La Vendedora de Amor is an independent Spanish-language film made by Puerto Rican filmmaker Jerónimo Mitchell Meléndez that features a cast of actors of the Latin American diaspora filmed on the streets of New York City. As of April 1, 1960, according to census data (which should always be taken with a grain of salt), around 12% of New Yorkers were of Puerto Rican descent. The film is almost entirely set in Spanish Harlem and Yorkville in the upper east side of Manhattan. This is one of a handful of films that I’ve come across in this series that link the multicultural nature of the city to its screen version. I was only able to watch a YouTube rip with AI-translated closed captions (linked below), nevertheless, I’m happy that this film is available in some shape or form, as an instance of New York City life and storytelling in the 1960s, not always preserved by the mainstream.
La Vendedora de Amor
Producer/Director/Story by: Jerónimo Mitchell Meléndez; Writers: Frank Saladín, Oscar Antonio Torres; Cinematographer: Urs Furrer; Editor: Juan José Marino; Music: Tito Rodríguez; Costume Design: José Díaz 'Pepito'
Cast: Antonio Badú, Carlos Alberto Badías, Gilda Mirós, Tito Rodríguez, Felipe Rodríguez, Antonia Rey, Zulema Atala, Otto Sirgo, Carlos Márquez, Freddy Báez
Released by Stranger Films at the Jefferson Theater in Manhattan on October 13, 1964, followed by a wider release across New York City.
Runtime: 92 minutes
Sinopsis
“La Vendedora De Amor,” rodada totalmente en Nueva York, expone en su hora y cuarenta minutos de proyección la dramática historia de una bella joven borincana, de humilde extracción, nacida en Puerto Rico y criada en el Barrio Hispano de esta Babel, la que deslur/brada por la fastuosidad de la gran metrópolis da rienda suelta a sus desmedidas ambiciones, despreciando el gran amor que le brinda un joven honesto y trabajador. Su vida de lujos y placeres la hace creer que puede jugar con el corazón de todo hombre que cae en sus brazos, de cuyo error se da cuenta y arrepiente cuando ya es demasiado tarde para iniciar el camino de la regeneración.
Público Emite Fallo Triunfal En Juicio De “La Vendedora De Amor” por Alberto Alonso (15 de octubre de 1964)
Enmarcada en el Barrio Hispano de Nueva York, su trama expone la historia de una muchacha humilde nacida en Puerto Rico y criada en “El Barrio,” cuyas ambiciones desmedidas la hacen despreciar el amor que le brinda su compañero de mñez, entregándose a una vida de lujos y placeres que la obliga a caer en las garras le elementos inescrupulosos.
“La Vendedora de Amor” Marca el Inicio de la Industria Fílmica Hispana en Esta Metrópoli por Alberto Alonso (11 de octubre de 1964)
There were two main sources I used for this entry. Most of the more easily accessible online research about this film and this era of filmmaking has been done by Dr. David Wilt, who is predominantly a Mexican film historian. He has one of the few pages detailing major “Nuyorican films” and an in-depth page on La Vendedora de Amor. The other source, El Diario la Prensa (renamed El Diario Nueva York) started in 1913 as the “largest and oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper in New York City,” offered insight into the production and release of this film.
La Vendedora de Amor was filmmaker Jeronimo Mitchell Melendez’s directorial debut. The film is based on a story by Mitchell and was adapted by Frank Saladín and Oscar Antonio Torres (credited in the titles of the film as such, but referred to in an article in El Diario la Prensa as José Saladin and José Antonio Torres). In this same El Diario la Prensa article, writer Alberto Alonso referenced the beginnings of Mitchell’s film career in Paris in 1949 where he worked as an assistant and production manager, collaborating on films “El Salario del Miedo” (Wages of Fear (1955)), and “La Diabolica” (Diabolique (1955)), both by French filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot. In 1956, he returned to Puerto Rico to make films. He produced both Maruja, directed by Oscar Olazabal Quintana and Ayer Amargo, directed by Amilcar Tirado in 1959. He followed La Vendedora de Amor with four more films: Heroína (1965), Amor Perdóname (1968), La Venganza de Correa Cotto (1969), and Enrique Blanco (1973).
