Cuban rumbera Ninón Sevilla, who ignites any screen like a supernova, may be the star of the show (and choreographer of all her own dance numbers) but Emilia Guiú is the star of the story in José Díaz Morales’ Pecadora (US: Sinner); in fact, aside from a few scenes, Sevilla’s memorable presence is contained to explosive dance numbers in wild costumes. As the main protagonist, Guiú plays María, a young barfly-prostitute in Ciudad Juarez who falls instantly in love with Antonio Rios (Ramón Armengod), a drug dealer on the run from the police. Serving as the spine of the film, this relationship will withstand escape, arrest, imprisonment, betrayal, redemption, and loss, concluding with a bleak, dramatic sequence that practically rivals La Bohème. José María Linares-Rivas plays a gangster who has it in for Antonio, and Andrés Soler plays the wealthy, domineering Don Javier, the owner of the Bar La Frontera where Ninón performs and the future husband of Carmen when Antonio is finally out of the picture. Director Morales and composer Conde incorporate a variety of popular Latin songs, like the dreamy ballads sung over an extensive montage of Carmen and Antonio’s falling in love in Acapulco (and then again in Carmen’s memory of same), and Carrasco’s camera finds plenty of opportunities to make a visual statement, capturing moonlit beach vistas, flashing neon lights outside Carmen’s apartment, iconic noir shots of gangsters and moll gathered around a table, an enormous staircase in Javier’s mansion. The 84-minute runtime packs in enough crime, romance, music, and tragedy for multiple films.