With Corazon Noble, Rogelio de la Rosa, Angel Esmeralda,
Lilia Vizconde and Bert Le Roy, Rita Rica and Justina David heading a cast of
hundred; with a stirring story that is set to the tempo of heartbeats, songs,
fun, dances and romances, "Kahapon Lamang," Sampaguita's last and biggest
film achievement for 1940, is opening at the Grand today.
This picture which is produced on a lavished scale to bring the year to a close is marked with cinematic highlights that the silver screen has never been graced before. It is directed by Manuel Silos, whose recent directorial success was "Diwa ng Awit." Its story which was written by Olympio La Torre, who is, incidentally, the assistant director of the picture, unfolds the lives of four ambitious people, bursting with the freshness of youth, in quest of fame and popularity in the local radio business and, of love and eventual haziness. Rogelio de la Rosa is seen as a radio announcer whose faith in women is lost from the moment he is jilted by the woman who is about to become his life's companion, so much that he has turned his life into one of debauchery and aimless existence. His popularity as a radio announcer wanes as a result. But Corazon Noble comes to regenerate him and, instill in him a love that is greater than any he has experienced before. And life again becomes to him worth living and striving for. But a complication arises when Lilia Vizconde as Corazon's cousin, is found to be also in love with Rogelio. This piece of news rocks the bottom of the heart of Angel Esmeralda, who plays the role of a radio pianist and friend of Rogelio, because from the very beginning, Angel has already reserved a tender spot in his heart for Lilia. How they are able to pull themselves away from all this heart mess provides a series of laughable, gay but sometimes sad moments on the screen.
"Kahapon Lamang" has magnificence in settings. The biggest and the most beautiful of them all is the reconstruction of a night club which has for its orchestra platform a big clock with a radius of approximately ten feet. This night club setting which serves as a merry background for the New Year celebration sequence of the picture occupied the whole of studio A of Sampaguita.
Professors Constancio de Guzman and Santiago S. Suare joined
hands in the contribution of the musical scores. There are seven songs in all which
will, undoubtedly, set cinema audience humming and keep them abreast with the
spirit of the season. Luis D. Santos is responsible for the pictorial brilliance
of "Kahapon Lamang."
(The Tribune, December 26, 1940)
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