They Met in Argentina

Tim Kelly (James Ellison) is a Texan in the oil business who travels to Argentina to bid for some land. When his bid is unsuccessful, he teams up with colleague Duke Ferrell (Buddy Ebsen) to buy their employer a successful racehorse, Lucero, in the hope that this will compensate for the failed bid. Tim falls in love with Lolita O'Shea (Maureen O'Hara), the daughter of the racehorse's owner, Don Enrique (Robert Barrat). Don Enrique is against selling Lucero, but when he realises his daughter is in love with Tim, he offers him the racehorse on the condition that he immediately returns to the USA. When Lolita realises Tim has left, she pursues him on horseback.{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1617/they-met-in-argentina|title=They Met in Argentina (1941) - Overview|work=TCM Movie Database|access-date=12 November 2012}}

• Maureen O'Hara as Lolita O'Shea
• James Ellison as Tim Kelly
• Alberto Vila as Alberto Delmonte
• Buddy Ebsen as Duke Ferrel
• Robert Barrat as Don Enrique de los Santos O'Shea
• Joseph Buloff as Santiago, O'Shea's Trainer
• Diosa Costello as Panchita
• Robert Middlemass as George Hastings
• Luis Alberni as Don Luis Jose Alfonso Frutos y Murphy
• Fortunio Bonanova as Pedro, Ranch Blacksmith
• Antonio Moreno as Don Carlos
• Chester Clute as B.A. Jackson, Hastings' Secretary
• Charles Quigley as Reporter

In the early 1940s, Hollywood studios produced a number of films which reflected America's "Good Neighbor policy" towards Latin America; They Met in Argentina was one of RKO Pictures' contributions. With these films set in Latin American countries, the studios hoped to both attract an audience in Latin America and to increase popular interest in the region among a North American audience. Other films of this nature included the Twentieth-Century Fox productions Down Argentine Way (1940) and Blood and Sand (1941).{{cite book|last=Schatz|first=Thomas|title=Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dwf5SUcfousC&pg=PA25|year=1999|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-22130-7|page=25}}

They Met in Argentina was based on a story by Lou Brock, who was also the film's producer. Brock approached Rodgers and Hart to score the production. The pair wrote 12 songs in total, although only 7 of them were included in the final cut.{{cite book|last=Nolan|first=Frederick W.|title=Lorenz Hart: A Poet on Broadway|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1VFwDk20BnUC&pg=PA284|year=1995|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-510289-5|page=284}} The songs featured in the soundtrack are "You've Got the Best of Me", "North America Meets South America", "Amarillo", "Lolita", "Cutting the Cane", "Never Go To Argentina" and "Simpatica".{{cite book|last=Hemming|first=Roy|title=The Melody Lingers on: The Great Songwriters and Their Movie Musicals|url=https://archive.org/details/melodylingerson00royh|url-access=registration|year=1999|publisher=Newmarket Press|isbn=978-1-55704-380-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/melodylingerson00royh/page/250 250]}} The dance sequences were choreographed by Frank Veloz.{{cite book|last=Cullen|first=Frank|title=Vaudeville, Old and New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XFnfnKg6BcAC&pg=PA1157|year=2007|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-93853-2|page=1157}}

When Goodwins was hospitalized for pneumonia during production, RKO brought in veteran director Jack Hively to replace him and finish the film.

The film fared poorly in cinemas, and made a loss of $270,000.{{cite book|last=Jewell|first=Richard B.|title=RKO Radio Pictures: A Titan Is Born|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oH-BKZVgAKcC&pg=PA222|year=2012|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-27178-4|page=158}}

The film received negative reviews from critics, with Robert Dana in the New York Herald Tribune describing it as "an American musical at its worst". Film critic Leonard Maltin later described it as a "dismal musical". The Argentine government spoke out against the distribution of the film in Latin America.{{cite book|last=Block|first=Geoffrey|title=The Richard Rodgers Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QLxEdG6HJ9sC&pg=PA76|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-531343-7|page=76}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034280/ They Met in Argentina] at IMDb
• {{tcmdb title|id=1617}}
• {{AFI film|id=26958|title=They Met in Argentina}}

{{Jack Hively}}

{{Leslie Goodwins}}

Category:1941 films

Category:Films directed by Leslie Goodwins

Category:Films directed by Jack Hively

Category:American musical films

Category:1941 musical films

Category:American black-and-white films

Category:1940s American films

Category:1940s English-language films

Category:English-language musical films

Category:Good Neighbor policy