A Place Close to Heaven

Pedro comes from the countryside to Mexico City hoping to build a better life with his wife and small son. He cannot find work in the city. He settles his family in a single room on the outskirts. His wife falls ill, the child goes hungry, and whatever the man does he cannot close the gap. In the end the only work he can find is as a bodyguard for a tough, and that takes him somewhere else again. Pedro Infante has the lead and was the best loved actor in Mexico at the time; his films were remembered together with his songs. Directed by Rogelio A. González, this belongs to the golden age of Mexican cinema and to its darkest strand: migration from country to city, poverty and hope running out. The melodrama mould is plain and the film does not stint on feeling. Marga López is the wife. Two hours.