Customer Reviews

The Great Madcap [VHS]

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Esta es una película muy ligera, comica y divertida. Casi no se ve la mano de Luis Buñuel en ella, lo que demuestra que este director puede adaptarse a sus películas y no gozaba de complejo de exibicionismo. El fime es adaptado de una obra de teatro y se nota mucho en los chiste de bote pronto. "El mantequilla" esta en el mejor papel que le he visto. Es una película que deberia tener mas reconocimento del que tiene, aunque perderia un poco de encanto. Recomendable.

Don Luis Buñuel made some movies because he needed the cash. Maybe this is one of them, because if he didn't like the result, he ignored them and pretended he didn't make them.
The movie is very good though, and has several underlines. I like them all.
Starting with Don Ramiro, hard worker and bon vivant who hates his relatives, because they live off him without working. He tries to reason with them, but the relatives, realizing they're about to kill the hen with the golden eggs, plot against him, making him believe he is bankrupt. Don Ramiro won't take this easily and tries to commit suicide (better dead than poor) but is rescued by an angel, Pablo, his neighbor, who not knowing what the family has planned, tells Don Ramiro what he knows, and Don Ramiro, now very upset and at the edge of the roof, literally, makes another plot to make his relatives reason, even if he has to kill them while trying!
So they say I am bankrupt? I will make them work and pay for everything they eat!
Pablo helps bringing food and getting little tasks for them to do, and Don Ramiro pretends he is also working, but he is actually enjoying seeing them work while he enjoys life to the fullest. Of course all this will make Pablo fall for Don Ramiro's daughter (Granados) who is also falling for him.
This is one rare occasion to see together the Rojo brothers, Gustavo and Rubén. Andrés Soler also stars along with Maruja Grifell (Doña Prudencia's daughter), and even Luis Alcoriza shows up with a mother that looks more like a father to me!

Even though this movie was hardly surreal, it was abundant with Bunuelian trademarks and symbolism. Now, this is not a bad thing, anybody who has seen many Bunuel films will know that this is one of his from the first few scenes, and they will like it.

It is a bit corny though. It tells the story of a rich man whose entire family takes the wealth that he accrued for granted. The family is concerned about his alcoholism and in order to ensure that he remain an efficient provider, they trick him into thinking that he lost all of his money and forced the entire family into destitute poverty. But the best laid plans of mice and men always go awry and this great madcap begins to trick his family into believing that they in fact did lose all of their money. A comedy of errors ensues.

The movie has a message and it is delivered with little if any subtlety. We all know that Bunuel was never fond of the bourgeoise class, who seldom worked and at the same time looked down at the women doing their laundry in rivers. Bunuel attacks these lazy sons of the rich men with his typical zeal, but it ends differently. There is redemption. Every character reaches an epiphany. The hypochondriac sister realizes that she is not sick; her never-work-a-day husband finds himself to be a proficient carpenter; the madcap's reckless son sees that there is more to life that fast cars and girls; the self-centered daughter finds her true love; and the great madcap ditches the liquor and the floozies.

This was one of the few Bunuel films that had an unconditional happy ending. Belle du Jour saw her lover shot, the Chambermaid leaves one man to go with another and a few people die for good measure, the priest in Nazarin was dragged away with a pineapple in hand, and so on, but here, everything turned out great and the cast left the viewers hand in hand in Bunuelian fashion (i.e. Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise 'walking down street' scene). This movie is not really as Bunuelian as many of his other films were, but it does provide an hour and a half of chuckling.