María Antonieta Pons
Who was Juan Orol 's spouse from 1940 to 1945?
Juan Orol Juan Rogelio García García , better known as Juan Orol ( August 4 , 1897 in Lalín , Pontevedra , Spain – May 26 , 1988 in Mexico City , Mexico ) was a Mexican-Spanish actor , producer , screenwriter and film director . He was known as The King of the Mexican Film noir . He was also known as The Involuntary Surrealist . He was a pioneer of the Mexican cinemas first talkies and one of the main promoters of the Rumberas film in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema . His films have been described as cult films . Biography . Early life . Juan Rogelio García García was born on August 4 , 1897 in the parish of Santiso , in the town of Lalin in Pontevedra , Spain . His father was a commander of the Spanish armed forces . His mother , a woman of peasant origin , was a single mother . Later , she married a man who didnt want to take care of another mans son , so she sent Orol to Cuba to live with a friend . In Cuba , Orol lived in the low neighborhoods , known in Cuba as solares . There , he had a lot of contact with people of African origin , who taught him all his dance techniques . Young Orol had many occupations at the same time : boxer , mechanic , racing driver , journalist , actor , bullfighter and police officer . He abandoned boxing when his face was disfigured . In his racer role , was about to drive in Indianapolis , but he lacked a few tenths to the mark of 118 miles per hour . In his role as a bullfighter , he passed through South America under the name of Espartero or Esparterito . Later , he moved to Mexico , where he was also part of the secret police . His biography is absolutely bizarre , full of impossible and unconnected episodes . But despite his poor cultural training , he survived . His steps in the bullfight arena and the police order were a great inspiration for subsequent film work . His premature widowhood put on face with a parental responsibility . He started working on the radio as artistic director and publicist while he contacting with the nascent Mexican film industry . Career . Initially Orol entered the Mexican film industry as another way to make a living , but eventually he developed a passion for the world of cinema . Orol debuted in the Cinema of Mexico as a supporting actor in the film Sagrario ( 1933 ) , made by the newly created Aspa Films under the direction of Ramón Peon , also known as the Cuban Griffith . The following year , Orol risked his own capital and premiered simultaneously as producer , writer and star in the film Mujeres sin alma , also directed by Peon . He debuted as director in the film Dear Mother ( 1935 ) , the third production of Aspa Films . Orol was a devotee of American Film noir , and had a great admiration for the famous film gangsters of the 1930s and 1940s : Edward G . Robinson , James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart . However , Orol himself recognized José Bohr , one of the pioneers of talkies in Mexico , as the most influential filmmaker . After his first film made modest earnings , he filmed a second film in 1934 , where he served as co-director with Ramon Peon : Women without Soul : Supreme Vengeance , which was an unexpected success and starred his first filmic muse , Consuelo Moreno . Orols films developed a signature style , with the recurring themes of the tropics , the rumberas , exotic landscapes , beautiful and provocative women and the cabaret as an ideal location . These hooks allowed Orol to attract an audience to his films . He later introduced gangsters to his repertoire . On many occasions , to outwit the film unions of Mexico , he invented co-productions with other countries , primarily with Cuba . In the mid-forties , he consolidated his own production house , España Sono Films . Likewise , he created in Cuba the Caribe Films production company , helping him to make his co-productions with the island . Orol filmed in different countries : Mexico , Cuba , Puerto Rico , the United States , and Spain . Juan Orol had also a one man band performance in movies . In most of them , he participated in more than two or three of the main activities of the film : production manager , director , producer , screenwriter and actor . The first Orol production in the Cuban cinema was Siboney ( 1938 ) , which features music by Ernesto Lecuona . Orol acted as director , producer , screenwriter and actor . In this film , the Cuban rumbera María Antonieta Pons , his second filmic muse , debuted . With María Antonieta Pons , Orol made films like Cruel Destiny ( 1944 ) , The Secrets of the Underworld ( 1945 ) , Caribbean Bewitch ( 1946 ) and Stormy Passions ( 1947 ) . Although Pons and other of his subsequent filmic muses were exclusive stars of España Sono Films , Orol allowed them to work with other production houses . Pons was the first major rumbera of the Mexican Cinema . Because of this , Orol was considered one of the main promoters of the Rumberas film of the forties and fifties . After his break with Pons , Orol made the film The Love of my Bohío ( 1946 ) , starring the Costa Rican actress Yadira Jimenez in the lead role . However , Jimenez failed to develop a relevant film relationship with Orol . In search of a new female star of his films , Orol moved to Cuba , where he discovered what would be his next filmic muse : Rosa Carmina . Rosa Carmina debuted in the film A Woman from the East ( 1946 ) . She became the most representative and prolific filmic muse of Orol . Both filmed together sixteen films between 1946 and 1955 . Probably the most notable are the classic Gangsters Versus Cowboys ( considered today as a Cult film ) and Sandra , The Woman of Fire . Other relevant films of Orol with Rosa Carmina are Tania , the Beautiful Wild Girl ( 1948 ) , Wild Love ( 1949 ) the trilogy Percal ( 1951 ) ( based on a comic book by José G . Cruz ) ; The Goddess of Tahití ( 1953 ) and Dangerous Secretary ( 1955 ) . After separating from Rosa Carmina , Orol filmed The Lame Waitress of the Cafe of the Port , a Cuban-Mexican production , as director , producer and screenwriter , with Marta Rams and Julio Capote as main actors . In the same year , Orol was introduced to his next filmic muse : Mary Esquivel . Esquivel debuted in the film Zonga , The Diabolic Angel ( 1956 ) , a film that was also the first movie Orol filmed in color . His last major production involving Esquivel was Tahimí , The Daughter of the Fisherman ( 1958 ) . Eventually , Orol met his last filmic muse , Dinorah Judith , with whom he directed his last films . At this time , the films of Orol were panned by critics , and reputedly , the director went through a deep depression . His films during this period include The Curse of my Race ( 1964 ) , Prelude to the Electric Chair ( 1966 ) and the cult classic The Fantastic World of the Hippies ( 1970 ) , made with American co-production . His last film as director was The Death Train ( 1978 ) . The last appearance of Juan Orol on the big screen as an actor was in the film Ni modo...así somos ( 1981 ) . He made a cameo as himself , in a brief scene lasting under a minute . In his later years Orol lived in a deep depression . Despite various film tributes in his honor , he lived in a deep poverty . He assumed that his film collection had succumbed to the fire at the National Film Archives of Mexico ( Cineteca Nacional ) in 1982 . In fact , only some original negatives of his early films were lost in that incident . He died of liver disease in Mexico City on May 26 , 1988 . Personal life . Juan Orol was famous for introducing numerous foreign actresses ( mostly Cuban ) to the Mexican Cinema . His first wife was Amparo Moreno , sister of the actress Consuelo Moreno , his first filmic muse . With her , he fathered his only child , Arnoldo Orol Moreno , who between the late 1940s and early 1950s , served as executive producer of three of Orols films . Arnoldo died in a workplace accident on a film set . Amparo died by tuberculosis in 1937 . In 1938 , he met the rumbera María Antonieta Pons in Cuba . Orol and Pons became a dancing couple , and he decided to introduce her as an actress in Mexico in the film Siboney ( 1938 ) . Orol and Pons were married between 1940 and 1945 . After divorcing Pons , Orol decided to launch the Costa Rican actress and dancer Yadira Jimenez . However , their collaboration was fleeting . In Cuba , Orol discovered Rosa Carmina , his next filmic muse . Orol and Rosa Carmina were married between 1950 and 1955 . Rosa Carmina is considered the most representative of his filmic muses . Later , Orol married the Cuban actress Mary Esquivel . They were married between 1955 and 1963 . After Rosa Carmina , a friend introduced him to his niece , Dinorah Judith . Judith was his last muse and last wife , remaining married to her until his death . Legacy . Juan Orol was a one man band in his movies . In most of them , he participated in more than two or three of the main activities of the film : production manager , director , producer , writer or actor . He was a man who felt he should participate in and supervise everything . Despite this , he was not a sophisticated technician , unlike his