The Violet Seller, better known under its Spanish title La Violetera, is a 1958 Spanish–Italian historical jukebox musical film produced by Benito Perojo, directed by Luis César Amadori and starring Sara Montiel, Raf Vallone, Frank Villard, Tomás Blanco and Ana Mariscal.

The film's soundtrack album garnered also excellent reviews, had a wide international release and received a Golden Disk award for the number of records sold.

On New Year's Eve, Soledad, a street violets seller and a novice variety show singer at Salón Bolero café-concert, meets Fernando, an influential and wealthy aristocrat, at the door of the Apolo Theatre, and they immediately fall in love with each other.

Fernando is under constant pressure from his older brother Duke Don Alfonso, who reminds him of his duties, including his engagement to Countess Doña Magdalena.

But, only some hours later, he realizes that he can not live without her and he returns to the apartment that she has just left to go to Paris with Henri Garnal, an important theatrical French producer that was impressed when seeing her singing that same day.

Fernando marries Magdalena and leaves Spain when appointed ambassador to Brazil while Soledad gives concerts in the best theatres all around Europe accompanied by Garnal.

He finds Soledad at Salón Bolero, trying to make a modest come back lip-synching "La Violetera" to one of her old recordings in front of an audience, with the orchestra miming.

She is stunned when she sees him, and misses her cue, but she gathers her courage and, with great effort, is able to sing in tune the song in full when the orchestra starts to play the music live.

[10] With the success of The Violet Seller, and in a contractual dispute for the next film, A Girl Against Napoleon, the agreement was improved by securing for her the twenty per cent of the producer's net revenue.

[13] Jesús María de Arozamena wrote the script and the dialogues of the film based on the plot lines written by himself and Manuel Villegas López and adapted by André Tabet.

Following the formula that proved successful in The Last Torch Song, composers Juan Quintero and Gregorio García Segura arranged a list of cuplés, made famous at the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century by singers with high-pitched voices like Raquel Meller, to fit Montiel's low-pitched sensual voice and the corresponding musical numbers were tucked into the plot and were carefully staged to make her shine on-screen.

[19] These included, among others, the full-scale sets of the Calle de Alcalá in front of the Apolo Theatre, a sumptuous ballroom with a full orchestra, the popular café-concert hall and those resembling the famous Lhardy and Maxim's restaurants.

In addition to the effects of censorship, in the foreign version –that runs for ninety minutes– several songs were removed and in the musical number of Soledad on tour around Europe some footage was replaced with other –not present in the Spanish version– showing her singing "Cuore ingrato".

[32] That same evening, the formal premiere was held in a grand gala at the 1,400-seat Rialto Theatre in Madrid,[33] with a big crowd blocking the Gran Vía.

[39] After its exclusive first-run in over twenty-five theatres in major Spanish cities, it entered general release the following season and was running across the country for several years.

[41] The film had a wide international release with the dialogues dubbed or subtitled into other languages in non-Spanish speaking countries, while the songs kept in their original version.

Perojo claimed to have received offers from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures for the world release of the film but that he had already pre-sold the rights to distributors in some countries.

[48] A. Martínez Tomás wrote for La Vanguardia that the plot is only a pretext for an artistic and personal exaltation of Sara Montiel, it is full of clichés, the anachronisms are blatant throughout it and the action has a very conventional line but its attractive force and its aesthetic emotion are maintained throughout the film.

[38] ABC, in its Seville edition, felt that in a national film had never been such brilliant nuances, to attract attention and suggest the viewer, who follows the incidents of the emotional and entertaining narration so closely that the growing interest in each scene becomes irrepressible until its culmination.

[50] Other aspects of the production praised were the "attractive and sumptuous" costumes, the "beautiful" Alarcón scenography, the "graceful" selection of songs, the "excellent" Ballesteros cinematography and the "expert and clever" Amadori direction.

Montiel sings eleven different songs in the Spanish version of the film, that Quintero and García Segura arranged to fit her low-pitched sensual voice.

[64][65][66] The album was subsequently released in different vinyl editions in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, the United States and Venezuela.

[61] A year later, in July 1959, Hispavox acknowledged Montiel by serving her a Golden Disk for topping the company's sales in Spain and Latin America with the soundtrack.

[73] On the sixth episode of the fourth season of Tu cara me suena aired on 23 October 2015 on Antena 3, flamenco singer Falete impersonated Montiel singing "Es mi hombre" replicating the scene from the film.