Viva Villa!
Viva Villa! is a 1934 American pre-Code film directed by 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! 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.
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, 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".
Awards
Cast
- Arthur Treacher
- Brandon Hurst
- Clarence Wilson
- David Durand
- Donald Cook
- Emile Chautard
- Fay Wray
- Francis McDonald
- Frank Puglia
- George E. Stone
- George Irving
- Georgios Regas
- Gino Corrado
- H. B. Warner
- Harry Cording
- Henry Armetta
- Henry B. Walthall
- James Martin
- John Davidson
- Joseph Schildkraut
- Katherine DeMille
- Leo Carrillo
- Leo White
- Leonard Mudie
- Mischa Auer
- Nigel De Brulier
- Noah Beery Jr.
- Steve Clemente
- Stuart Erwin
- Tom Ricketts
- Wallace Beery
- William von Brincken
More details
| author | Ben Hecht Howard Hawks James Kevin McGuinness |
|---|---|
| award | National Board of Review: Top Ten Films |
| contentLocation | Mexico |
| director | Howard Hawks Jack Conway John Waters William Augustus Wellman |
| editor | Robert J. Kern |
| events | Mexican Revolution |
| genre | western |
| keywords | bank teller el paso exile francisco madero land reform married mexico city newspaper reporter pancho villa porfirio díaz recruit |
| musicBy | Herbert Stothart |
| nomination | Academy Award for Best Picture Academy Award for Best Sound Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay |
| producer | David O. Selznick |
| publisher | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| theme | biographical |