Sarentrol Masterful Cinema

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

JohnHowardReid Here's another of those colorful yet mindless set-in-Latin-America musicals where flashily costumed principals and extras burst into high-spirited songs and dances at the drop of an embroidered serape. The story is as slight as passione con amore on ice – and played with as much expression as rigor mortis by pedestrian second-players like J. Carroll Naish and Pedro de Cordoba. Watching this movie is like drinking root beer with chili sauce, although the rest of the cast is pleasant enough. Even Cesar Romero is only half as ridiculous as he usually appears as he spends half of the film hiding his overwrought smile and vacuous face behind dark glasses. Dick Haymes is somewhat wooden as usual, but he doesn't come on for over half an hour. Fritz Feld is usually a pain, but he feeds some good lines here and makes an agreeable comic. Ratoff's direction is extremely skillful for once. My guess is the film editor stood as his side, as the editing is incredibly smooth. And the editor is no less than William H. Reynolds, regarded by both his peers and producers as one of the best three film editors of all time! Leonide Massine's choreography, for instance, particularly in the fiesta sequence, is quite dazzlingly colorful, and notice how brilliantly it is edited!

Marcelacf I found the movie humorous, fun and enjoyable but I can easily understand why my grandparents found it offensive. Being Costa Rican I have heard how the sections of the movie that were filmed in Costa Rica caused great commotion at the time even though none of the main actors came to the country (at least for filming). When the movie finally opened in Costa Rica people were upset of how the people and the country had been misrepresented. Even though the movie exerts attitudes and prejudices towards Latin America, as well as ignorance over the social and cultural differences between Latin American countries and Spain it reflects the ignorance (or innocence?) of the 1940s. At the end, for all the cultural improprieties doesn't make "Carnival in Costa Rica" any less enjoyable.

martex34 This is good to watch if only for Vera-Ellen, Celeste Holme, Ceasar Romero, J. Carrol Naish, Anne Revere, and especially, the great crooner Dick Haymes who had a marvelous voice and wasn't a bad actor either.....only the material was schlocky in this one. I would recommend Costa Rica use this for tourism!

ceva This 20th Century Fox musical has several problems, including an uneven script and uninspired choreography. However, the flaws are countered with some strengths. The color photography and costumes are lovely. And the cast is good, especially leading lady Vera-Ellen and Celeste Holm.