Carlos Lopez Moctezuma Movies
- 1993
In this jungle adventure, based on a Jules Verne novel, Spunky Minha, was born and raised in the Amazon jungle on her father's hemp plantation. After she agrees to marry Dr. Manuel Valdez, they decide to hold the wedding in Brazil so his sickly mother can be there. Unfortunately, the girl's father hestitates to make the long, dangerous journey downstream because years before he was convicted for a crime and was sentenced to die. Though innocent, he does not want to face Brazilian justice and so changed his name and created his own jungle world on the plantation. Despite all this, he decides he will be there at the wedding. They set off on a great raft and during the journey face many dangers including deadly natives, snakes, piranhas, gators, fierce storms and a greedy bounty hunter who wants to blackmail Juan. The extortionist knows that Juan is innocent and carries with him proof, but this does not stop him from demanding that Juan pay him a fortune and hand over his lovely daughter. When Juan refuses, the bounty hunter makes good his threat, leaving his daughter and the doctor to somehow prove her father's innocence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daphne Zuniga, Barry Bostwick, (more)
- 1987
The story of a love triangle between a nightclub singer, her lover and a bank cashier. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- 1975
- R
A sultry artist (Cristina Ferrare) moonlights as a vampire while in Mexico, killing both male and female lovers. Seems the only person who has any chance of stopping the reign of terror is her father (John Carradine), also a vampire. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cristina Ferrare, David Young, (more)
- 1969
Mexico City does not hold jobs for two actors as related in this story. ~ All Movie Guide
La Horriplante Bestia Humana is a gory, misogynist exercise in rape, wrestling, and thoracic surgery from Mexico's premier father-son "Z"-movie team René Cardona and René Cardona Jr. Essentially a remake of the elder Cardona's Doctor of Doom, laced with more sex and violence for more tolerant European audiences, this sleazy exploiter stars José Moreno as a brilliant but misguided surgeon (aren't they always in movies like this?) who tries to save his ailing son (Armando Silvestre) by transplanting an ape's heart into his chest. As one would expect, the results are slightly off-kilter, creating a hairy gorilla-man with a wrestler's physique who loves nothing more than to rape women and rip men's faces off. The only one who can put a stop to this horrific rampage is -- naturally -- a masked female wrestler (looking scarier than the monster!) who goes to the mat to teach the ape-man the error of his ways. As if this premise -- loaded with opportunities for nudity and explicit (though crude) gore murders -- weren't exploitative enough, the flying Cardonas splice in actual open-heart surgery footage to fully illustrate the Moreno's handiwork. The crowning moment (for the English-dubbed version, anyway) arrives when the cynical police chief dismisses the notion that the attacks are perpetrated by an ape-man: "It is more likely that you have been watching on your television too many pictures of terror!" Since its American release as Night of the Bloody Apes, this chunk of Mexi-horror sleaze has undergone numerous title changes in its quest for total anonymity, including Gomar, the Human Gorilla and the charmingly honest Horror and Sex. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Emilio Fernandez directs and stars in this lavishly produced drama about one of Pancho Villa's loyal henchmen. The Major returns home to find his sweetheart has married a local man of wealth and importance. Later, when the husband and wife kill each other in a fit of jealous rage, the Major is charged with the crime. The local police hunt down the falsely accused man as he prepares to rejoin Villa for the revolution. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emilio Fernández, Sonia Amelio, (more)
Two of the most beautiful women in the European cinema of the 1960s -- Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau -- team up under the direction of Louis Malle in this engaging comedy/adventure. Maria Fitzgerald O'Malley (Bardot) is the daughter of an Irish political dissident who has traveled to Latin America with her father to take part in an anarchist political uprising. When her father is killed, Maria, left to her own devices, happens upon a traveling circus, where she strikes up a friendship with one of the performers, also named Maria (Moreau). Maria O'Malley joins up with the carnival, and she works up a dance routine with Maria; the act is a smash hit, especially after the Irish Maria accidentally loses part of her costume during a performance. Despite their success, the two Marias find themselves increasingly distressed with the poverty and brutality of the peasants' lives, and they soon decide to use their talents in support of revolutionary leader Flores (George Hamilton). Viva Maria!'s original ending was trimmed slightly for its American release, but the complete version was later released in the United States on DVD. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
The romantic western Duelo en el Desierto stars south-of-the-border screen goddess Fanny Cano as Laura, a woman who falls for and marries a reformed gunslinger called Billy. In so doing, she alienates all of her kith and kin, particularly her bellicose brother, David. Distrusting Billy, and believing he should be sent away for good, David picks a fight with him and then frames him for injuries suffered during the scuffle. When Billy is unjustly incarcerated, Laura and a local priest scramble to prove his innocence while David hatches a scheme to put the bandit out of service for good. Mexican helmer Arturo Martinez directs. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
The Spanish language film Los Bravos de California concerns a criminal who kidnaps the governor who ordered the criminal's execution. After escaping the gallows with his hostage, the criminal thinks he is free and clear. However, the new governor responds to the situation in an unexpected way. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- 1962
