Pepe (1960)

I love this movie so much

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It's just such a shame that all this talent goes to waste in one of the worst all-star films ever made. Cantiflas had made a huge splash just a few years before in Hollywood with the film version of "Around the World in 80 Days", and American audiences took the innocent Mexican comic to their hearts. But his follow-up English speaking film was a disaster, and has practically disappeared.The story focuses on his desperate attempts to get to Hollywood to find his mule which was taken from him by mistake in Mexico. Along the way, he encounters a ton of Hollywood stars who, as themselves, aid him in his search. Then, there's Shirley Jones as a juvenile delinquent he hooks up with. Obviously, she was determined to get away from the sweet parts she played in "Oklahoma!", "Carousel" and "April Love" by playing tougher characters, and while she scored with an Oscar for "Elmer Gantry", in this case, she ended up with a real "Pepe Le Peu". Dan Dailey, a former movie star playing a current fictional movie star, ends up with Cantiflas's best friend, but unfortunately, there's nobody there to sweep up after the invisible stench the film leaves behind.A few of the cameos are amusing (elderly Billie Burke shooting Charles Coburn with a slingshot; Jack Lemmon confusing Cantiflas by dressing up as his "Some Like It Hot" drag character), but most of them are silly and seem self-gratifying. Edward G. Robinson provides the heart for the film's cameos as himself, showing great sympathy to Cantiflas who deserves it for putting up with this lame script that could have been wrapped up in 90 minutes rather than its more than three hours. For some reason, this ended up with a ton of technical Oscar nominations, as well as one for the not bad "Far Away Part of Town" which Judy Garland is heard singing on a radio program. Books on Hollywood's biggest disasters usually list this, and I can't think of any other award that it deserved as much.

A throw-anything-in all-star bloat, designed to showcase the talents of "international favorite" (as he's billed) Cantinflas, but wedded to a wispy and misconceived screenplay padded out with pointless but attention-getting guest-star appearances. You'd never know he was a great comic from his portrayal of a nearly mindless patsy in 1960 Hollywood, catering to the charmless bellowing of a miscast Dan Dailey (the more Dailey condescends and insults, the more Cantinflas seems to like it) and a tough-talking Shirley Jones as a hard-bitten beatnik-of-sorts. That she and Dailey would form the love story at the emasculated title character's expense is a given in this xenophobic mid-century climate, but both characters are so unlikeable that they're impossible to root for. Jones does more dancing (and not terribly well) than singing, while Dailey is allowed one brief soft-shoe, to "Mimi." Highlights include one seriously hep Bobby Darin number, a comic interlude with Janet Leigh at Acapulco's Las Olas resort that almost works, and a Las Vegas sequence that attempts to show what nice, regular guys the Rat Pack were. It's an almost unremittingly terrible movie, but as others have pointed out, it's a valuable time capsule -- for 1960 fashion, architecture, autos, and offensive American-imperative bossiness.

I agree with many other comments posted here about this film about why it should never have been given a poor rating by critics. I was ten years old when this film was released and wanted to see it but never did until today. I saw it on TCM and boy, what a real treat to have seen so many of the old stars that have since left us but their talent and memories still linger in our minds and hearts. I never knew that Shirley Jones was a dancer until the scene where Dan Dailey is filming a dance sequence with her and another dancer and Bobby Darin is singing the story. This is when talent was talent, compared to some of the junk they call talent today.Cantinflas could have truly been called the Mexican Charlie Chaplin, with his character so reminiscent of The Little Tramp yet unique in his own little way. He definitely did not get the credit that he deserved.Take the kids away from the raunchy cartoons and violence and rent this one for a family viewing night. They will get a kick out of Pepe's horse and his little donkey. I plan to purchase a copy for myself to keep in my collection for viewing on a rainy day. This is one of my all-time favorites.

It seems as if the 195-minute print of this all-star oddity has forever been pulled from circulation. However the remaining 157-minute version is quite long enough. This movie has always been made fun of, but as misguided as it is, it is still entertaining, if only because it is so crammed full of guest appearances.Here's who you get: Greer Garson trying to buy a prize horse; Edward G. Robinson playing himself though he is seen here as a famous film producer; Ernie Kovacs as an immigration inspector; William Demarest as a studio gate keeper; Zsa Zsa Gabor reading a copy of "The Interns" to promote Columbia's upcoming film version; Bing Crosby signing Cantinflas's tortilla and joining him in a few lines of "South of the Border"; Jay North playing Dennis the Menace; Billie Burke hitting Charles Coburn with a slingshot; Jack Lemmon dressed as Daphne from "Some Like It Hot" in a bizarre sequence involving a parking lot; Andre Previn at the piano while Bobby Darin sings a terrific number called "That's How It Went, All Right"; Michael Callan, Shirley Jones, and Matt Mattox doing a sizzling dance called "The Rumble"; Judy Garland (heard but not seen) singing "The Faraway Part of Town" on the radio; Ann B. Davis playing her "Shultzy" character from "The Bob Cummings Show" but here assigned to working as Edward G. Robinson's secretary; Donna Reed making cutesy banter with Dan Dailey about her then-current TV series; a trip to the Sands Casino in Las Vegas where we see Peter Lawford and Richard Conte standing around in the lobby, Sammy Davis Jr. doing impressions to "Hooray for Hollywood", Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin gambling, Cesar Romero hanging out at the slot machines, a dejected Jimmy Durante losing at cards, and Joey Bishop saying "son of a gun"; Hedda Hopper boarding a plane; a ghastly sequence in which a miniature Debbie Reynolds drunkenly dancing with Cantinflas on Dan Dailey's desktop to "Tequila"; a delightful moment when Dailey and Cantinflas join Maurice Chevalier in dancing to "Mimi"; Janet Leigh being surprised in the bathtub the same year as her "Psycho" shower; Tony Curtis getting pushed into an indoor pool; and Kim Novak giving advice on buying a wedding ring.Somehow I find this hodgepodge strangely irresistible.