Carmen Sevilla was going to star in the Violetera, but after the success of the last couple, the role was played by Sara Montiel
They were two women who marked an era and who had very parallel careers. Carmen Sevilla and Sara Montiel were two actresses and singers who stood out, especially for their beauty. While the one from Seville was more angelic, the one from the stain was much wilder. Be that as it may, in the collective imagination both stars are legendary, but the shadow of rivalry fell between them.
Apparently, Carmen Sevilla had a contract to star in the Violetera, but after the unexpected and brutal success of the last couple, the film ended up in the hands of Sara Montiel, who turned it into one of the biggest hits of her career. The film directed by Luis César Amadori swept the box office and marked the line that the actress would follow in her subsequent film productions.
Sara had already returned from Hollywood, where she was involved in only three films, Serenade, alongside Mario Lanza, Veracruz, with Burt Lancaster and Gary Cooper, and Yuma, which would be directed by her husband, Anthony Mann. Antonia, the artist's real name, did not want to submit to the iron system of Hollywood studios and found herself much more comfortable in vehicles showing off in Spain, with films, mostly musicals, that managed to transcend our borders, especially in Latin America. and the eastern countries.
The divergent careers of Sara Montiel and Carmen Sevilla
Carmen Sevilla also had the opportunity to work in Hollywood, but she was not willing to leave our country either. She filmed Spanish Affair in the Mecca of Cinema under the orders of Don Siegel, and in our country, she participated in various American productions, which turned Franco's Spain into a film set, due to the economic advantages they found to shoot.
Thus, Carmen Sevilla intervened in King of Kings, directed by Nicholas Ray, and Marco Antonio y Cleopatra, along with Charlton Heston. She also shared the screen with Vittorio de Sica, the great male star of Italian neorealism in Pan, love, and Andalusia, and shone in a dramatic register alongside Raf Vallone and Jorge Mistral in The Revenge of Juan Antonio Bardem.
The careers of Sara Montiel and Carmen Sevilla were divergent and no producer thought of or tried to bring them together on the big screen, as they had made Carmen coincide with Paquita Rico and Lola Flores, three tall divas so that they would not feel relegated in the credits, they had to invent a rotating blade so that neither came out before the other.
Carmen Sevilla saw her career resurface thanks to the Telecoupon while Sara continued almost until the end of her days with her shows in theaters, selling exclusives such as her wedding with the Cuban Tony Hernández or revealing her most pop and electronic side alongside Fangoria in Absolutely.
In 2003, Sara Montiel and Carmen Sevilla had a somewhat unpleasant confrontation after the former accused her of having her mother, aged 99, abandoned in a residence, suffering from Alzheimer's. It was a bad thing for Carmen, who assured that her mother took very good care of her, as she has been all these years, in very difficult circumstances for the actress.
Seven years later, in 2010, they had already buried the hatchet after this unfortunate moment and Sara Montiel invited Carmen Sevilla to her 82nd birthday. Among others, Baroness Thyssen, Bárbara Rey, Pedro Ruiz, Nieves Herrero, and Jaime Ostos were present. Three years later, on April 8, 2013, Saritísima died, the same day as Margaret Thatcher, which led both to share front pages in newspapers.
