Lupe Velez in PALOOKA | The entire movie...

My essays on Lupe Velez appear in Tex[t]-Mex and in Myra Mendible's From Bananas to Buttocks: The Latina Body in Popular Film and Culture--there are minor differences between the two publications.  Each has a section that takes a look at the Lupe Velez vehicle JOE PALOOKA, streaming in its entirety above.

Palooka!

My Lupé Vélez chapter in Tex[t]-Mex (a version of it also appears in Bananas to Buttocks) has a close reading of Palooka! Now you can see the whole film online and free! The link is here or click the image above.....

Ham Fisher's Palooka and Lupe Vélez

The Lupe Vélez chapter of Tex[t]-Mex features a brief, close-reading of Palooka, a movie starring James Cagney's brother (perhaps one of its only claims to fame), Jimmy "The Schnoz" Durante, and the one and only Mexican Spitfire! The movies were based on a popular comic strip by Ham Fisher--this became a comic book in the 1950s. All this as preface to the posting of a striking cover from an issue of Palooka--one that features the ham-faced gabacho in a wild-west fight with a swarthy-looking desperado (aka "Mexican"):

OK, maybe he is not "Mexican" but he sure is "dark," roguish, acne-scarred, etc. More on this soon.

And, lastly, a brief Lupe-dedicated film-short novelty:

Lupe Vélez: Palooka

Both the chapter on Lupe Vélez that appears in Tex[t]-Mex as well as the slightly different (less cool pictures!) essay version that appears in From Bananas to Buttocks: The Latina Body in Popular Film and Culture do a close reading of the "Mexican Spitfire" in a forgettable farce called Palooka, co-starring Jimmy Durante and Stuart Erwin--Jimmy Cagney's brother also is featured. Watch Velez's expression as she moves in for the femme fatale "kill" at the 7:22 point of the video! The tragedy of Velez's life, its trajectory from superstardom to the toilet (shades of Elvis) is always already worthy of careful review.