From Wikipedia
María Esther Fernández González, better known as Esther Fernández (August 23, 1917 in Mascota, Jalisco Mexico – October 21, 1999 in Mexico City, Mexico), was a Mexican film and television actress.
She was one of the first female major stars of the "Golden Age of Mexican cinema" in the 1930s and 1940s.
Fernández began her career as an extra in the film La Mujer del Puerto (1934).
Her beauty and charisma drew the attention of film director Fernando de Fuentes, who gave her the female lead role of Allá en el Rancho Grande (1936), opposite Tito Guizar.
The film is regarded as marking the start of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.
During the rest of the 1930s, Fernández acted in hit movies including Amapola del Camino (1937), with Andrea Palma and Tito Guizar; Mi Candidato (1938), with Joaquín Pardavé and Pedro Armendàriz; and Los de Abajo, with Isabela Corona and Emilio Fernández.
Her popularity caught the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which promoted her films in Latin America and invited her to work in Hollywood.
In 1943 she starred in the second sound version of the classic Mexican film Santa, directed by Norman Foster, opposite Ricardo Montalban.
In 1946 she acted in the Hollywood film Two Years Before the Mast, with Brian Donlevy and Alan Ladd.
Her last appearance was in the film Reclusorio II (1997).
Liberal farmer Pepe has arrived in Santa Fe to visit his aunt, Dona Perfecta. While he's there, Pepe is eager to teach the traditional-minded townspeople a new way of living. Unfortunately for Pepe the people of Santa Fe aren't eager to embrace change, and when the citizens begin to voice resentment Pepe is forced to seek refuge with his sympathetic aunt. Dona Perfecta is just as traditional as any of the other townspeople though, and only suffers Pepe due to the fact that he is family. When Pepe and his cousin Rosario fall deeply in love, the situation quickly comes to a head.
This post-World War II drama, (released to a world-wide audience on July 9, 1949), is definitively unique for the caliber of each of its contributing writers, who are clearly better-known for their cinematic talents in black and white . For instance, the film's Director Chano Urueta ( who became an acclaimed actor in his own right), actually co-wrote the script along with one of its principal actresses, namely Esther Fernandez, as well as adding in the literary abilities of a well-known movie-producer of the era named Luis Marique.
In 1834, Charles Stewart (Alan Ladd), the spoiled, dissolute son of a shipping magnate, is shanghaied aboard the Pilgrim, one of his father's own ships. He embarks upon a long, hellish sea voyage under the tyrannical rule of Captain Francis Thompson (Howard Da Silva), assisted by his first mate, Amazeen (William Bendix). One of his crewmates is Richard Henry Dana Jr. (Brian Donlevy).
City slicker scams on young farmgirl while her fiance's in USA on a work permit.
A stagecoach full of conflictive passengers makes its dangerours way from Mexico to Veracruz during the days of the French Intervention.
Santa is a beautiful and very humble young girl living in Chimalistac, a small and quiet spot south of the 1930's Mexico City. After Santa is cheated by arrogant soldier Marcelino, she's rejected by her family and friends and expelled of Chimalistac. Santa finds shelter in a whorehouse and becomes a cinic and bitter woman, mistreated by bullfighter "Jarameno" and silently loved by blind pianist Hipolito
During the Mexican Revolution, the people tired of living in poverty and enduring the atrocities committed by the federals, decide to follow one of their own, General Demetrio Macias, a thief with tricks he learned in jail and who along with "La Pintada" decides to take his people to victory. Led by Captain Anastacio Montañez, the newly formed army fight and honor their code at the same time as they loot houses to spread the wealth.