Pepe (1960)

The young Mexican Pepe's beloved horse is sold to Hollywood star Ted Holt, leading to Pepe's journey to Hollywood to get the horse back, and Pepe's encounter with half the stars working in Hollywood at the time.

Director:

George Sidney

Writers:

Claude Binyon, Leslie Bush-Fekete (play),

Stars:

Cantinflas, Dan Dailey, Shirley Jones

Nominated for 7 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cantinflas	...	Pepe
Dan Dailey	...	Ted Holt
Shirley Jones	...	Suzie Murphy
Carlos Montalbán	...	Rodriguez
Vicki Trickett	...	Lupita
Matt Mattox	...	Dancer
Hank Henry	...	Sands Manager
Suzanne Lloyd	...	Carmen
Carlos Rivas	...	Carlos
Maurice Chevalier	...	Himself
Bing Crosby	...	Himself
Michael Callan	...	Dancer
Richard Conte	...	Himself
Bobby Darin	...	Himself
Sammy Davis Jr.	...	Himself

Storyline

The young Mexican Pepe's beloved horse is sold to Hollywood star Ted Holt, leading to Pepe's journey to Hollywood to get the horse back, and Pepe's encounter with half the stars working in Hollywood at the time.

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Plot Keywords:

reference to marilyn monroe | based on play | character name in title

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Taglines:

SO HILARIOUS! SO HEARTWARMING! YOU'LL GLOW ALL OVER! (original print ad - all caps)

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Genres:

Comedy | Musical

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Mexico USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 April 1962 (Mexico)

Also Known As:

Pepe - Was kann die Welt schon kosten

Filming Locations:

Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Posa Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

195 min 158 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Final film appearance of both Billie Burke and Charles Coburn who appear together in the same sequence.

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Connections

References Some Like It Hot (1959)

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Soundtracks

"That's How It Went, All Right"
Lyrics by Dory Previn (as Dory Langdon)
Music by André Previn
Performed by Bobby Darin

User Reviews

Pepe Should Be Reassessed

Now any film with as many stars as they gathered together for bit parts as Pepe will automatically get me watching it in any event. There's no way I'd give this a bad review.

But in terms of the film itself, it might well have been oversold back then. Cantinflas got rave notices for his performance as Passepartout in Around the World in 80 Days, but failed to win audiences in the English speaking world. So this time Cantinflas played the title role and Columbia Pictures gathered together just about every star who had a free minute or so to appear in this. When you consider that Around the World in 80 Days was also such an all star extravaganza, did any other performer in history ever command such support?

Not that he didn't deserve it. In Latin America, especially in his native Mexico, Cantinflas was a national icon. I think that it was no accident that all these stars wanted to appear with him, it certainly would boost their market value in the Latin American area to be identified with him.

Seeing this film again 46 years after it first came out and I did see it in the theater back in the day, I was struck with how similar the Pepe character was to Forrest Gump. Tom Hanks who got an Oscar for his performance of someone as guileless as Pepe also during that film ran into as many famous folks as Pepe managed to.

Columbia cheated a little bit by going to Las Vegas for part of the story. This was the height of the Rat Pack era and a whole lot of the cast from Ocean's 11 took time from filming that to do some ring-a-ding walk-ons here.

There are some nice musical numbers. Shirley Jones is in good voice singing the title song. A real treat is Cantinflas, Dan Dailey, and Maurice Chevalier doing a reprise of Mimi. My favorite though is a star that appears only by voice, but Judy Garland's The Faraway Part of Town which is heard over a radio should rank as one of the best songs she ever sang.

Seen almost a half a century later, I'd say Pepe was undeservedly panned by the critics back then and is worth looking at whenever it gets broadcast.