The Great Madcap (El gran calavera)
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Janet Alcoriza, Luis Alcoriza and Adolfo Torrado
1949/Mexico
Ultramar Films
First viewing/YouTube
[box] Thank God, I’m an atheist. — Luis Buñuel[/box]
Buñuel comes back after a long absence with an only slightly subversive satirical romance. I thought it was pretty charming.
Since his wife died, millionaire Ramiro de la Mata (Francisco Soler) has become an amiable drunk who indulges every whim of his freeloading family and office staff. The one unselfish member of his household is daughter Virginia, who is preparing to marry a fortune hunter he doesn’t much like. Ramiro’s carousing leads to some sort of an attack that leaves him unconcious for a while and his brother decides to teach him a lesson. He persuades the family to go along with a scheme to fool Ramiro that he has lost all his money in a fraudulent bankruptcy.
So the family moves in to a flat in the poor section of town and pretend to go to work doing laundry, carpentry, etc. When Ramiro wakes up they easily convince him he is broke. He decides to commit suicide by jumping off the roof but is rescued by handsome young Pablo. Pablo falls in love with the beautiful Virginia at first sight. Despite their poverty, Pablo and his mother take pity on their neighbors and bring them food.
Before long, Ramiro gets wise to the scheme. He decides to carry on with the charade to teach his family a lesson. He has reformed though and his business is more successful than ever. Eventually, Virginia’s no-good fiancé gets wind of this and shows up pretending to help out the family. Pablo is outraged when he finds out about the ruse. Can things be made right? Hint: this is a comedy.
I liked this a lot. Mostly it is a straight-forward narrative though there are a few Buñuel touches like the fiancé’s mustachioed mother and Pablo blaring out advertisements on a loudspeaker during Virginia’s wedding ceremony. The dialogue is nicely written and all the performances are good. It is probably my favorite Mexican movie of the period thus far.
Clip – wedding scene – no subtitles
