Miguel M. Delgado Movies

When Cantiflas accidently captures a gang of criminals he is elevated to police officer status in this comedy. ~ All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

The popular Mexican comic Cantinflas headlines this whimsical fantasy comedy. He plays Juan Pérez, a newspaper boy drafted into the army by accident, who dies on a military mission and gets whisked away to the afterlife. Miguel Arenas and Susana Cora co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Todo un Cabellero translates loosely as Every Inch a Gentleman, an ironic title indeed given the morbid goings-on. The story takes place in court, where a handsome but aimless young man is on trial for murder. The boy's defense attorney, a once-dapper fashion plate fallen on hard times, rises to the occasion, eventually proving that the murder wasn't a murder after all. Fernand Soler dominates the proceedings as the wily lawyer, while Gustavo Rojo does a nice job in the less-demanding role of the defendant. Todo un Cabellero represented the first big-budget effort for director Miguel M. Delgado. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a story by José María Fernández-Usain, this typical, melodramatic tortilla Western by director Miguel M. Delgado features a villain who goes by the nickname of "El Gato." El Gato is quick on the draw, prone to mayhem, and has killed more than once. The guys in the white hats have been trying to bring him in but before he gets his just deserts, there are fist fights and duels to the death -- none are particularly spectacular, just the usual fare for this C-grade offering from Columbia Pictures via Alfa Films. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Few Mexican filmgoers gave a fig about the quasi-melodramatic plotline of El Senor Fotografo. The star was the incomparable Cantinflas, and that was all that mattered. 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, All Movie Guide

We don't know what it was, but we're certain that Phantom of the Red House went by a different title when it was originally released in Mexico. The scene is the standard old dark house, where the standard group of relatives gathers for the standard reading of the will. What isn't standard is that there seems to be a capricious phantom bedevilling the various guests. It turns out that the "dear departed" hasn't departed at all, but is merely pretending to be dead to test the devotion of his family. Alma Rose Aguirre and Raoul Martinez star in this quirky blend of comedy and melodrama. Director Miguel Delgado later became a prime mover of the Santos adventure-flick series of the 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For its time, The Sun Also Rises was a reasonably frank and faithful adaptation of the 1926 Ernest Hemingway novel. Its main concession to Hollywood formula was the casting of star players who were all too old to convincingly portray Hemingway's "Lost Generation" protagonists. Tyrone Power heads the cast as American news correspondent Jake Barnes, who, after incurring a injury in WW I that has rendered him impotent, relocates to Paris to escape his troubles. Barnes links up with several other lost souls, including the nymphomaniacal Lady Brett Ashley (Ava Gardner), irresponsible drunkard Mike Campbell (Errol Flynn) and perennial hangers-on Robert Cohn (Mel Ferrer) and Bill Gorton (Eddie Albert). In their never-ending search for new thrills, Barnes and his cohorts trundle off to Spain, where they participate in the annual Pamplona bull run and act as unofficial "sponsors" of handsome young matador Pedro Romero (played by future film executive Robert Evans). Additionally, Lady Brett pursues a romance with Jake, despite her engagement to the dissolute Campbell. Filmed on location in Pamplona, Paris, Biarritz and Mexico, The Sun Also Rises was budgeted at $5 million; like many "big" pictures of the era, it tended to be hollow and draggy at times. The film's best performance is delivered by Errol Flynn, though it can be argued that, in taking on the role of the hedonistic, hard-drinking, burned-out Mike Campbell, he was merely playing himself. A vastly inferior version of The Sun Also Rises was produced for television in 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Each year for several years running, Cantinflas, one of Mexico's most popular and beloved comics, came out with a new film, and Sube y Baja is his 1959 offering. As in most of these films, Cantinflas plays a set role or roles, such as a doctor or a priest. In this case, he is the model sports "hero." He is a football player and a speedboat racer, also a rich man and a poor one, and in all cases, he keeps to the character he developed long ago -- that of the double-talking, fast-talking, funny-talking slippery man who confounds everyone and keeps Spanish-speaking audiences laughing and coming back for more each year. As in his other films, his intriguing looks and "adorable" attitude attract women with no problem. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide