Pancho Villa

This collection of vignettes about Mexican revolutionary general José Doroteo Arango Arámbula, better known as Pancho Villa, is an amusing movie, with a typically emphatic performance by Pedro Armendáriz in the title role. He portrays Villa in the usual way, as a mercurial character with a great ability to command the love of men and woman.

But in many ways, this is a bit of a fairy tale. No one can manage a revolution and Chihuaha with the sort of mind that is portrayed here and this was undoubtedly a pose, a public persona to convince his soldiers that he was just like them and understood their problem and issues.

The result is an interesting and occasionally very funny film, but without any depth. Still, it's always a pleasure to see Armendáriz acting up a storm, and this is just his meat. It certainly must have been very popular in Mexico, since he reprised the role in two more movies and a TV show.