First Day of Hispanic Heritage Screenings start Wednesday, Sept. 15
Latino Hollywood expert and historian Luis Reyes is featured as an on-camera guest programmer for Turner Classic Movies Hispanic Heritage month celebration on Wed., Sept. 15 with TCM host Eddie Muller.
Reyes will discuss three films to be shown on the cable channel highlighting Hollywood Latino stars Academy-Award winner Anthony Quinn, silver screen goddess Rita Hayworth and the Golden Globe-nominated Puerto Rican actor Juano Hernandez who was a pioneer in Black cinema.
The first film will be Back To Bataan, a 1945 RKO World War II adventure set in the Philippines co-starring a young Quinn in one of his first leading roles alongside John Wayne. Quinn was an actor of Mexican descent whose real name was Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca. The movie will play at 8 pm ET, 5 pm PT.
Following will be The Strawberry Blonde, a 1940 Warner Bros. romcom starring a young Hayworth–whose real name was Margarita Carmen Cansino and who was Spanish on her father side. The actress made this film at the height of her stardom alongside Oscar-winning actor James Cagney and director Raoul Walsh, who was a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The film will air at 10 pm ET, 7 pm PT.
The third film, Intruder in The Dust, is a 1949 MGM drama starring Hernandez in a tale of a proud black man falsely accused of killing a white neighbor in a small Southern town. It will broadcast at 12 midnight ET, 9 pm PT.
Reyes is a frequent contributor to this trade outlet, Latin Heat. He is the author of five books on film including the seminal works Hispanics In Hollywood and co-author of The Hawaii Movie and TV Book. The Los Angeles-based writer is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Publicists Guild. The respected film historian has written numerous film-related articles for The Los Angeles Times, Hawaii Magazine, DGA Quarterly and Latin Heat. Reyes has lectured on film at UCLA, USC and New York’s Public Theater and Film Forum.
For more information, visit www.tcm.com.