Le chanteur de Mexico

I'm amazed that there are no comments on this movie, which is one of the best musicals I have ever seen in a lifetime of watching a lot of movie musicals.

It is a film version of the stage show Le Chanteur de Mexico, which was one of the great hits of the French musical theater in the years immediately after WWII. I haven't seen the stage version, so I can't speak to how closely the movie follows it. I can say, however, that the movie shows the influence of the 1950s Technicolor musicals that Hollywood was making in an effort to lure new television buyers away from their sets and back into movie theaters, which they had deserted. In addition, you can see the influence of some earlier French movie musicals, like Le Marriage de Ramuntcho (1946), the first French full-color feature-length film, which also made use of Basque local color.

Indeed, local color is big in this movie, as it was in the travelogues that also filled theaters in the US and France in the 1950s, something else that television couldn't yet offer. The movie starts off with scenes in the Basque region (that very much recall similar scenes in the Marriage of Ramuntcho), then moves on to Paris with views from high up on the Eiffel Tower, carriage rides through the streets of the city, etc., that recall Gigi. Then we're off to Mexico, with lots of scenes of festivals and more local color, Alcapulco, etc.

In the end, however, what counts here is not the Eastmancolor or the glimpses of the world American tourists were just starting to discover. It's the music, which is wonderful and very memorable, and the performances.

The star is the tenor, Luis Moriano, who was sort of a French equivalent of Mario Lanza. He had a powerful, beautiful voice, capable of very impressive high notes (and a better technique for handling soft passages and fioritura; he had actually sung opera in the theater and studied it seriously). He wasn't a great actor, and he wasn't as handsome as Lanza (when the later kept his weight under control), but his looks and acting didn't detract from the very real excitement that his singing awakened. His delivery of the title song is riveting.

Every bit his equal is Bourvil, a great actor (and a very good singer, though with no voice to speak of) who was good in pretty much everything he did. You have to speak French to appreciate him; he's good at physical comedy, and there's lots of it for him in this movie, but it's his way of delivering lines that made him a great actor in comedy as well as drama. His two numbers in this film are true masterpieces.

Annie Cordy is good in a Jane Powell-meets-Edith-Piaf sort of way. The rest of the cast is fine.

The only thing that is below par in this movie is the choreography. Compared to what Hollywood had been doing for two decades, the dance numbers here are strictly amateur.

In short, a truly great movie musical, and one that anyone who loves the genre should definitely see.

Luis Mariano show in which he plays Vincent Etchebar (Luis Mariano), a Basque singer who is spotted by the impresario named Cartoni (Manolo Morán) , then Vincent leaves his little town and along with his friend Biloy (Bourvil) go to Paris to seek fame and fortune . They arrive in Paris and a wealthy spectacle entrepreneur gives him the opportunity to break into the popular city , but he has actually been hired to pose as another singer , Miguel Morano (Luis Mariano himself in double role but with moustache) , to go to Mexico as the famous chanteur de Mexico , but there he's pursued by a former abandoned bride with whom Morano got engaged and now she wants revenge . Then nothing will go as planned.

Luis Mariano recital with humor , dances , songs and including spectacular musical numbers , while being well accompanied by the always hilarious Bourvil . Stars the great Luis Mariano Eusebio González García (1914-1970), also known as Luis Mariano who was a popular tenor of Spanish origin who showed interest in singing as a child . His family moved to France at the start of the Spanish Civil War and settled in Bordeaux where he studied at the Conservatoire, and also sang in cabarets. Jeanne Lagiscarde, who was in charge of the classical department of a record store in Bordeaux, took Mariano under her wing, and gave up her job to nurture his talent in Paris. To earn a living, he sang in stage shows and appeared in films, starting with 'L'escalier sans fin' in 1943. That year he auditioned for the role of Ernesto in Don Pasquale, and sang in the opera at the Palais de Chaillot and later at the Théâtre des Variétés, with Vina Bovy, recording excerpts from the opera. He also left many recordings of popular song and operetta. He continued to appear in other films from 1946, including a singing role in Napoléon and a film adaptation of Lehar's Der Zarewitsch . He was a singing idol of French operetta of the post-war stage and screen who achieved celebrity in 1946 with "La belle de Cadix" ("The Beautiful Lady of Cadix") an operetta by Francis Lopez. He appeared in the 1954 film Adventures of the Barber of Seville and Le Chanteur de Mexico (1957) and became popular in France as well as his native Spain . In Le chanteur de Mexico(1956) Mariano sings some attractive songs such as ¨Mexico¨, Music by Francis Lopez, lyrics by Raymond Vincy , performed by Luis Mariano and ¨Quand on est deux Amis¨music by Francis Lopez , lyrics by Raymond Vincy , performed by Luis Mariano and Bourvil.

The motion picture was lavishly produced by the powerful Spanish producer Benito Perojo and professionally directed by Richard Pottier , but without much emotion , no enthusiasm . Filmmaker Ricard Pottier broached various genres along his long career , so consistently mixed the good with the mediocre that it became quite impossible to know what to expect from him next . He was a solid artisan and certainly did not deserve the critics' contempt . He directed all kind of genres , such as comedies : "Si J'Etais Le Patron" , adventures : "Les Secrets De La Mer rouge", Sci -Fi : "Le Monde Tremblera" , Peplum and Historical : ¨David and Goliath¨ , ¨Romulus and the Sabines¨, detective films : "Picpus" , musicals : "Violettes Imperiales" , ¨Bella Otero¨, ¨Le chanteur de Mexico¨ , melodramas : "Defense D'Aimer" , among others . Rating : 6/10 . Decent musical comedy for Luis Mariano fans .