A Havana bar girl with a tough "protector" falls for a young sailor.A Havana bar girl with a tough "protector" falls for a young sailor.A Havana bar girl with a tough "protector" falls for a young sailor.
Vince Barnett
- Waiter
- (uncredited)
Frank Brownlee
- Drunk
- (uncredited)
George Chandler
- Barfly
- (uncredited)
Richard Cramer
- Detective Mac
- (uncredited)
Blythe Daley
- Dance Hall Girl
- (uncredited)
Edgar Dearing
- Marine
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe film now exists in a 4k digital restoration, shown at London's National Film Theatre in February 2017; it's in superb condition, sharp, well graded and not a mark on it. It really does look as if it was shot yesterday. The sound is extremely good for the period; the stunning opening tracking show has some complex mixing as the camera tracks past various bars and different bands are heard playing (rather like the restored opening to Touch of Evil (1958)).
- Crazy creditsOpening credits are etched into the sand of a beach alcove, paging continually with each new incoming wave.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Cuban Love Song (1931)
Featured review
GREAT ATMOSPHERIC PRE-CODER, MARRED BY COMEDY RELIEF
A good start: the credits are written in the sand and washed away by waves, with only the sound of the surf. The story starts with Rambeau being met at the bottom of the gangplank in New York by the law, and told to return directly to Havana, do not pass go. When we get back to Havana we find that the film's not about Rambeau, but about 12trees, who is under the thumb of Cortez. In an early scene, Cortez's henchmen stage a fight to draw attention while he surreptitiously kills an enemy by throwing a knife; a well managed, cold blooded murder. Holmes, in one of his best performances, is a sailor on leave who is taken with 12trees, even though she plays her best B-girl routine on him. That's the set-up, and it's really well played out all the way to the end. The plot structure is good, with Cortez getting poetic justice, and with no false moves. The atmosphere is great, particularly in a bravura street set, which a moving camera travels down twice, through crowds of drunks, whores and assorted riffraff. One of these tracking shots has 12trees bouncing along behind Cortez, the perfect image of a floozie following her pimp. The camera is fluid throughout the film, prowling around the huge bar set as well as the streets. And 12trees shows that she can deliver a performance that's a bit different from the put-upon wives of MY WOMAN and NOW I'LL TELL. Although some of the dialogue is a bit primitive, one can well see why this film "has its adherents" (per Halliwell). Unfortunately, all this great stuff is interspersed with a series of simple repeating burlesque blackouts: Gleason losing--and his pal winning--at the one-armed bandit; Summerville and drunks bashing (or not bashing) a hat; Pangborn challenging others to a fight, etc. The mechanical nature of the gags, and their constant reiteration, tends to defeat the suspension of disbelief needed for the serious drama in the foreground. Even so, this one is a pre-Code era must-see.
helpful•173
- bensonj
- May 30, 2004
- How long is Her Man?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Su hombre
- Filming locations
- Havana, Cuba(atmosphere shots)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $400,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 25 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.20 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content