Cantinflas Movies

Volume 2 on this trip with Cantinflas, takes you into space in an alien space scooter. Lean about sports when you return to Earth! ~ Rovi

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

Popular Mexican comedian Cantinflas stars in this comedy about a druggist from Sonora, Mexico who travels to Arizona in search of a lost gold mine. He is helped by some friendly Indians when the bad guys try to give him trouble. The explorer tries to find the mine that he has inherited but has been lost to time and the elements. Captured and tied to a pole, he is nearly the victim of a fiery death before he endears himself to the Indian chief when he extracts a painful tooth. The Chief (Manver) lets the druggist go and it isn't long before the chief's beautiful daughter casts romantic glances towards the inept explorer in this Spanish language feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Cantinflas, known the world around for his Jerry Lewis-style antics, seems more like Peter Sellers in this hilarious Mexican comedy. Short on plot but long on laughs, the innocent comedian falls victim to excellently contrived cliches as a special delivery man caught in the middle of intrigue and spies. Cantinflas also expands into singing and dancing opportunities. The film also features a spectacular Latin dance sequence by Rafael de Cordoba. ~ Lucinda Ramsey, Rovi

Popular Mexican comic Cantinflas made this his homecoming film after veering off to the U.S. to appear in Pepe, his last movie in English. El Analfabeto sees him back in top form as Inocencio Prieto y Calvo (which roughly translates as: Innocent, Dark-skinned and Bald). Inocencio loses his job just as he receives a letter telling him he has inherited $160,000 from the estate of his late uncle. But Inocencio cannot read. Along the way to learning how to read, the shy Inocencio acquires a charming love interest, Blanquita (Lilia Prado) and an enemy -- a bank teller who tries to nail him with a practical joke that goes wrong. The teller gets his hands on Inocencio's letter (which no one has ever read to him) and gives it to a corrupt lawyer with the thought of swindling the illiterate out of his money. As the plot thickens, Inocencio finds himself in more hot water before he finds his letter and ultimate happiness. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This Brigitte Bardot vehicle is better known by its American title, The Night Heaven Fell. Bardot plays a young, sensuous French girl named Ursula, who arrives in a Spanish mountain community to visit her aunt (Alida Valli) and uncle (Pepe Nieto). It isn't long before uncle is killed by handsome stranger Lamberto (Stephen Boyd). Against her better judgement, Ursula falls in love with Lamberto, and helps him to elude the authorities-thereby beating her Aunt (who also loves Lamberto) to the punch . The Night Heaven Fell was the third feature-length directorial effort of Bardot's then-husband Roger Vadim. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The beloved Mexican funnyman Cantinflas stars in this comedy as a shoeshine man who, after the death of his best friend and fellow bootblack, is put in charge of arranging the man's funeral and caring for his young son. Needing to raise some money, the shoeshine man tries to get work at a night club, but his eccentric dance act soon raises the ire of Raquel, the club's star dancer, and Cantinflas is sent packing. He next tries his luck as a life guard at a luxurious resort hotel in Acapulco, though when he gets his first emergency call, it soon becomes obvious that he doesn't know the first thing about rescuing swimmers. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Razzle-dazzle showman Michael Todd hocked everything he had to make this spectacular presentation of Jules Verne's 1872 novel Around the World in 80 Days, the second film to be lensed in the wide-screen Todd-AO production. Nearly as fascinating as the finished product are the many in-production anecdotes concerning Todd's efforts to pull the wool over the eyes of local authorities in order to cadge the film's round-the-world location shots--not to mention the wheeling and dealing to convince over forty top celebrities to appear in cameo roles. David Niven heads the huge cast as ultra-precise, supremely punctual Phileas Fogg, who places a 20,000-pound wager with several fellow members of London Reform Club, insisting that he can go around the world in eighty days (this, remember, is 1872). Together with his resourceful valet Passepartout (Cantinflas), Fogg sets out on his world-girdling journey from Paris via balloon. Meanwhile, suspicion grows that Fogg has stolen his 20,000 pounds from Bank of England. Diligent Inspector Fix (Robert Newton) is sent out by the bank's president (Robert Morley) to bring Fogg to justice. Hopscotching around the globe, Fogg pauses in Spain, where Passepartout engages in a comic bullfight (a specialty of Cantinflas). In India, Fogg and Passepartout rescue young widow Princess Aouda (Shirley MacLaine, in her third film) from being forced into committing suicide so that she may join her late husband. The threesome visit Hong Kong, Japan, San Francisco, and the Wild West. Only hours short of winning his wager, Fogg is arrested by the diligent Inspector Fixx. Though exonerated of the bank robbery charges, he has lost everything--except the love of the winsome Aouda. But salvation is at hand when Passepartout discovers that, by crossing the International Date Line, there's still time to reach the Reform Club. Will they make it? See for yourself. Among the film's 46 guest stars, the most memorable include Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Jose Greco, Frank Sinatra, Peter Lorre, Red Skelton, Buster Keaton, John Mills, and Beatrice Lillie. All were paid in barter--Ronald Colman did his brief bit for a new car. Newscaster Edward R. Murrow provides opening narration, and there's a tantalizing clip from Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon (1902). Offering a little something for everyone, Around the World in 80 Days is nothing less than an extravaganza, and it won 5 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Cinematography. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The star of El Senor Fotografo was the incomparable Cantinflas. Per the title, Cantinflas plays a trouble-prone photographer, whose assignments inevitably end in slapstick confusion. The "straight" plotline concerns governmental corruption, a topic with which most Mexicans were all too familiar. With Cantinflas involved, the bad guys are routed in high comic fashion. The cinematography in El Senor Fotografo was in the skilled hands of Mexico's top lensman, Gabriel Figueroa. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi