Pancho Villa y la Adelita

In this sequel to 1957's ASI ERA PANCHO VILLA, we return to the pickled head of Pancho Villa, which proceeds to offer us more vignettes from the career of the late revolutionary general. As I noted in my review for the earlier movie, Villa's reputation as a shrewd, buffoonish peasant was, in all likelihood, a mask he wore to command the love of his troops, but it certainly made for some amusing stories that these movies used.

Pedro Armendáriz returns as Villa in this movie. He would play the role again in one more movie and in a TV show, and he is excellent. It's hard to imagine anyone else bestriding the narrow line between comedy and drama. Humberto Almazán and Carlos López Moctezuma return as his aides and the result is a fine programmer to appeal to Mexican nationalism in an era of radical nationalism throughout Latin America.