Havana Widows is a classic pre-code comedy ‘sex film’ from the Hollywood studio system, where the titillation of the story takes place in an ‘other’ foreign land, whilst the film itself is shot entirely on soundstages and back lots of California, United States.
Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell made eight films together in rapid succession. Starting with Havana Widows, they created their American ‘working gal’ caricatures as the eponymous gold-digging, burlesque dancers that stalk the luxurious hotel rooms and nightclubs of Havana, looking for rich American men to blackmail…
The full 300 word version of this scene location analysis is published in World Film Locations Havana, edited by Ann Marie Stock, published by Intellect Books, 2014.
Carl Wilson 