, but when Sierra kills a bank teller just so Villa can withdraw his money, Villa himself ends up sentenced to death. A gloating General Pascal mocks the way Villa pleads for his life, then reads a telegram from Madero, ordering that Villa instead be exiled from the country.

Alone and drunk in [[El Paso, Texas]], feeling forsaken by his homeland, Villa is visited by Sykes, who informs him that Madero has been assassinated by the power-mad Pascal and his men. Villa returns to Mexico and rebuilds his own army, recruiting tens of thousands to ride by his side. Together they storm the capital, where Pascal is subjected to a particularly gruesome death. Villa takes what he wants, but when Teresa resists and he physically assaults her, she draws a gun that her brother Don Felipe has given her for protection. Sierra intervenes and murders her.

Villa appoints himself president but is ineffectual, unable to restore Madero's dream of land reform for Mexico's poor. He ultimately agrees to step aside and go back to where he belongs, including to his wife. Before he can, with Sykes by his side, Villa is gunned down by Don Felipe out of revenge for his sister. Sykes vows to keep Villa's memory alive, telling his dying friend that he is no longer news, but history.

==Cast==
* [[Wallace Beery]] as [[Pancho Villa]]
* [[Leo Carrillo]] as Sierra
* [[Fay Wray]] as Teresa
* [[Donald Cook (actor)|Donald Cook]] as Don Felipe
* [[Stuart Erwin]] as Johnny Sykes (based on [[John Reed (journalist)|John Reed]])
* [[Henry B. Walthall]] as [[Francisco Madero]] 
* [[Joseph Schildkraut]] as General Pascal (based on [[Victoriano Huerta]])
* [[Katherine DeMille|Katherine de Mille]] as Rosita
* [[George E. Stone]] as Emilio Chavita
* Phillip Cooper as Pancho, the boy
* [[David Durand (actor)|David Durand]] as Bugler boy
* [[Frank Puglia]] as Villa's father
* [[Francis X. Bushman Jr.]] as Calloway
* Adrian Rosley as Mendoza brother
* [[Henry Armetta]] as Mendoza brother
* [[Pedro Regas]] as Member of Pascal's staff
* [[George Regas]] as Don Rodrigo

==Production and release==
[[David O. Selznick]] began filming ''Viva Villa!'' in 1932 in Mexico. Between filming and its release in April 1934, the film went through a [[development hell]].<ref name=":0" />

Initially, [[Lee Tracy]] was cast to play a role of Jonny Sykes. However, following an incident on a Mexican balcony, from which he urinated on military [[cadet]]s during a parade, he was fired from the film and eventually was replaced by [[Stuart Erwin]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://classic.esquire.com/article/1934/6/1/the-candid-cameraman|title=The Candid Cameraman|last=Levin|first=Meyer|magazine=[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]|date=June 1, 1934}}</ref>

On September 29, 1933, Pancho Villa's son, Pancho Augustin Villa Jr. was signed to cast in a role of a young Pancho Villa.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1933-09-29/ed-1/seq-46/|author=[[Associated Press]]|title=Villa's Son to Appear in Movie About Father|newspaper=Evening Star|date=September 29, 1933|page=D-8|lccn=83045462|via=[[Chronicling America]]}}</ref>

The film also experienced script problems requiring a change of as many as three writers and two directors ([[William Wellman]] and [[Howard Hawks]], both uncredited).

''Viva Villa!'' premiered  at the [[Paramount Theatre (Los Angeles)|Paramount Theatre]] in Los Angeles on May 17, 1934.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042243/1934-05-17/ed-1/seq-12/|title=At the Movies|newspaper=[[The Bismarck Tribune]]|date=May 17, 1934|lccn=85042243|via=Chronicling America}}</ref>

When the film premiered in Mexico on September 7, 1934, exploding firecrackers interrupted the showing.<ref>(September 7, 1934) ''Explosions Halt Film; Firecrackers Alarm Mexican Audience at "Viva Villa"''. ''[[The New York Times]]''. p. 25.</ref>

