{{Infobox film | name = Vidalita | image = Vidalita film poster.jpg | caption = Spanish theatrical release poster | director = Luis Saslavsky | producer = | writer = Ariel Cortazzo<br/>Luis Saslavsky | story = Luis Saslavsky | narrator = | starring = Mirtha Legrand<br/>Fernando Lamas<br>Narciso Ibáñez Menta | music = Juan Ehlert<br>Luis Gianneo<br>Alejandro Gutiérrez del Barrio<br>Sebastián Piana | cinematography = Pablo Tabernero | editing = Gerardo Rinaldi | studio = Emelco | released = {{Film date|1949|06|17|df=y}} | runtime = 95 minutes | country = Argentina | language = Spanish | budget = }}
'''''Vidalita''''' is a 1949 Argentine comedy film directed and co-written by Luis Saslavsky and produced by Emelco during the classical era of Argentina cinema. It stars Mirtha Legrand as the title character, a girl who cross-dresses as a gaucho to be able to take charge of her grandfather's estate. This was considered transgressive for the time.i<ref name="lgbt">{{cite web|url=https://www.pagina12.com.ar/403377-mirtha-legrand-cumple-95-anos-lo-digo-o-no-lo-digo|title=Mirtha Legrand cumple 95 años: ¿Lo digo o no lo digo?|language=es|work=Soy. Página/12|accessdate=24 November 2022|date=24 February 2022|last=Melo|first=Adrián}}</ref> Fernando Lamas stars as the captain of the fort, who falls in love with Legrand's character "to the point that he is willing to marry her without knowing if she is a man or a woman".<ref name="lgbt"/>
==Cast== * Mirtha Legrand * Narciso Ibáñez Menta * Fernando Lamas * Amalia Sánchez Ariño * Oscar Valicelli * Milagros de la Vega * Leticia Scury
==Reception== The film was poorly received by the media related to Peronism.<ref name="manrupe"/> According to Saslavsky, they "find that a gaucho represented by a girl in disguise is a lack of ''machismo'', of ''criollismo''."<ref>{{cite book|last=Barney Finn|first=Oscar|language=es|title=Los directores del cine argentino. Luis Saslavsky|page=15|publisher=Centro Editor de América Latina|location=Buenos Aires|year=1994|isbn=950-25-3174-4}}</ref> Writing for ''Página/12''{{'}}s LGBT periodical ''Soy'' in 2022, Adrián Melo stated: <blockquote> In a key scene, Vidalita-Legrand finds herself in the situation of sharing a room where Lamas bathes naked and in another she dances with him in front of a people who are shocked to see two passionate men together. Only for this 1949 film directed by Luis Saslavsky, Legrand would deserve to enter the eternal sky with stars of the LGTBIQ world.
There is probably nothing in Argentine cinematography—neither before nor after—so deliciously erotic and transgressive in relation to sexual dissidence, nor so subversive in dealing with two founding topics of nationality and local hegemonic masculinity: being a gaucho and being a soldier.<ref name="lgbt"/> </blockquote>
Raúl Manrupe and María Alejandra Portela described it as a "mythical work and an accursed classic."<ref name="manrupe">{{cite book| last= Manrupe| first = Raúl| last2= Portela|first2=María Alejandra| title = Un diccionario de films argentinos (1930-1995)|page=392| year = 2001|location=Buenos Aires|publisher=Editorial Corregidor | isbn =950-05-0896-6|language=es}}</ref> In 2022, it ranked 51st in the list of The 100 Greatest Films of Argentine Cinema, a poll organized by the specialized magazines ''La vida útil'', ''Taipei'' and ''La tierra quema'', which was presented at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://encuestadecineargentino.com/top-100/|title=Top 100|language=es|accessdate=13 November 2022|date=11 November 2022|publisher=Encuesta de cine argentino 2022}}</ref>
==See also== * List of Argentine films of 1949 * List of LGBT-related films
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb title|id =|title =Vidalita}}
Category:1949 films Category:1949 Spanish-language films Category:Argentine black-and-white films Category:Argentine musical comedy films Category:1949 musical comedy films Category:1949 Argentine films Category:Spanish-language musical comedy films