m67165

This is it! I watched this movie a few days ago with a couple of friends, and we were literally shaking and howling and had tears rolling down our cheeks with so much laughing. Two thirds into the story, it slows down a little bit, but maybe it was done like that to avoid having viewers taken to the hospital or something. After watching it, I can honestly say I would not be surprised to hear news of people actually having to leave the room in order to regain their breath, thus loosing a few minutes of the movie. It really is that much funny.

No, we were not intoxicated with anything but the movie itself. If you like visual gags and comedies from the nineteen-sixties, by all means watch this one. And be sure to go to the toilet before doing so. When you do see it, you will understand what I mean, and probably laugh even more.

The movie starts with a man going to Heaven, only to find out that his name is not on the Entrance list. Not on ANY list in heaven's bureaucracy. After complaining to some chief angel, he is asked to wait. They will send someone to earth to check if he was a good man when alive.

To avoid temptation, they send the purest couple of souls they can find. The year is 1946, and the pure souls are two folks who lived around 1890. The basic joke is the culture shock this man and woman from another century receive when they land in Rio de Janeiro right after World War 2.

The sound on the copy I saw was quite damaged, so I can only guess about the quality of many of the jokes. But, from what I was able to hear, I believe the film is very worth viewing, specially if you like musicals of that era. You get the typical characters: the Jewish salesman, the angry Italian dad, his daughter (who likes samba and wants to marry a samba musician), and so on.

It is also interesting to note this was the movie used to launch songs for the Victory Carnival: the first one after the end of World war 2. There is even a song with direct social equality demands. That was also Brazil's first carnival under a democratic government in quite a few years, and it shows.

Man meets widow at the cemetery. She asks him to help her spend the fortune her late husband left for her to "have fun" with. In order not to raise suspicions on the neighborhood, she invites back home her only son, which happens to be a little weird, to say the least.

This movie was originally almost 2 hours long. What is left of it nowadays amounts to some 40 minutes. This can make the storyline a little crazier than it was originally intended to be, but you can follow it, and it makes sense in the end. As for Oscarito, the actor playing the son, he does NOT make sense anywhere in this movie, and that's a joy to behold! This is your usual romantic spiritual comedy, and I won't explain what I mean by this in order not to spoil the fun.