She then moved to the United States and worked in three Hollywood English-language films Vera Cruz (1954), Serenade (1956) and Run of the Arrow (1957).

In April 1950, accompanied by her mother, she moved to Mexico and starred in a dozen films there in less than five years, including Women's Prison (1951), Red Fury (1951) and Cinnamon Skin (1953).

[11] Hollywood came calling afterwards, and she was introduced to United States moviegoers in the film Vera Cruz (1954), directed by Robert Aldrich.

Instead she freelanced at Warner Bros. in Serenade (1956), directed by Anthony Mann, whom she married in 1957, and at RKO in Samuel Fuller's Run of the Arrow (1957).

[17] The success of The Violet Seller surpassed that of The Last Torch Song, and in a contractual dispute for the next film, A Girl Against Napoleon (1959), the agreement was improved by securing for her the twenty per cent of the producer's net revenue.

[19] The Violet Seller soundtrack album, the first with them, topped sales in Spain and in Latin America and, in July 1959, Hispavox served a Golden Disk award to her for the number of records sold there.

Among the next films during the 1960s and early 1970s were My Last Tango (1960), Pecado de amor (1961), The Lovely Lola (a 1962 version of La Dame aux Camélias), Casablanca, Nest of Spies (1963), Samba (1964), The Lost Woman (1966), Tuset Street (1967), Esa Mujer (1969) and Variety (1971).

[22][23][24] In November 2009, singer Alaska who forms the Spanish pop group Fangoria with Nacho Canut, invited Montiel to record a track sharing vocals with her for the re-release of the band's album Absolutamente.

"[28] Montiel, whose complete name was María Antonia Alejandra Vicenta Elpidia Isidora Abad Fernández, was born in 1928 in Campo de Criptana (Ciudad Real), Spain.

[11] She was married four times,[30][11] and was ex-communicated by the Catholic Church in Spain for the civil-wedding ceremony of her first marriage:[11] In 2000, Montiel published her autobiography Memories: To Live Is a Pleasure, written by playwright Pedro Víllora,[32] an instant best seller with ten editions to date.

In these books, she revealed other relationships in her past, including one-night stands with writer Ernest Hemingway[11] as well as actor James Dean.

[33] She also claimed a long-term affair in the 1940s with playwright Miguel Mihura[11] and mentioned that scientist Severo Ochoa, a Nobel Prize winner, was the true love of her life.