Chanoc en el circo union (1979)

Director:

Rafael Pérez Grovas

Release Date:

27 September 1979 (Mexico)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama

Cast

Diana Torres
Alejandro Fuentes
Ramón Valdés
Marco de Carlo
Mario Cid
Ernesto Moran
Guillermo Ayala
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ricardo Adalid
Alfredo Lara
Miguel Angel Medellin
Humberto Olivares
Bernabé Palma

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Mexico finds Frank Buck

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I'm not a fan of Humberto Gurza. A superb animal handler indeed, but a rather morose and too heavy-set a Chanoc. Here (unfortunately in his only movie appearance), we have a Chanoc more like Angel Mora's original comic-strip conception. Young, personable, "with-it", dashing and fearless. He performs all his own stunts in full view of the camera, whereas his sidekick, Ramon Valdes, resorts to trickery—not that I blame him. I wouldn't want to share a cage with a lion either.

After a slow start, the movie hits its stride once top-billed Diana Torres makes her first entrance. A startlingly lovely girl (although she is given a brief run for her money by an unbilled nightclub singer who dances up a storm in a too-short sequence halfway through the plot) and an excellent actress too. It's also good to see Fuentes go through his Frank Buck routines. We see just enough of them to sate our curiosity.

The plot is old-hat but it serves to captivatingly introduce the colorful circus backgrounds. (I like Renato, the clown. He is so exceptionally charismatic, you wish his role was much larger). Of course it also provides an opportunity for garrulous Valdes to shoot off his mouth to little effect (though I love his little dance with the nightclub queen) and be taken in by the cleverly disguised villain. (Frank Buck was burdened with Syd Saylor, so it certainly follows tradition that Chanoc have his Tsekub).

Technical credits are thoroughly professional. And incidentally, if you're really keen-eyed you can spot the identity of the mystery saboteur right from the start. Although the actor concerned has his back to the camera, the director doesn't cheat (like they always did in those old Republic serials) but uses the actual actor (not a ring-in or a double) in the part!

No doubt some fans will be disappointed to find this entry is a straight urban gangster yarn in a crowd-filled circus setting and that physically super-fit Chanoc battles nothing more dangerous than large groups of hoodlums and tigers. There are no horror or supernatural elements in this entry at all. But I loved it! Full of unstintingly fast-paced action and color, this is the Chanoc series at its best.