Apart from its sex scenes, this is an old-fashioned film that reflects the Fifties in which it's set and catches well the cultural flavour of its central characters. Other characters and situations are pretty stereotyped, though, as Cuban musician brothers Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas flee from gangsters in their native land and set out to become the mambo kings of the USA. Complications are provided by Banderas not being able to forget his true love in Cuba (now married to a gangster) and Assante falling heavily for the girl his brother marries on the rebound. The music is hot to begin with, but one mambo sounds much like another, and the film's key song, though lovely, is repeated rather too many times. As the older brother, Assante is excellent: this is probably the best performance of his career to date, in a film where everything else is pretty middling. Roscoe Lee Browne is the nasty villain who get the brothers banned from his clubs and it's good to see him again.

©ipc tx. Film content from TVTimes