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 (screenplay), 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	...	Maurice Chevalier
Bing Crosby	...	Bing Crosby
Michael Callan	...	Dancer
Richard Conte	...	Richard Conte
Bobby Darin	...	Bobby Darin
Sammy Davis Jr.	...	Sammy Davis Jr.

Storyline

In Mexico, Pepe is the good-natured ranch foreman of Sr. Rodriguez. Pepe's pride and joy is Don Juan, a magnificent white stud stallion that he raised from a colt for Sr. Rodriguez and that he refers to as his "son". As Sr. Rodriguez has decided to sell Don Juan at auction, Pepe enacts a plan to dissuade any interested buyers so that he can buy Don Juan himself. The plan doesn't work, as Don Juan is sold to washed-up Hollywood movie director Ted Holt - his current Hollywood status due to alcohol over-consumption - who wants to use Don Juan for his comeback project to be shot in Mexico with an all-Mexican cast except for an American female lead. Pepe decides to head to Hollywood and earn lots of money so that he can buy Pepe and bring him back to Mexico. In Hollywood, Pepe gets into one misadventure after another with a cavalcade of Hollywood movie stars, those misadventures based largely on Pepe's limited grasp of the English language, he often taking what is said to him in their ...

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Plot Keywords:

character name as title | hollywood | horse | mexican man | one word title | 

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Taglines:

35 GREAT STARS in a Wonderful Story!

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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

Box Office

Gross USA:

$9,600,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures, Posa Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

180 min 158 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Rumble dance routine that Suzie performs is based on the dancing style from 'West Side Story'.

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Alternate Versions

Although several sources list the film's running time as either 190 or 195 minutes, according to studio records it is exactly three hours. The intermission might have attributed to the extra 10-15 minutes. Later cut to 157 minutes after initial screenings.

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Connections

Referenced in This Is Your Life: Shirley Jones (1971)

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Soundtracks

The Rumble
Music by André Previn
Performed by André Previn

User Reviews

Ruina

I really want to write something good about this movie. I can't, though. I only saw it once, and once was more than enough. I was a teenager in Denver, Colorado, when "Pepe" previewed for the first time before an audience. A passel of studio bigwigs showed up at the Centre Theatre that evening, including, I believe, producer and director George Sidney. Cantinflas was a no-show; maybe he knew something.

Did you ever attend a movie where the audience greets it with...dead silence? Not the kind of silence for something cerebral, such as "2001: A Space Odyssey", but the kind of silence that lets you know you are watching a very slow, very long train wreck. And there were roughly 1,200 really silent people that night fifty years ago.

So why did I stick it out through the whole thing? Easy. The cameos. I would start looking for the exit when Edward G. Robinson would appear. Wow! This picture's got to get better now. Wrong. Ditto for Ernie Kovacs, and so on.

Since I viewed the preview print, I believe I saw the full 195 minute version. So what did the studio cut for general release? The only thing I clearly remember departing was a long, misbegotten animated sequence.

In retrospect I feel sorry for George Sidney, director of "The Harvey Girls", the 1948 "Three Musketeers", and "Kiss Me Kate". But the industry had changed a lot by 1960. He did his best to keep up, but "Pepe" has to be a nadir.

Some believe "Pepe" to be excellent family fare. If I compelled a child to watch the whole thing, even the cut general release version, I could probably be arrested for child abuse. You have been warned!