The Mambo Kings movie storyline. In the early 1950s, Cuban brothers and musicians Cesar (Armand Assante) and Nestor Castillo (Antonio Banderas) flee from Havana, Cuba after getting into a violent dispute with the mobster owners of a club where they performed. Eventually ending up in New York City, the brothers work at menial jobs while attempting to revive their musical careers. At a nightclub where Cesar briefly crashes the act of mambo star Tito Puente, they make new friends and connections, as well as meeting cigarette girl Lanna Lake (Cathy Moriarty), who falls quickly into a love affair with Cesar.
Nestor, in the meantime, remains oblivious to other women while continually composing his ode to his lost Cuban love, Maria (Talisa Soto). He writes version after version of the same ballad, “Beautiful Maria of My Soul”, until by chance one day he encounters Delores (Maruschka Detmers), a shy but attentive young woman who wishes to become a schoolteacher. When she becomes pregnant, they decide to get married.
Fate intervenes one night at a club, where the Castillo brothers have a part-time job. Nestor’s love ballad captures the interest of one of the customers, who turns out to be the Cuban bandleader and American television star Desi Arnaz (played by his son, Desi Arnaz, Jr.). After a pleasant evening in Nestor and Delores’s home, Arnaz generously invites the struggling Castillos to sing and act on an episode of his smash sitcom series, I Love Lucy.
Fame does not last, however. Nestor is not as ambitious as his brother and desires nothing more than to own his own small club. He is in love with Delores, but lacks the passion he felt for his beloved Maria back home. Cesar, meantime, suppresses his true feelings, that a woman like Delores would actually be perfect for him. Cesar eventually reveals to Nestor that Maria left him for a Cuban mobster in exchange for cancelling a contract hit against Nestor.
The Mambo Kings is a 1992 French–American drama film directed by Arne Glimcher. It is an adaptation of Oscar Hijuelos’s 1989 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. The film stars Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas as Cesar and Nestor Castillo, brothers and aspiring musicians who flee from Cuba to America in the hopes of reviving their failed musical careers. The Mambo Kings marks the directing debut of Glimcher and features Banderas in his first English-language role.
The Mambo Kings (1992)
Directed by: Arne Glimcher
Starring: Armand Assante, Antonio Banderas, Pablo Calogero, Pete Macnamara, Scott Cohen, Cathy Moriarty, Maruschka Detmers, Yul Vazquez, Mario Grillo
Screenplay by: Cynthia Cidre
Production Design by: Stuart Wurtzel
Cinematography by: Michael Ballhaus
Film Editing by: Claire Simpson
Costume Design by: Gary Jones, Bridget Kelly, Ann Roth
Set Decoration by: Kara Lindstrom
Art Direction by: Steve Saklad
Music by: Robert Kraft
MPAA Rating: R for sensuality.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: February 28, 1992
Hits: 70