Over his career he would make films in both Puerto Rico and New York City as well as the Dominican Republic and Mexico. His films seem to have similarly sobering or dark subject matter. The synopsis for Heroína, his follow up in 1965, reads: “Chico, a young Puerto Rican living in Spanish Harlem, becomes a heroin addict after a rivalry between him and his father for his mother’s affection. Following a 6-month jail term, he is now cured of his drug habit and working in his father’s business. Chico meets Nick, his former dealer, for a casual drink, but his father assumes he has resumed drug use.” The synopsis for Amor perdóname, released in 1968, reads, “Businessman Carlos meets Ana María in a Mexico City nightclub. He escorts her home and makes a date for the next day. Ana María is actually a prostitute whose pimp, Arturo, thinks Carlos would be a good client, and urges her to be nice to him. They fall in love, and Carlos proposes marriage to her, indicating he must return to Puerto Rico soon.” La venganza de Correa Cotto in 1969 tells the story of the “Final days of the Puerto Rican criminal Antonio Correa Cotto.” Lastly, Enrique Blanco in 1973 is “Based on the real-life story of Enrique Blanco, a military defector chased by Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship.”
La Vendedora de Amor stars Antonio Badú, the famous Mexican actor and singer who was in over sixty films over the span of his career. “[He] became popular in Mexican cinema in the 1940s in ranchera roles, but in the late '40s and early '50s he changed his image and starred as a gangster in movies like Hipócrita (1949), Vagabunda (1950), Corazón de fiera (1950), Paco el elegante (1951), and Pueblo sin Dios (1954).” La vendedora de amor was Puerto Rican actress Gilda Mirós’ first starring role. “Gilda Mirós had previously appeared in Romance en Puerto Rico (1961) and would work in a number of Mexican movies of the late 1960s and 70s… later [she] forged a lasting career as a radio and TV talk show host." Carlos Alberto Badías was a young Cuban actor who did a lot of telenovela work prior to filming. The rest of the cast were mostly all Puerto Rican or Cuban performers. Editor Juan José Marino was also a well-known Mexican film editor who edited 154 projects over his career. Cinematographer Urs Furrer, originally from what is now Sumatra, Indonesia, is best known for photographing Shaft (1971) and The Seven-Ups (1973).
The title, La vendedora de amor, translates to “Love Seller” and is also the title of the song heard during the opening credits of the film, sung by legendary Puerto Rican singer and musician Tito Rodriguez. The film features special musical performances by Tito Rodriguez and his orchestra, as well as Puerto Rico singer Felipe Rodríguez (“La Voz”) and his trio Los Antares. Rodriguez performs both La Vendedora de Amor and Todo mi Amor in the film.
The film was shot almost entirely in black and white apart from these musical sequences, which were shot in color, but sadly lost in the transfer.
The aforementioned musical sequences were choreographed by Elena del Cueto. Gilda Mirós remembered her experience working with the choreographer:
“I must also thank the great choreographer from Havana, Cuba’s Tropicana Club: star dancer Elena del Cueto, who in 1962 sought asylum in the United States, with her Cuban Ballet co-founder Alberto Alonso, and their two daughters. She rehearsed with me and directed me in the dance sequences. My wardrobe was designed by Pepito Diaz, also from Havana’s Tropicana Club. Elena Del Cueto was lovely, kind and a talented ballerina who later divorced and founded ‘The Elena Del Cueto Dance Studios’ in Florida. She eventually moved to North Carolina where she passed at the age of 87.”
”La vendedora de amor,” Gilda Mirós A Performing Arts Legacy Project site
The film was shot in a mix of notable New York City locations and between two studios, Charter Oaks and Stage 57, presumably for interiors. Charter Oaks only appeared in a few resources, only noting “Charter Oaks Telepictures’ …third expansion move in 10 years… at 423 East 90th Street,” which may or may not be the same studio. The opening of the film includes various shots of midtown, old PanAm building (now the MetLife building) on Park Avenue and 45th Street, and finally One Gracie Terrace, the film’s main apartment building location in Yorkville on 82nd Street, right off the FDR, just below where some of the rest of the film takes place in Spanish Harlem. The film ends with a drive up the Henry Hudson Parkway, with a view of the George Washington Bridge on the way out into the suburbs.
The film premiered at the Jefferson Theater on 14th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan on October 13, 1964, which featured a special performance by Mexican film actress Irma Dorantes. The following day, the film was released at the Azteca Theater (Madison Ave. and 102nd Street), the New Delancey Theater (62 Delancey Street), the Tapia Theater (Broadway and 147th Street), the Olympia Theater (Broadway and 107th Street), the Alba Theater (Broadway and Flushing Ave. in Brooklyn), the Premiere Theater (Sutter Ave. and Hinsdale in Brooklyn), the Puerto Rico Theater (138th Street and Brock Ave. in the Bronx), and the Boulevard Theater (Southern Boulevard and Westchester Ave in the Bronx).
You can watch the full film on Youtube.
More romance to come…
xx Paris