Pepe

I really want to write something good about this movie. I can't, though. I only saw it once, and once was more than enough. I was a teenager in Denver, Colorado, when "Pepe" previewed for the first time before an audience. A passel of studio bigwigs showed up at the Centre Theatre that evening, including, I believe, producer and director George Sidney. Cantinflas was a no-show; maybe he knew something.

Did you ever attend a movie where the audience greets it with...dead silence? Not the kind of silence for something cerebral, such as "2001: A Space Odyssey", but the kind of silence that lets you know you are watching a very slow, very long train wreck. And there were roughly 1,200 really silent people that night fifty years ago.

So why did I stick it out through the whole thing? Easy. The cameos. I would start looking for the exit when Edward G. Robinson would appear. Wow! This picture's got to get better now. Wrong. Ditto for Ernie Kovacs, and so on.

Since I viewed the preview print, I believe I saw the full 195 minute version. So what did the studio cut for general release? The only thing I clearly remember departing was a long, misbegotten animated sequence.

In retrospect I feel sorry for George Sidney, director of "The Harvey Girls", the 1948 "Three Musketeers", and "Kiss Me Kate". But the industry had changed a lot by 1960. He did his best to keep up, but "Pepe" has to be a nadir.

Some believe "Pepe" to be excellent family fare. If I compelled a child to watch the whole thing, even the cut general release version, I could probably be arrested for child abuse. You have been warned!

It's really hard to rate this movie. On the one hand, it's a true time capsule of 1960..every mega star is here..including practically the whole rat pack. On the other hand , this is a an extremely corny movie about a man and his donkey.

What is really painful to watch is what the movie does to the Cantinflas persona. In his Mexican movies, he is street smart but with a sentimental side. Sort of a Mexican Little Tramp. In his Mexican movies this persona became more and more sentimental and less street smart as years went by. But nothing can prepare you for this movie. In it, the Cantinflas persona becomes a virtual moron. He is such an ignorant fool it is almost painful to watch.

I remember seeing this movie with my grandmother and mother at the old Radio City theater in Santurce. I was a boy expecting a Cantinflas movie and was surprised to see a movie like this.

Still I have fond memories and I feel that the movie deserves a DVD release. In fact this movie doesn't even show up on AMC or TCM. And its a shame because this movie is an interesting way to go back to 1960.

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.

Cantinflas meets every star in Hollywood, in an attempt to recapture the 80 Days magic. No such luck. Cantinflas was asked to carry Pepe and simply wasn't up to the task, though it's perfectly acceptable all-star entertainment. Cameos by Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Dean Martin, Ernie Kovacs, and particularly Kim Novak, help make it more than watchable. In a way it's better than 80 Days, since Kim wasn't in that one. I stayed around for the next show to see Kim's cameo again. In those days you could remain in the theatre on one paid admission for as long as you wished.

In San Francisco, PEPE played at advanced prices, on continuous showings, no reserved seats. On March 14, 1961 I spent nearly seven hours in the St. Francis Theatre on Market Street. PEPE runs 195 minutes. Us Kim Novak fans are durable, and loyal - she's still one of my favorite stars. Wow.

I have fond memories of this movie. I remember along with my brother Alan, begging our parents to take us to the drive-in to see Pepe. I don't know anyone who did not like Cantinflas. With the advent of DVD, I don't know why this title has not surfaced.