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Sunday, December 2, 2018

GRAN HOTEL (1944)

Typically modest, lively Mario Moreno/'Cantinflas’ pic, from back in his early prime; with Miguel Delgado, for decades his regular writer/director in charge. Here, Cantinflas’ everyman character (street-smart/less sentimental than later), two years behind on his rent, goes job hunting. He lands briefly at a fancy nightclub/ restaurant, and when that inevitably blows up, goes for a Bellboy position at the Grand Hotel, recommended by his girlfriend/fiancée who works there. Once on the job, he’s mistaken for a Duke (known to be slumming in disguise) by an American heiress just crazy to be a Duchess! But then her emerald necklace goes missing and only Cantinflas knows who stole it and where he hid it. If only he hadn’t been clunked on the head and developed amnesia! These farcical doings can be tough to maintain in the best of films . . . and this ain’t the best of films. But you can easily see the huge appeal watching Moreno screw up one task after another in the nightclub/restaurant scene. Superbly sustained, it’s a one-reel comedy short serving up a series of well performed gags for Cantinflas as waiter, host and eventually accidental ‘Apache’ dance partner. It makes up for the verbal jokes you’ll miss, unless you speak Spanish, in his signature double-talk monologues.

DOUBLE-BILL: Cantinflas tried Hollywood twice, succeeding spectacularly in AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS/’56 (a new, much needed restoration recently out) before falling flat on his face in the disastrous PEPE/’60, a habitual candidate for Worst Film Ever.

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