friend Ramon Peon . Orol did things because of his drive and his passion for the films without taking much time in his studio . He did not try to explain the psychology of his characters and the geography of the locations that he used . For him it was enough that there were scenes and characters . However , his films proved successful and managed to reach the public taste . Not surprisingly , Orol boasted that he was The director of the crowds . Juan Orol has been compared with American filmmaker Ed Wood , canonized as the worst director of all time . However , unlike the American filmmaker , Orol did not need a posthumous tribute to be recognized . He earned box office success in his time , the public admired his filmic muses and his evil gangsters , no matter the plot and technical poverty of his productions . He ignored criticism of his work , like with I Hate You and I Love You ( 1957 ) , a film that the critics directly called very bad . He even had the luxury of doing remakes of his own work : he made a new version of Dear Mother , his biggest hit , in 1950 . Ed Wood , meanwhile , never hit the mainstream . His works were a succession of failures with limited exhibitions , and he only made a fifth of the number of films that Orol made . But both share the precariousness of their mode of production , and today are considered cult directors . Orol stretched his films budgets and was known as a director of one shot . He did not use special effects in his works . In Gangsters Versus Cowboys virtually all the armed men died , but none shed a drop of blood . The film director Sergio Véjar , camera operator of Zonga , The Diabolic Angel ( 1957 ) , says that Orol ordered Mary Esquivel to paint each of her nails a different color to extend her hands to the camera , thus reducing production costs . Likewise , he did not go in search of exotic locations , although his plots required them in most cases . In Los misterios del hampa ( 1944 ) , whose screenplay was set in Chicago , a bus in the background reads Cozumel Peralvillo-Line , a typical line of trucks of Mexico City . In Zonga... , a film that takes place in the Amazon rainforest , there is in the background a monument to Bolivar from the Bosque de Chapultepec in Mexico City . Juan Orol did not care about details . Juan Orol is also regarded as the spiritual father of the called Rumberas film for having the laid the foundations that enriched the film genre . Also , he is known for having imported to the Mexican Cinema two of the biggest stars of the genre : María Antonieta Pons and Rosa Carmina . In 2012 , Juan Orol was the subject of the biopic El fantástico mundo de Juan Orol , directed by Sebastian del Amo . Orol is played by the Mexican actor Roberto Sosa . The film is based on real events , but freely interpreted by the authors . Select filmography . Director . - Dear Mother ( 1935 ) - Women without Soul : A supreme vengeance ( 1935 ) - You Honor Your Parents ( 1936 ) - Siboney ( 1938 ) - Cruel Destiny ( 1944 ) - The Secrets of the Underworld ( 1945 ) - Caribbean Bewitch ( 1945 ) - Stormy Passions ( 1946 ) - The Love of my Bohío ( 1946 ) - A Woman from the East ( 1946 ) - Tania , the Beautiful Wild Girl ( 1947 ) - Gangsters Kingdom ( 1947 ) - Gangsters Versus Cowboys ( 1948 ) - The Underworld Cowboy ( 1948 ) - Wild Love ( 1949 ) - Cabaret Shangai ( 1950 ) - The Hell of the Poor ( 1951 ) - Bane of Women ( 1951 ) - Men without Soul ( 1951 ) - What a idiots are the Men ! ( 1952 ) - The Goddess of Tahiti ( The Jackals of the Isla Verde ) ( 1952 ) - Sandra , The Woman of Fire ( 1953 ) - Crime Syndicate ( Prelude to the Death ( 1954 ) - Under the Fear Influence ( Gangsters in the Sport ) ( 1955 ) - Dangerous Secretary ( International Agent ) ( 1955 ) - The Lame Waitress of the Cafe of the Port ( 1957 ) - I Hate You and I Love You ( 1957 ) - Zonga , The Diabolic Angel ( 1957 ) - Treacherous Deadlines ( 1958 ) - The Turtledove of the Ajusco ( 1960 ) - Tahimi , the Daughter of the Fisherman ( 1961 ) - Blood on the Gully ( 1961 ) - Under The Cloak of The Night ( 1962 ) - The Curse of my Race ( 1962 ) - Prelude to the Electric Chair ( 1967 ) - Story of a Gangster ( 1968 ) - The Fantastic World of The Hippies ( 1972 ) - Death Train ( 1979 ) Actor . - Sagrario ( 1933 ) - Siboney ( 1938 ) - A Woman from the East ( 1946 ) - Gangsters Kingdom ( 1947 ) - Gangsters Versus Cowboys ( 1947 ) - Crime Syndicate ( 1954 ) - Under The Fear Influence ( 1955 ) - Treacherous Deadlines ( 1958 ) - Story of a Gangster ( 1968 ) - México by Night ( 1974 ) - Adriana del Río , actress ( 1979 ) - Ni modo , Así somos ( 1981 )