Ilocana Maiden

Ilocana Maiden (Dalagang Ilocana) is a 1954 Filipino romantic comedy film directed by Olive La Torre from a screenplay by Luciano B. Carlos, Conrado Conde, and Willie P. Orfinada, based on a story written by T. D. Agcaoili, who also wrote additional lyrics with Conde. It stars Gloria Romero, Ric Rodrigo, and Rudy Francisco, while the supporting cast includes Dolphy and Rebecca del Rio.

A black and white film produced and released by Sampaguita Pictures, a radio adaptation of the film was serialized over DZRH Sampaguita Radio Program and also, it launched the career of Tita de Villa. It was theatrically released on July 4, 1954.

In 2021, the film was digitally restored and remastered by the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP).

Background
Olive La Torre directed Gloria Romero as a spirited, cigar-chomping country girl who rolls tobacco leaves into cigars for a living. Romero is a wonderful comedian, combining as she does a stately beauty and aristocratic nose with eyes that slant just (and maddeningly) so, plus a sense of humor game enough to undercut her impeccable poise; Dolphy does well in a supporting role as comic sidekick with an insatiable appetite. The film, set in the tobacco-growing lands of the Ilocos region, is also a lengthy advertisement on the many pleasures of smoking, with seemingly everyone onscreen from the loftiest haciendero to the lowliest tobacco roller casually lighting up fearsome-looking cigars made from uncut tobacco leaf; one character actually suffers asthma attacks if he can't get his regular nicotine fix, from the tightly rolled cigars that only Romero knows how to make.

Cast

 * Gloria Romero
 * Ric Rodrigo
 * Dolphy
 * Tita de Villa
 * Francisco Cruz
 * Rudy Francisco
 * Marcela Garcia
 * Rebecca del Rio
 * Horacio Morales
 * Precy Ortega
 * Leleng Isla

Release
Ilocana Maiden was theatrically released in 1954. In late 2000, the film was aired on PTV as part of its SineGinto 2000 program in cooperation with the Advertising Foundation of the Philippines.