Classic Mexican Cinema on DVD

Mexican cinema has seen something of a renaissance the past couple of years, but it has been around for decades, outside the consciousness of mainstream American viewers. They may be difficult to find unless your video store has a Spanish-language section, but film buffs looking for something different should consider tracking down at least a few titles in a 23-disc retrospective of films by the late Mexican superstar Pedro Infante. These actually came out on DVD a few years ago from Warner Home Video for the 50th anniversary of Infante’s untimely death at age 39 in 1957.

I managed to find a trilogy of the film that made Infante a star and its two sequels, all languishing in a short-lived “Latin Videos” section at the Grand Forks Best Buy. Luckily I bought them before the section disappeared a year or two ago, but as things turned out, I finally got around to watching them in just the past couple of weeks (part of a New Year’s resolution). After watching the first, I couldn’t wait to see the other two.

All three were directed by Ismael Rodriguez in Mexico City. Infante, a singer as well as an actor, is almost completely unknown in the United States, but remains a well-known star in Mexico due to a half-century of TV showings and radio broadcasts. “Nosotros los Pobres” (“We the Poor”) (1948) came in about the middle of Infante’s abbreviated career, and is credited with making him a major star. It was quickly followed by another film with the same characters, “Ustedes los Ricos” (“You the Rich”) (1948), and later “Pepe el Toro” (“Pepe the Bull”) (1951).

Pedro Infante stars as a humble carpenter who is also a bit of a ladies man in a Mexico City slum who although prone to a violent temper has an honest and loving heart, and lives with his little girl, whom he lets run his shop. In the first of the three, life is going along as usual until he is unjustly accused first of theft, then of murder, and the situation becomes even more complicated. Co-starring are child star Evita “Chachita” Muñoz, Blanca Estela Pavon, and a young Katy Jurado, among others.

“Nosotros los Pobres” has an impressively involved plot that’s a blend of a sort of Mexican Damon Runyon, Italian neo-realism, Precode melodrama, raw soap opera, and prison picture, with hints of “The Beggars’ Opera,” “The Telltale Heart,” “Stella Dallas,” and heartwarming tear-jerking Frank Capra mixed in for good measure, plus it’s a musical!

It’s packed with comedy, drama, romance, tragedy, and song, all dramatizing the individuality, pride, family loyalty, and resilience of the lower classes in Mexico City. There are even some interesting references to illegal green cards for potential work in the U.S., a good half-century before that theme became “fashionable.” It’s a controlled but gritty slice of life that is also an unexpectedly complex narrative with well-defined characters and generous helpings of sardonic comic relief and genuine sentiment rather than cheap sentimentality.

The second film, “Ustedes los Ricos,” picks up the story about a year after the first film’s happy ending, and is a good blend of the interwoven plot threads that made the first film so interesting. This time we have an even stronger contrast between the lives of the rich and the poor as the little girl’s wealthy biological grandmother wants to take her from Pepe and his new wife. Meanwhile, a vicious criminal Pepe had encountered in the last film has just escaped from prison vowing revenge.
Once more director Rodriguez pulls off an entertaining blend of melodrama, comedy, tragedy, and song that pulls no punches in dramatizing the effects of poverty while managing to keep an optimistic outlook despite one crushing blow after another.

The third film, “Pepe el Toro,” is not quite up to the other two, but is still a worthy continuation of the hapless Pepe’s adventures and misadventures. He has become a grieving widower, once more a single parent. At the start, he generously shares what he believes to be a newfound fortune with his friends, only to have it taken away and find himself deeply in debt.

He borrows money from an old schoolmate who is now a successful boxer, but again circumstances conspire against him and the rest of the film he turns to boxing himself as a means to support his family and pay off his debts. By now his little Chachita is a teenager with her own boyfriend problems and personal secrets.

As usual, a number of incredible complications weave their ways in and out of the plot with overwhelming personal traumas mixed with moments of comedy and song, homespun philosophy, social commentary, and an ultimately positive if somewhat more bittersweet conclusion. Like its two predecessors, it is very well shot and edited, as well as cleverly written and nicely acted.

The picture quality, unfortunately, is a bit soft, but certainly watchable, looking more like old tape masters transferred to DVD than modern high quality scans of the film. There’s a remixed simulated stereo soundtrack with an echo effect that’s just awful, but at least the original mono track is also an option (though the volume must be turned up a bit). Subtitles are available in Spanish, English, French, and Portugese on the feature, although all the menus and extras are in Spanish only.

At least these are not bare-bones discs of just the movie. Besides a small enclosed pamphlet, there’s a documentary about the director as a bonus, but it’s in Spanish only with no subtitles (and I had only one year of Spanish in the eighth grade). There’s a feature that lets you play only the musical numbers (without subtitles), plus a photo gallery, a filmography, and a trailer.

These are films that really deserve the care of a hi-def transfer if not a full restoration, not to mention much wider awareness outside of Mexico.

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