Le Chanteur de Mexico (1956)
Directed by Richard Pottier

Film Review

Francis Lopez's popular operetta, first performed at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in the early 1950s, is lavishly reinterpreted for the big screen in this sumptuous musical directed by Richard Pottier.  By this time, the Spanish singer Luis Mariano had become one of the most popular musical stars in Europe (as big an attraction as The Beatles would be in the next decade) and no one was better placed to take the lead role, having proven his talents as both an actor and singer in a string of box office hits that included Andalousie (1951), Violetas imperiales (1952) and La Belle de Cadix (1953).  The real casting masterstroke on Le Chanteur de Mexico was the pairing of Mariano with another prominent star of the period, the comic actor Bourvil, who was himself a more than able musician.  It is no surprise that the film was an instant hit, attracting an audience of 4.8 million in France alone.  Sadly, Mariano's next venture with Bourvil, Sérénade au Texas (1958), was to prove a disastrous misfire, partly as Mariano's popular appeal had begun to wane with the advent of a new musical phenomenon, rock music.

At a time when French cinema was predominantly monochrome and struggling to throw off the mantle of post-war austerity, colourful musical extravaganzas like Le Chanteur de Mexico came as a welcome moral-booster, matching the vitality and enjoyable kitsch appeal of the very best MGM musicals.  Whilst the film suffers (as most film musicals do) from its lumbering pedestrian plot and threadbare characterisation, the boisterous extravagance of its show-stopping musical numbers more than redeems it.  Pottier's direction is at best workmanlike, occasionally downright uninspired, but who can forget the slow tracking shot up the Eiffel Tower with Mariano singing as he and his entourage of happy workers paint Paris's most famous monument?  Or the beautiful ode to friendship that Mariano croons with Bourvil as they trail a flock of sheep across the lush French countryside?  Le Chanteur de Mexico may not have endured as well as some of the great American musicals but, on the strength of its uplifting, effortlessly choreographed musical numbers, it easily qualifies as a classic, a particularly welcome treat for any fan of Mariano and Bourvil.

Film Synopsis

Monsieur Cartoni, an important impresario, is organising a lavish operetta in Mexico when he runs into serious difficulties.  It seems that the famous tenor Michel Morano, who was to have taken the lead role, is unwilling to set foot in the country through fear of being pounced on by a woman he once promised to marry, Tornado.  Cartoni has no option but to find himself a replacement singer, and in Vincent Etchebar he has the ideal candidate.  The impresario recently met Vincent when he was passing through a Basque village and was struck both by his physical resemblance to Marano and his remarkable ability as a singer.  Surely no one could tell the two men apart!

Alas, by now Vincent has already departed from his village and has moved to Paris with his friend Bilou to find work as exterior decorators.  Presently, they are engaged on painting the Eiffel Tower.  Encouraged by Cri-Cri, the pretty young woman he lodges with, Vincent enters a radio talent competition, and this allows Cartoni to track him down.  Without undue ceremony, Vincent is offered a contract for the Mexican tour and he accepts gladly.  Before he knows it, he is busy rehearsing with his stunning co-star Eva Marchal, just before they set of for Mexico.  Jealous, Cri-Cri is not far behind, with Bilou.

Morano's fears about his personal safety in Mexico turn out to be well-founded.  His double has barely been in the country five minutes before the matrimonially obsessed Tornado is planning his abduction, so determined is she to get him to honour his (or rather Morano's) promise of marriage.  The kidnapping comes off as planned and Vincent soon finds himself at the not so tender mercies of his amorous admirer.  It is up his friends Bilou and Cri-Cri to save him from a fate worse than death...