The Kissing Bandit (film)

The Kissing Bandit
Directed by Laslo Benedek
Produced by Joe Pasternak
Written by Isobel Lennart
Starring Frank Sinatra
Kathryn Grayson
Cinematography Robert Surtees
Edited by Adrienne Fazan
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
  • January 1949 (1949-01)
Running time
 100 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $3,291,000[1][2]
Box office $1,381,000[1]

The Kissing Bandit is a 1949 film starring Frank Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson. The supporting cast includes Ricardo Montalban, Ann Miller, and Cyd Charisse. The movie was directed by Laslo Benedek.

Plot

The film is set in the early nineteenth century. Ricardo (Frank Sinatra) is the son of a robber known as the Kissing Bandit. He however is a shy, Boston-bred young man who does not know how to sit on a horse. He falls for the daughter of the Spanish Governor of California.

Cast

Frank Sinatra ... Ricardo
Kathryn Grayson ... Teresa
J. Carrol Naish ... Chico
Mildred Natwick ... Isabella
Mikhail Rasumny ... Don Jose
Billy Gilbert ... General Felipe Toro
Sono Osato ... Bianca
Clinton Sundberg ... Colonel Gomez
Carleton G. Young ... Count Ricardo Belmonte
Ricardo Montalban ... Fiesta Specialty Dancer
Ann Miller ... Fiesta Specialty Dancer
Cyd Charisse ... Fiesta Specialty Dancer
Edna Skinner ... Juanita
Vicente Gómez ... Mexican Guitarist

Reception

The film was a financial disaster, earning $969,000 in the US and Canada and $412,000 overseas, resulting in a loss to MGM of $2,643,000. This made it one of the least successful musicals in MGM history.[1][3]

It was reviewed - unfavourably - in Picturegoer : "the progress of [the] romance is uninspired and very dull. The one worthwhile performance comes from J. Carrol Naish as The Kissing Bandit's henchman."[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ↑ Another source puts the cost at $2.5 million Variety February 1948
  3. ↑ Variety says it earned $1.8 million see "Top Grossers of 1948", Variety 5 January 1949 p 46
  4. ↑ Picturegoer, 4 June 1949, p.16
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