Pepe (1960)

(On Cable TV, September 2021) Whenever you’re a movie producer putting together a star vehicle, you must be amazingly confident that your star can sustain the film, otherwise, well… Putting together a star vehicle for Mexican comedian Catinflas wasn’t an obvious exercise back in 1960 — while the diminutive, hyperactive actor has earned good notices for his turn in Around the World in 80 Days and was a world-wide sensation outside the United States, Hollywood didn’t quite know what to do with him. This clearly shows in how it approached Pepe — first, by passing off the then-50 years old as a youngster searching for his beloved horse in Hollywood, then stacking the film with so many cameos from known actors of the time that even if you don’t like the lead, you can still find something entertaining in the result. This is really not the best way to be introduced to Cantinflas — his comic persona is deadened by a silly script, unrealistic expectations and a mismatch of comic styles. The film predictably makes him out to be a holy fool of sorts, his simplistic rural assumptions wowing the sophisticated Hollywood types with their homegrown wisdom. This is trite even by circa-1960 standards, and your liking for the film is likely to pair up with your tolerance for that kind of comedy. (Tellingly, this kind of protagonist is funny-friend rather than boyfriend material for our white female lead, as the conclusion makes clear.)  So, what’s left? The cameos, of course — Catinflas aside, Pepe does make up for a quick tour of its era’s celebrities, and you’ll get more out of it the more you know about the time. Bing Crosby pleasantly croons his way past our protagonist at the studio gates, while Dean Martin plays cards with him in Vegas. Jack Lemmon shows up in full drag (then out of it, then back into it) as a big nod to the previous year’s Some Like It Hot, but in colour — and so does his co-star Tony Curtis in a separate but amusing scene. Sammy Davis. Jr. sings “Hurray for Hollywood,” while the classic instrumental “Tequila” gets a dreamlike segment. Maurice Chevalier sings “Mimi” and trades love tips with Catinflas, Judy Garland is heard but not seen, and Kim Novak provides jewelry advice. If you know those names and don’t object to celebrity walk-ons, then Pepe probably still has something for you. If you’re a bit lost as to who these people are and why they’re worth seeing on-screen, you may want to wait until you do before watching the film. Pepe is not that enjoyable as a standalone comedy, but it is substantially better as a late-era satirical look at classic Hollywood through celebrity cameos, not dissimilar to 1949’s Doris Day comedy It’s a Great Feeling or the earlier star-studded Canteen films of WW2.