Search - Escuela de Musica on DVD

An oldie to make you smile

Pippa Lee | Honolulu, HI USA | 06/27/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"In this 1955 movie, Pedro Infante and Libertad Lamarque played Javier Prado and Laura Galvan respectively. Javier is engaged to his business partner's daughter, Ana Maria. Ana Maria is a student at Laura's school of music for young ladies. The school, however, is in financial trouble and soon Laura and her staff are left on the street with only their instruments and their wits. To earn a living, they decide to form an orchestra and move to Monterrey to play at a restaurant owned by an uncle of one of the teachers. Ana Maria joins the group. Since she does it without the permission of her father, he sends Javier to bring her back. Javier is a timid, mild-mannered man but when he drinks alcohol he becomes at his best, decisive; at his worst, rude and stubborn. It is when he is in this Mr. Hyde-like persona that he clashes with Laura. But they must bear with each other and become partners since it is their singing that makes the orchestra a success in the little restaurant in Monterrey and thorough the country later.

My parents' generation must have enjoyed this movie a lot. But in spite of its years, Escuela de Musica can still get some laughs from the audience. I liked the scene in which Laura and Javier are yet in another fight but this time they mock each other's style of singing. And I could hum along such songs as "Alma Llanera", and "A Media Luz" because I grew up listening to the "newer" versions sung by singers like Julio Iglesias.

The transfer of the movie to the DVD (this version released by Zach Motion Pictures) is not a very good one because the film is showing its age and is in need of cleaning and restoration. Also, there are no English subtitles. Still, I found this movie in the $5.50 DVD bin at one of the local Wal-Marts and for that money, it was not a bad buy at all."