AllMovie

Argentina's own Eva Peron gets an Argentine film biography in this production. For a woman who conducted her life with the bold strokes of grand opera, this effort to depict her human dimension rather than her mythical qualities might not have won her personal approval, but it offers a useful counterpoint to the musical play Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, which was filmed at about the same time as this movie. Eva Peron was the beautiful illegitimate daughter of a rural landlord and a seamstress. She ran away to Buenos Aires when she was 15 with the help of her lover, a traveling singer. Once in the Argentine capital, she did everything in her power to become a prominent performer. A woman of tremendous intelligence, courage, cunning and guile, she reportedly lacked certain essential assets necessary for stage stardom such as native acting talent. However, her good looks and indomitable will took her a long way toward her goal. Then, in 1944, she met Juan Peron, an army officer on the rise in the Argentine government. Together, they formed a winning team, and with her help, Juan Peron became the President of Argentina. It is during Peron's first presidency that Eva strode from the pages of history into the realms of mythology. With an impeccable sense of drama, she combined her untiring and passionate advocacy for the poor with an unbridled contempt for the pretensions of the moneyed classes. Among her lasting and noteworthy accomplishments was winning the right to vote for Argentine women. Then, at the height of her power and influence, she died of uterine cancer. But despite the ravages of the illness, Peron maintained her public image and died with grace and dignity. While there is enough drama in her story to serve as the basis for countless movies, this one is of particular interest because it is by her countrymen.