| The Last Torch Song | |||
| Native Name: |
| ||
| Director: | Juan de Orduña | ||
| Producer: | Juan de Orduña | ||
| Music: | Juan Solano | ||
| Cinematography: | José F. Aguayo | ||
| Editing: | Antonio Cánovas | ||
| Color Process: | Eastmancolor | ||
| Studio: | Producciones Orduña Films | ||
| Distributor: | Cifesa | ||
| Runtime: | 110 minutes | ||
| Country: | Spain | ||
| Language: | Spanish | ||
The Last Torch Song, better known under its Spanish title El último cuplé, is a 1957 Spanish jukebox musical film directed by Juan de Orduña and starring Sara Montiel, Armando Calvo and Enrique Vera.[1]
It was released in Spain on 6 May 1957. It was immensely popular domestically and it had a wide international release making it the worldwide highest-grossing Spanish-language film made up to that point. The film's soundtrack album had also a wide international release.
The filming took place in Barcelona between November 1956 and January 1957. Montiel accepted to star in the film as a deference to its director Juan de Orduña and during a vacation in Spain in between her Hollywood filmings Serenade and Run of the Arrow. The film was filmed with a very low budget. Initially, the songs in the film were going to be sung by a professional singer who would dub Montiel, but due to the low budget, she eventually sang the songs herself.[2] Orduña had to sell the distribution rights to Cifesa to finance the completion of the filming.[3]
The Last Torch Song opened on 6 May 1957 in Spain. The film was running at the 1,400-seat Rialto Theatre for forty-seven weeks,[4] making it the highest grossing film in Madrid in the 1950s. The film was there for so long that, as a result of the rain and the wind, the large billboard announcing the film had to be replaced by another, something unusual in the history of film exhibition in Spain.[5] The film soundtrack album also became a hit.
The film had a wide international release with the dialogues dubbed or subtitled into other languages in non-Spanish speaking countries, while the songs kept in their original version. It was the worldwide highest-grossing Spanish-language film made up to that point, only surpassed in the 1950s–60s by her next film The Violet Seller, and catapulting Montiel's career as an actress and a singer.[6]