Juan Orol

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 didn't want to take care of another man's son, so she sent Orol to Cuba to live with a friend.[1]

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.[2] 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.[3]

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.[4]

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. Orol's 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.