Mujeres de media noche (1990)

Director:

Christian González

Writers:

Adolfo Martínez Solares (writer)
Gilberto Martínez Solares (writer)

Release Date:

1990 (Mexico)

Genre:

Action

Cast

Yirah Aparicio	...	La Costeña
Braulio Baez	...	Atenógenes, El Jefe
Roberto Ballesteros	...	El descuartizador
Ivonne Bardett	...	Victim 4
César Bono	...	Leandro
Jackeline Cárdenas	...	Victim 1
Yvonne Casas	...	Victim 3
Roberto Guzmán	...	Anacleto Delgadillo
Patricia de la Rocha	...	Victim 2
Michelle Mayer	...	Gloria
Lizbeth Olivier	...	Punk girl
José René Ruiz	...	Fortunato Godínez

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico

Company:

Frontera Films S.A.

A strange mixture

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

MUJERES DE MEDIANOCHE

In the late 80's and mid 90's there was a profitable soft porn mainstream movie industry in Mexico. During these years Roberto "Flaco" Guzman made a career playing a typical low middle class, barely employed individuals whose main attribute was the sex-loaded double talk language and devotion to sexy barely clad babes. He made 16 films in 1990 and "Mujeres de Medianoche" is just one of many with the basic core values: a friendly, streetwise fast talking extroverted who gets involved in all kinds of troubles with women and bad guys. These are essential skin flicks, soft-porn mass production movies to serve the populace. Make them laugh, give them half naked women and do not bother with much else in terms of script or cinematography. SPOILERS "Mujeres de Medianoche" is unusual in the sense that this is a violent serial killer story within an inane comedy involving Anacleto Delgadillo (Roberto Guzman). The movie opens with the serial killer butchering a prostitute with a set of six knives plunged in her chest. The story then moves to an antique store where Anacleto works. He is abused by his supervisor yet he always ends up with the upper hand with the owner and with the two female store clerks. The employees of the store agree to pay for a gift to the owner (Jose "Tun Tun" Ruiz). A mix up in the mail ends delivering the telescope, meant to the owner, to Anacleto. He and his friend Leandro start watching girls on the building across. It is between Anacleto, Leandro and his wife that most of the humorous double-talk occurs. This includes Leandro being abused by his Cuban wife who beats him any chance he misbehaves. Anacleto falls in love with a girl (Miss "G") who works as a model. As the story develops the camera cuts to three additional victims of the serial killer, who is named "El descuartizador" (the ripper) by the local media. The girls are tied up and tortured before he kills them with one or more knives. Anacleto suspects that one of the neighbors in the building, which he keeps monitoring with the telescope, is the killer but he cannot prove it and he ends up in jail for misleading the authorities. Miss G, falls for Anacleto for no other good reason that he is a nice guy who was worried for her. She bails him out of jail. Miss "G" has been working as a model for the killer. He finally decides to get rid of her. Anacleto looks on the telescope as he ties her up and runs to her rescue. The climax has our hero fighting bare hands with the killer until he gets shot by the cops. The movie finishes when "Miss G" tells Anacleto her name: Gloria Aside from Guzman and Cesar Bono (Leandro) who have comic charisma, the acting is very poor, particularly that of the leading lady Michelle Mayer and the killer (Roberto Ballesteros). The cast of starlets is pleasant to the viewer who wants to watch sexy kittens in different stages of nudity. As noted this is a movie made in haste as mass production and lacks artistic value in all categories. What I found incomprehensible is the total disregard for the offensive violence of the serial killer acts amidst a stupid story made for cheap laughs. There is no drama or evidence of concern for the crime topic or the acts of sadism, including an upside down suspension of one of the victims. It seems as if the director and the "script writer" (who also was a producer) use this element of their story just as an another excuse to show skin (including full frontal nudity in the third victim).