==Reception==
''Viva Villa!'' was popular at the box office<ref>Churchill, Douglas W. ''The Year in Hollywood: 1934 May Be Remembered as the Beginning of the Sweetness-and-Light Era''; ''The New York Times'' [New York, N.Y.] p. X5.</ref> and was voted one of the ten best pictures of 1934 by ''[[The Film Daily]]'''s annual poll of critics.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Alicoate |first=Jack |year=1935 |title=The 1935 Film Daily Year Book of Motion Pictures, 17th Annual Edition |work=[[The Film Daily]] |url=https://archive.org/details/filmdailyyearboo00film_5/page/58/mode/2up}}</ref>

''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' called the film a "corking western",<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://variety.com/1933/film/reviews/viva-villa-1117796147/|title=Viva Villa!|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=December 31, 1933}}</ref> while [[Helen Lawrenson|Helen Brown-Norden]] of ''[[Vanity Fair (American magazine 1913–1936)|Vanity Fair]]'' wrote "There is also no denying the fact that [[Wallace Beery]] is not everybody's Villa".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Norden |first=Helen Brown |date=June 1934 |title=Hollywood's Mexico |url=https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1934/06/01/the-screen |access-date= |website=[[Vanity Fair (American magazine 1913–1936)|Vanity Fair]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

During the film's production, the Mexican press called it "derogatory to Mexico", and urged the film to be boycotted in Mexico.<ref>{{Cite news |last= |first= |date=25 November 1933 |title=Mexicans Urge Film Ban; Declare Showing of 'Viva Villa' Would Cost Nation Respect |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1933/11/25/archives/mexicans-urge-film-ban-declare-showing-of-viva-villa-would-cost.html |access-date= |issn=}}</ref>

==Box office==
In its initial release ''Viva Villa!'' earned total [[Theatrical rental|theater rentals]] of $1,875,000, with $941,000 from the US and Canada and $934,000 elsewhere. A 1949 re-release earned an additional $94,000 in foreign rentals, resulting in an overall profit of $157,000.<ref name=mannix /><ref name=mannixa />

==Awards==
The picture was nominated for the following [[Academy Awards]]:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1935|title=The 7th Academy Awards (1935) Nominees and Winners|accessdate=August 24, 2021|work=oscars.org}}</ref>
*[[Academy Award for Best Picture]]
*[[Academy Award for Best Assistant Director|Assistant Director]] ([[John S. Waters]]) (winner)
*[[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Writing (Adaptation)]] ([[Ben Hecht]])
*[[Academy Award for Best Sound|Sound Recording]] ([[Douglas Shearer]])

==In popular culture==
''Viva Villa!'' partially inspired the creation of [[Elia Kazan]]'s 1952 film ''[[Viva Zapata!]]'', written by [[John Steinbeck]] and starring [[Marlon Brando]] and [[Anthony Quinn]].

==See also==
*''[[Let's Go with Pancho Villa]]'' - a 1936 Mexican film about Villa
*''[[And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself]]'', starring [[Antonio Banderas]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Curtis Marez, "Pancho Villa Meets Sun Yat-Sen: Third World Revolution and the History of Hollywood Cinema," American Literary History 17.3  (2005): 486–505.

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0025948}}
* [https://www.allmovie.com/movie/viva-villa%21-am47181 ''Viva Villa!'' at AllMovie]
* {{TCMDb title|1626}}
* {{AFI film|7079}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|viva_villa|Viva Villa!}}

{{Jack Conway}}
{{Howard Hawks}}
{{David O. Selznick}}
{{Ben Hecht}}

[[Category:American biographical films]]
[[Category:Films based on biographies]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Films about Pancho Villa]]
[[Category:Films directed by Jack Conway]]
[[Category:Films directed by William A. Wellman]] <!-- uncredited -->
[[Category:Films directed by Howard Hawks]] <!-- uncredited -->
[[Category:Films scored by Herbert Stothart]]
[[Category:1934 Western (genre) films]]
[[Category:Mexican Revolution films]]
[[Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Ben Hecht]]
[[Category:1930s biographical films]]
[[Category:1930s American films]]
[[Category:1930s English-language films]]
[[Category:English-language Western (genre) films]]
[[Category:English-language biographical films]]