“Perugorria was made for the role of menacing charmer, and he does terrific work…” -- Variety
A colorful, richly saturated rendering of romance and politics in pre-Castro Cuba.
Simon runs a brisk business, scamming fellow Cubans who think they’re being ferried to Florida, only to wind up on an uninhabited island somewhere in between. On one trip that goes very wrong, with the U.S. Navy in hot pursuit, a crewmember is about to shoot Simon before another crewmember, Andres, intervenes. As a reward, Simon takes Andres to a special Havana brothel, where 16 year-old Marie lures the young sailor into a plan of her own to escape to America. It all seems ridiculously simple, but …