You’re Missing the Point

The man Cantinflas plays has nothing; no job, no house, not even a complete sentence. He is courting the maid of a wealthy household and gets into the house. The owner hires him for another job: to shoot a rabid dog wandering in the garden. He hears that the dog is called Bobby. At the same time there is a wanted murderer connected to the house, and his name is Bobby too. The misunderstanding grows, the man is accused of murder and has to defend himself in court. His defence is a speech nobody understands. Juan Bustillo Oro directs. Cantinflas, Joaquin Pardave, Sara Garcia and Sofia Alvarez are in the cast. It is a Mexican production. The film came out in 1940 and is counted as the production that made Cantinflas the best known comedian in Mexico. His way of speaking is at the centre; the man talks a great deal and says nothing. That manner of speech entered Spanish as a verb and stayed in the language. The courtroom scene is the most remembered passage and is almost entirely one performance. The matter it treats is class; a poor man's words are of no use whatever in a court. The film uses the shape of mistaken identity comedy. The narrative stops from time to time to make room for Cantinflas to improvise. The ending resolves everything. Its limit is language; most of the humour rests on wordplay and is lost in translation. Who it is for: viewers curious about classic Mexican comedy and Cantinflas. Who it is not for: it is dated, bound to its language, and the ending simple.