Popular Mexican star Elvira Quintana is featured in this tortilla Western as a female with power and influence who joins up with others to fight corruption in their town. Chief bad guy (Carlos Lopez-Moctezuma) is doubly villainous because he poses as an upstanding citizen, a posturing that fools everyone for awhile. But paraphrasing one of the presidents from that large country to the north, you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Sure enough, the hypocritical citizen is unmasked along with a cohort or two. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elvira Qintana, Joaquin Cordero, (more)
La Carcel de Cananea is a well-wrought, finely acted Mexican western directed by Gilberto Gazcon and starring the popular Pedro Armendariz as a federal lawman on the trail of a young criminal. The youthful fugitive from justice (Augustin de Anda who died before the film was released) is at first an unknown quantity. But after he is captured by the persistent federal deputy, the two men begin to have a greater appreciation for each other. This friendship of sorts does not help while they both contemplate the prison that waits at the end of their journey. Fortunately for the story, there are no songs or musical numbers to interrupt the narrative. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pedro Armendáriz, Agustín de Anda, (more)
Arturo Martínez's 1961 Spanish-language western Alias el Alacrán - also known as El Muchacho de Durango 2 - follows the adventures the infamous outlaw Billy the Kid, who treks off to Mexico to avoid detection while the notoriety surrounding his latest killings subsides. He slips into an assumed identity - that of a ranchhand named El Venado - and finds a regular job on a Mexican ranch. The establishment's ailing proprietor is engaged to be married to Rosa, a lovely girl in grave danger from a vile bandit and murderer called El Alacrán. Billy pretends to be the woman's fiancée himself and vows to protect her. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Based on the authentic Mexican legend first filmed in 1933 as La Llorona, this film begins with a flashback to a gruesome railway murder, setting up the legend of the wailing woman. In the present, a couple (Abel Salazar, Rosita Arenas) travels to a spooky mansion where evil Rita Macedo is trying to revive the mummified La Llorona. Macedo, the wailing ghost, and a deformed caretaker (Enrique Lucero) terrorize the central couple in fairly standard, ho-hum fashion, but director Rafael Baledon uses some interesting techniques to build atmosphere, and Arenas is solid as the imperiled heiress. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
The life of a powerful actress is examined in this tragedy. The film begins with her demise during a plane crash. Later, the men who loved her try to figure out why she was always so unhappy. Her story is told in flashback. It begins in a small town where she was a dress shop model. She used the money from that job to pay for her acting lessons. Later she is seen meeting the director of a theater group. This encounter eventually gets her involved with a Mexican film studio. As she becomes increasingly popular, she has a series of men in her life. Though she has become rich, powerful, and sought after, the woman still feels a great void in her life. To begin a new life, she takes a plane to Europe. Unfortunately the plane crashes and her life tragically ends. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Felix, Carlos Lopez Moctezuma, (more)
- 1959
One of several biographical films that dramatize the life of Mexican hero and revolutionary Pancho Villa, this version by director Ismael Rodriguez is a standard recounting of the Mexican peasant's exploits from a favorable light. Villa (Pedro Armendariz) was born in 1878 to sharecroppers on a ranch in northern Mexico. When he was sixteen, he had to escape the ranch for his life because he shot the owner, Sr. Lopez-Negrete in the foot for an act of aggression against his family. After several captures and escapes, Villa (who by then had changed his name from Doroteo Arango) eventually heads into the life of an outlaw. Even when he attempts to go straight, he is caught out by the lawmen looking for him and heads back into the mountains. By 1909, he had joined the Mexican Revolutionary forces and was in charge of the Division of the North. Rising high in position for a short while, his life was always threatened. He was assassinated in 1923. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pedro Armendáriz, Carlos Lopez Moctezuma, (more)
- 1958
The Mexican horror film La Llorona begins with a very happy young woman named Margarita (Luz Mara Aguilar) who is planning her wedding to the love of her life. Her uncle (Carlos Lopez Moctezuma) refuses to give his blessing to the union. She goes through with the marriage and soon gives birth to a son named Jorgito. When he gets older, Jorgito learns that the family suffers from a curse that causes woman to kill their children. In order to keep the curse from perpetuating itself, Jorgito begins plotting the murder of Margarita. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Interest was increased in this Mexican political drama because the story criticizes the treasury department of that country, and said department would not allow the release of the film. After a change in government, this story written by Emilio Carballido, directed by Alfonso Corona-Blake and produced by Gloria Lozano, who also plays one of the leads, finally came to light on the silver screens. At the center of the action is a woman who works in the treasury department (Lozano) and the man she loves (Carlos Lopez-Moctezuma) who is also a co-worker and reciprocates her feelings. Both of them are having difficulties because of their jobs. Red tape and bureaucratic inefficiency put an extra burden on them, compounded by the fact that treasury employees often have a hard time getting paid their wages. The director has opted for a light touch, so this is not a strident propaganda piece and should prove of interest to a broad range of viewers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carlos Lopez Moctezuma, Fanny Schiller, (more)
