Victims of Sin
Director: Emilio Fernández
Year Released: 1951
Rating: 2.0
Popular dancer/singer Violeta (Ninón Sevilla) "adopts" a male baby that was thrown in the garbage can (by an acquaintance) and is "punished" by nightclub owner Rodolfo (Rodolfo Acosta) for protecting the child so she loses her job and is forced to "work the streets," eventually getting (temporarily) "rescued" by Santiago (Tito Junco). Fans of telenovelas might "enjoy" the melodrama - with women wailing and begging at the feet of sociopathic men (who are preoccupied with their own "machismo" and behave like gangsters) that regularly slap them around - although I don't find any of that to be appealing, and what there is of a plot is continuously interrupted by song and dance numbers (which, to their credit, are at least snappy). The third act is most certainly a crowd-pleaser, however: Violeta commits murder and is sent to prison while her sweet and precocious son Juanito (Ismael Pérez) is rendered homeless and has to sell newspapers and shine shoes for money, but they're miraculously reunited. I can hear those tear duct faucets being turned on....