Yolanda and the Thief

Er, not that Yolanda....

Another of my recent movie watches was the Fred Astaire musical Yolanda and the Thief.

Fred is obviously not Yolanda; that honor goes to Lucile Bremer. She plays Yolanda Aquaviva, the daughter in a very rich family in the Latin American country of Patria, who is the heir to a fortune when she reaches her majority. That's just about to happen, as she's graduating from a convent school to go back and live with her Aunt Amarilla (Mildred Natwick) who has been the custodian of the fortune. Unfortunately, Yolanda has spent so much time in the convent school that she knows next to nothing about the big wide world out there.

Enter Astaire. He's Johnny Riggs, on a train in Patria together with his friend and partner-in-crime Victor Trout (Frank Morgan). He reads a newspaper about the newest head of the Aquaviva family, which of course gives him the idea of parting her from some of that fortune. Of course, every man in Patria knows the Aquavivas, it seems, and their wealth allows them to run it and be sort of above the law.

Johnny and Victor go to the front gate of the Aquaviva mansion and when Johnny is able to get on the grounds, he finds that Yolanda is having a crisis. She's obviously devoutly Catholic what with this being 1940s Latin America and her having spent all that time in the convent school, so she's praying to an angel statue, and that's where Johnny gets his idea: he's going to pretend to be Yolanda's guardian angel!

This being an MGM musical with Fred Astaire in the starring role, and thanks to the Production Code, you know that Johnny isn't going to get away with fleecing Yolanda, so there have to be complications. One is that Johnny finds himself beginning to like Yolanda, even though he's trying to get her to sign over power of attorney to him. The other complication is a Mr. Candle (Leon Ames), who takes the satchel containing Yolanda's stocks and bonds after Johnny drops it on Victor's head, knocking Victor out. He seems to know a lot more than he's letting on.

To be honest, the story in Yolanda and the Thief is a bit tedious and much too slow. The is made up for by the dance numbers, which are exceedingly colorful, especially the "Coffee Time" number near the end. There's another dance number in the middle that dance fans will like, but I felt went on much too long. And Bremer is miscast, being much too old for the role. Having the film depend on her naivete is also a mistake, as there certainly would have been a transition period before Yolanda was given full control over the family fortune.

Yolanda and the Thief is one of those movies you probably need to watch for yourself and come to your own opinion on. It wasn't my cup of tea, but it may be yours.