1 9 5 7 - 'Garotas e samba' / 'Noivo da girafa' / 'Absolutamente certo'

27 January 1957 - Carlos Manga's 'Papai fanfarrão' is another vehicle for Oscarito supported by Cyll Farney and his real-life wife Margot Louro.

17 February 1957 - directed by Luiz de Barros, 'Samba na Vila'  this would be a B-musical-comedy for most of the cast is not really popular... even though Angela Maria, the most popular singer in the country sings in it. 

10 February 1957 - Talking about Angela Maria's popularity... she had a weekly Sunday show on Channel 5, TV Paulista... do we need to say anything else?

24 February 1957 - J.B. Tanko directs Ankito & Grande Otelo in 'Metido a bacana' with Nelly Martins, Renato Restier, Roberto Duval, Wilson Grey plus musical number by Angela Maria and Dora Lopes singing 'Maria Navalha'.

24 February 1957 - Brazilian legislation made a system of quotas for cinema-houses throughout the country to show a minimum of Brazilian movies a year so MGM who had a net of cinemas had to comply with the law even if MGM did not produce any films in Brazil. So every now and then MGM movie houses were showed Brazilian musical comedies like 'Samba na Vila' at Cines Rio, Leblon, Itapura & Jardim... or Anselmo Duarte & Ilka Soares in 'Carnaval em Marte' at Cine Rio; Ronaldo Lupo's 'Genival é de morte' at Cine Leblon & Itapura; Cine Jardim on Rua Fradique Coutinho in Pinheiros showed Renato Restier in 'Sai de baixo'...

3 March 1957 - Carlos Manga's 'Garotas e samba' is a great musical-comedy. No apparent star at the billing but after watching it one knows it is a Renata Fronzi & Zé Trindade movie even though Sonia Mamede & Zezé Macedo are also strong presences.

24 March 1957 - based on a short story by Lima Barreto (1881-1922), 'Osso, amor e papagaios' (Bone, love and parrots) had a great cast with old-timer Jayme Costa (1897-1967) plus Ruth de Souza, Darcy Coria, Fabio Cardoso & Maria Dilnah.

29 March 1957 - the most popular comedian in the country Mazzaroppi's movies were sure-fire box-office hits: 'O noivo da girafa' with Glauce Rocha & Roberto Duval could not be different.

26 May 1957 - popular radio singer Doris Monteiro had been making films since 'Agulha no palheiro' (A needle in the haystack) in 1953. This time she interacts with two popular comedians who came from a circus background.

23 June 1957 - Eurides Ramos' 'O barbeiro que se vira' an obvious pun on Rossini's 'O barbeiro de Sevilla' had popular circus clown Arrelia (Waldemar Seyssel 1905-2005) topping the the bill while Eliana Macedo (1926-1990) came second. That shows how popular Arrelia was especially among children who would watch his Sunday afternoon show 'Circo do Arrelia' on TV Record.

7 July 1957 - The most popular comedian in town, Arrelia. keeps attracting crowds to the cinemas in its 2nd week. 

21st July 1957 - Watson Macedo knew what Brazilians liked to see on the silver screen. Dercy Gonçalves could do no wrong circa 1957, her theatre appearances being sold out all-year-round. Straight from the burlesque theatre Ms Gonçalves was Gonçalina, 'A baronesa transviada' (The deviating baroness) a beauty saloon worker who finds out she'd thrown out into a rubbish bin as a baby because she in fact was a baroness. Show-girl Zaquia Jorge has a supporting role and could have flown high were not for her tragic death on 22nd April 1957, when she drowned while swimming out next to Barra da Tijuca.

the baroness & the show-girl Zaquia Jorge. 

Grande Otelo, Badaró, Dercy Gonçalves, Rosa Sandrini & Bill Farr. 

18 August 1957 -  Oscarito was still the most popular cinema comedian in Brazil but Zé Trindade would soon get the lead. Renata Fronzi was not only Trindade's side-kick but a force on her own. 'Treze cadeiras' (13 chairs) is a very good flick. 

21st August 1957 - Aloisio T.de Carvalho's 'Tem boi na linha' (There's a cow on the line) is Ronaldo Lupo's production but Zé Trindade takes the laurels... See show-girl Wilza Carla in her acting debut. 

Wilza Carla & Zé Trindade.

2nd September 1957 - based on a novel by Jose Mauro de Vasconcelos, 'Arara vermelha' paired Anselmo Duarte & Odete Lara in her first major screen role.

22nd September 1957 - Ever since Lima Barreto's 'O cangaceiro' (The bandit) won international acclaim in Cannes in 1953, there was a trend in Brazilian cinema to emulate that sort of environment that resembled the USA wild west portrayed in the Western genre. 'Dioguinho' played by Helio Souto was a local bandit on the loose too.

