It's just such a shame that all this talent goes to waste in one of the worst all-star films ever made. Cantiflas had made a huge splash just a few years before in Hollywood with the film version of "Around the World in 80 Days", and American audiences took the innocent Mexican comic to their hearts. But his follow-up English speaking film was a disaster, and has practically disappeared.
The story focuses on his desperate attempts to get to Hollywood to find his mule which was taken from him by mistake in Mexico. Along the way, he encounters a ton of Hollywood stars who, as themselves, aid him in his search. Then, there's Shirley Jones as a juvenile delinquent he hooks up with. Obviously, she was determined to get away from the sweet parts she played in "Oklahoma!", "Carousel" and "April Love" by playing tougher characters, and while she scored with an Oscar for "Elmer Gantry", in this case, she ended up with a real "Pepe Le Peu". Dan Dailey, a former movie star playing a current fictional movie star, ends up with Cantiflas's best friend, but unfortunately, there's nobody there to sweep up after the invisible stench the film leaves behind.
A few of the cameos are amusing (elderly Billie Burke shooting Charles Coburn with a slingshot; Jack Lemmon confusing Cantiflas by dressing up as his "Some Like It Hot" drag character), but most of them are silly and seem self-gratifying. Edward G. Robinson provides the heart for the film's cameos as himself, showing great sympathy to Cantiflas who deserves it for putting up with this lame script that could have been wrapped up in 90 minutes rather than its more than three hours. For some reason, this ended up with a ton of technical Oscar nominations, as well as one for the not bad "Far Away Part of Town" which Judy Garland is heard singing on a radio program. Books on Hollywood's biggest disasters usually list this, and I can't think of any other award that it deserved as much.
The story focuses on his desperate attempts to get to Hollywood to find his mule which was taken from him by mistake in Mexico. Along the way, he encounters a ton of Hollywood stars who, as themselves, aid him in his search. Then, there's Shirley Jones as a juvenile delinquent he hooks up with. Obviously, she was determined to get away from the sweet parts she played in "Oklahoma!", "Carousel" and "April Love" by playing tougher characters, and while she scored with an Oscar for "Elmer Gantry", in this case, she ended up with a real "Pepe Le Peu". Dan Dailey, a former movie star playing a current fictional movie star, ends up with Cantiflas's best friend, but unfortunately, there's nobody there to sweep up after the invisible stench the film leaves behind.
A few of the cameos are amusing (elderly Billie Burke shooting Charles Coburn with a slingshot; Jack Lemmon confusing Cantiflas by dressing up as his "Some Like It Hot" drag character), but most of them are silly and seem self-gratifying. Edward G. Robinson provides the heart for the film's cameos as himself, showing great sympathy to Cantiflas who deserves it for putting up with this lame script that could have been wrapped up in 90 minutes rather than its more than three hours. For some reason, this ended up with a ton of technical Oscar nominations, as well as one for the not bad "Far Away Part of Town" which Judy Garland is heard singing on a radio program. Books on Hollywood's biggest disasters usually list this, and I can't think of any other award that it deserved as much.