Ángel Garasa Movies

Cantinflas (Mario Moreno) appears in several separate stories in this film, all of which deal with bureaucrats of one sort or another. In the first episode, Cantinflas is a man who earns his living writing letters for illiterate people, an evantelista. In the second, he is a low-level government bureaucrat in situations which free him to criticize abuses. The next episode has him, hat in hand, coming to a bureaucrat for some help, and in yet another episode, he helps a deaf-mute girl. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A man is torn between love and loyalty in this period-drama from Mexico. Benito is a man who has had enough of the injustice of the economic inequality of his homeland, and joins a band of insurgents who are battling the Federales. To fight for what he believes, Benito must leave the woman he has pledged to marry, but he begs her to wait for him, and one day he does return, ready to take her hand in wedlock. However, only moments after the wedding ceremony, Benito learns grim news -- Federales have ambushed his comrades and killed nearly all of them. Will Benito leave his bride on his wedding day to seek justice against the men who killed his friends? ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This video tells the story of the love triangle between 2 sisters and the same man. ~ Rovi

When an unconventional priest assumes his new post in a conservative small town, the skeptical citizens find that adjusting to the oddball clergyman's strange little quirks may take a little more getting used to than they first expected. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The matchless Maria Felix essays a dual role in the Mexican romantic drama Sister Lieutenant. Felix begins the film as Catalina, daughter of a wealthy family whose dowry is stolen by a scheming aunt. After surviving a shipwreck, Catalina disguises herself as a man named Don Alonso. This she does to get to Peru without molestation and to locate her father's will, which will enable her to expose the aunt as a fraud. While comporting herself in male drag, Catalina has quite a time confessing her ruse to her lover (Jose Cibrian). Anyone who catches Sister Lieutenant on cable TV (where it pops up with alarming frequency) will immediately understand why Maria Felix was -- and is -- Mexico's favorite female film star. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Sombrero des Tres Picos (Three Cornered Hat) is based on the classic 18th-century Spanish stage comedy of the same name. Director Juan Bustilo Oro does a masterful job adapting playwright Pedro Antonio de Alarcon's five-act farce into a compact 97 minutes. The story involves a shameless roue who uses his lofty position as King's deputy as a means of meeting scores of delectable damsels. His wife tries to catch her husband in the act, to no avail. The "hero's" Waterloo comes when he attempts to kidnap a bewitching beauty who proves to be more than his match. Joaquin Pardave and Sofia Alvarez deliver polished performances as, respectively, the rake and the enchantress. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

"The Machine Gun" is a formidable opponent for a retired general in this exciting adventure. ~ Rovi

The title may be Tres Mosqueteros (The Three Musketeers), but this Mexican comedy has less to do with Dumas than with its star, the inimitable Cantinflas. While visiting a movie studio where a film version of The Three Musketeers is in production, Cantinflas dozes off and dreams that he's D'Artagnan, while his three disreputable neighborhood buddies show up as the Musketeers. The plot then segues into the standard "Queen's Necklace" storyline, with our hero saving the French monarchy from the wicked machinations of Cardinal Richelieu (Angel Garasa). Almost as funny as the Ritz Brothers' sendup of the same material, Cantinflas' spin on The Three Musketeers is definite the more ribald of the two films. Best of all is the stunning cinematography of the great Gabriel Figueroa, who lavishes as much care on this farce as he would on such films as The Pearl and The Fugitive. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi