Ahí está el detalle

Cantinflas at his best, in a screwball comedy that rivals any produced by Hollywood. But to fully appreciate it, you need to have some knowledge of the cultural context and be fluent in Spanish - and even then, it's often difficult to follow the rapid-fire, sometimes incoherent utterances of Cantinflas' character, as demonstrated by the other characters.

This was Cantinflas' "epoca de oro", where he abstains from the preachiness and maudlin sentimentality of his later period and completely gives in to his inner "golfo"...

Mario Moreno created his trademark character in the thirties. However Cantinflas appeared as a leading role for the first time in 1940 with "Ahi está el Detalle". Near 3/4 Century later, "Ahi está el Detalle" stands proudly as the most representative Cantinflas movie. Yes, most of the ingenious monologues are very difficult to translate, because they are tricky word combinations (for example: try to translate a David Letterman's joke to another language, or more extremely, to another region inside the US, it's absolutely New Yorker!!!!!). However, "Ahí está el Detalle" is a true monument of Comedy, and Cantinflas proudly stands beside Charlot in the Olympus of the great humorists.

I'm not a big fan of comedies, but Cantínflas is absolutely wonderful and this is one of his best films. I laughed out loud all through the film, and loved it so much I bought the dvd. Most of the humor is verbal, like in the best of the Marx brothers films, so I'm not sure how it comes across with subtitles to a non-Spanish speaking public. I suspect some of the puns and witty responses don't hold up well to translation. If you know Spanish, you will marvel at Mario Moreno's verbal skills. If you don't know Spanish, you can still enjoy his silly behavior, his funny facial expressions, and the general exasperation of other characters who try to follow his logic. The pace is fast, the gags are constant, and you will really understand why Mexican audiences flocked to see Cantínflas films for so many years when you see this movie. He's a cultural icon, and you can't really understand Mexican films without knowing something about this man. He makes fun of authorities, he turns the system on its head and comes out on top against all odds. It's worth watching to see how he does it.

There is no doubt that this is one of his best movies,. Done in his pre Delgado years, this one was directed by well known Juan Bustillo Oros, who also worked on what turned out to be a great intelligent script. There should be a warning before the movie starts, because this movie might be hazardous to your health, you may end up with stomach cramps and even watery eyes (or pants) for laughing too hard. I just acquired a great DVD copy (finally), restored from a 35mm. master. And for the benefit of non Spanish speaking people, it has English subtitles, and it's a great translation done by Televisa (perhaps with a couple of unimportant flaws, considering this is Cantinflas). So, thank you Televisa for caring, I can't wait for more restored DVDs of those Mexican gems from the 40's and early 50's.

This is one of the best Cantinfla's movies. In this movie he plays the typical sympathetic exploiter who comes out very naturally. For the time it is an excellent movie, entertaining. It is ideal that Spanish be understood, so as not to miss details of Cantinflas' sayings