The last couplet achieved international distribution, just like his album of songs, and marked a milestone in Spanish cinema for its collection, so that Sara Montiel signed a multi-million dollar contract to make films from European productions (spanish-french-italian) that made her the highest-paid Spanish-speaking star of the decade, It was his cinematographic heyday. It was said that with The Violetera started charging a million dollars a movie (To the change, about thirty million pesetas at the time), a figure that, if true, would equal the salary he signed Elizabeth Taylor years later by Cleopatra. Enjoying such advantageous conditions, Sara decided not to return to Hollywood, where she feared that her Hispanic origin would continue to affect her employment. And once he explained it like this: "After the success of 'The Last Cuplé', was i going to keep playing indian?”.
The violetera, already with more budget and partially shot in Paris, it was another successful production. With the Italian Raf Vallone as co-star, was screened at the Parisian Palace Gaumont, then the largest movie theater in the world. In La violetera and in his next film, Carmen la de Ronda (with Jorge Mistral as leading man), the artist sang again with her deep voice and particular style, which redoubled the attractiveness of her undoubted photogenicity and exuberant figure. The songs from these films were released on albums that were widely distributed.; they were even distributed in Greece and Brazil, reaching such sales that they exceeded those that Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley had at that time.
These films were succeeded by another twelve in the following fifteen years., all within the genre of cine musical and entirely conceived for the display of its protagonist, with melodrama plots and careful wardrobe. The commercial exploitation of these films was so great and lasted for so many months, that the premiere of some was postponed so that it would not compete with the previous one.
Among them can be mentioned: Sin of love, La bella Lola (free adaptation of The Lady of the Camellias), To the lady of Beirut, Samba (shot in brazil), That woman (1968; directed by Mario Camus with a script by Antonio Gala) and Varieties (with Vicente Parra, directed by Juan Antonio Bardem). Several of these films were shot with foreign leading men such as the Argentine Alberto de Mendoza, Belgian Fernand Gravey, Frenchman Maurice Ronet (later famous for his role in René Clement's In Full Sun), the American Craig Hill and the Italians Giancarlo Viola and a young Terence Hill (when he was still called Mario Girotti). The actress was so profitable that she was sometimes able to choose her co-stars, to the director of photography and even intervened in the election or substitution of a director.
“I like musical movies above all. I only make these kinds of movies and they will be the only ones I make.”
during this time, Sara Montiel's films caused such a sensation that they were released in places as far away as Cairo and Bombay. In Paris they eclipsed titles as famous as Trapeze (con Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida) and forced to postpone the premieres of The Bridge on the River Kwai and A Parisian by Brigitte Bardot. On one occasion the actress attended the Venice Film Festival with her husband Anthony Mann, who presented his new film, and her popularity was such, who advised her not to go so as not to overshadow him. At the San Sebastian Film Festival in 1958, Sara remained signing autographs for an hour and fifty minutes. Years later, on the occasion of his second wedding in the Vatican, was received by Paul VI, who declared himself an admirer of his.