13 October 1957 - Herbert Richers' 'Com jeito vai' (Soldados do fogo) premieres with pomp & circumstance in 21 movie-houses spread throughout Rio de Janeiro's metropolitan area.  

Emilinha Borba sings theme-song 'Com jeito vai'.

Grande Otelo & Vera Regina do what Black couples are supposed to do; Cauby Peixoto lends his charm to the mayhem raised by so much slapstick...

Fred, Carequinha & Grande Otelo...

arch-enemies Roberto Duval x Renato Restier come to grips...

13 October 1957 - Re-released 'Um pinguinho de gente' with Anselmo Duarte, Violeta Ferraz, directed by Gilda de Abreu who was Vicente Celestino's wife.

27 October 1957 - leading man Alberto Ruschel in another big production trying to cash in on the popularity of 1953's 'O cangaceiro'. Fada Santoro was the pretty-face everyone wanted; Luigi Picchi, a suprising good actor who migrated from Italy; Rubens de Falco would have to wait for 2 decades to be popular in TV soap-operas and Francisco Negrão, a good-looking leading man who didn't go too far. 

3 November 1957 - OESP review of 'O capaganga' is actually interesting for it tries to shed light on the whole of this new 'genre'.

3rd November 1957 - A musical fantasy 'Cangerê' blends Black & White elements the Brazilian culture featuring musical numbers with Raul Moreno, Gilda de Barros, Raul de Barros, Leny Eversong, Cauby Peixoto, Paulo Molin, Francisco Carlos...

Claudiano Filho plays Sacy Malandro; singer Paulo Molin.

Norma Suely, Claudiano Filho & .... in 'Cangerê'. 

Paulo Molin.

Claudiano Filho chats with two European beauties in March 1955. 

Claudiano Filho. 

10 November 1957 - heart-throb matinee idol Anselmo Duarte's first job as a director is crowned with success: 'Absolutamente certo' (Absolutely right) was a resounding box-office smash.

10 November 1957 - Ladislao Vajda's 'Marcelino pan y vino' is obviously not a Brazilian movie. It is here just to reminds us what a huge box-office it was in 1957.

10 November 1957 - TV circus turns into a movie in '...O circho chegou à cidade!'...

17 November 1957 - Primo Carbonari was a news-reel producer who sometimes ventured into featured films. Carbonari assembled a motley-crew of comedians from both Rio and S.Paulo and put them together in 'O circo chegou à cidade' (Circus has arrived in town). Walter Stuart used to be the ring-master at TV Tupi's programmes for most of the 1950s.

17 November 1957 - Not much information about this flick that deals with 'Fernão Dias', a 16th-18th century adventurer-explorer motivated by profit, known for hunting down natives for slaves as well for locating mines of precious stones and metals. White Brazilians tried to 'glamourize' these criminals' lives and equate them to the US frontier man but that has never actually happened. They were nothing but bloody murderers. They are still revered by some right-wing idiots and are known as 'bandeirantes'.

20 November 1957 - Eliana aka Brazil's sweetheart goes to Sao Paulo and proves 'A doutora é muito viva' (The female-lawyer is really smart!) she could do almost anything. Hungarian director Ferenc Fekete does a great job showing Sao Paulo's newest and poshest buildings in artistic angles... Look out for Maria Dilnah, Otello Zeloni and Luely Figueiró...

10 December 1957 - Avant-première of 'Uma certa Lucrecia' that would open only on 30 December...

8 December 1957 - Josip B.Tanko's 'Com agua na boca' used all the tricks in the book to extract some laughs from the audience. A thin plot was no problem... you could always interspesed it with a good musical number with Angela Maria or Cauby Peixoto... Tanko even signed Miss Cinelândia 1957, Adalgiza Colombo who would go on to become the 2nd most beautiful woman in the Universe six months later. I don't know why it took exactly one year for this film to be released in São Paulo (see 1956).

15 December 1957 - Circus clowns Carequinha & Fred were so popular in Rio de Janeiro they could make a whole film wearing their makeup... just like Arrelia did in Sao Paulo where he was the King of Clowns...Look out for Adalgiza Colombo who in six months would become Miss Brazil 1958 and would be the runner-up for Miss Universe 1958, in Long Beach, California...

30 December 1957 - Closing 1957 with a golden key 'Uma certa Lucrecia' only goes to show that the Brazilian film industry was on top of the world... comedienne Dercy Gonçalves has one of her best years ever either at the cinemas or at live theatre... There is a new face at the movies: Odete Lara or Odette Lara that would eventually become the greatest actress in the Brazilian movie industry.