On Friday, the new biopic of the great Mexican comic Cantinflas, who was a major international movie star for more than four decades beginning in the late 1930s, was released here and nationally.
To U.S. audiences he was best known for his 1956 award-winning role as Passepartout in “Around the World in 80 Days.”
For some Tucsonans, however, Cantinflas needed no passport. He was the movie star of their time and for all time.
“He was maximum for us,” said Susie Arreola in Spanish. “We always made a point to see his movies.”
For generations of Tucsonans, Cantinflas held court at the old El Cine Plaza, the Spanish-language movie house on West Congress Street in the now-extinguished downtown barrio. That is where Tucson’s Mexican-American families laughed at the antics of the Chaplinesque Cantinflas, who amused and befuddled audiences with his patented rapid-fire, eloquent verbal gymnastics.
His style of delivery — structuring words out of order, using incoherent words or made-up words, and seemingly making no sense — was known as “cantinfleando.”
“You really had to pay attention to what he was saying,” said Arreola, 89. “But after a few of his movies, you know what he was saying.”
His legions of fans adored Cantinflas, who also was a producer and screenwriter, and who died in 1993 at the age of 81. With his pants falling below his waist, a small cap twisted on his head, Cantinflas was their comic who played the hard-luck working man with the big heart. He mocked the rich and influential. Cantinflas made sense of the world in his topsy-turvy way.
“He made us laugh all the time,” Arreola said. “You know you were going to laugh. It made you feel good.”
Arreola grew up in Barrio Viejo, near El Cine Plaza. She would go to the movies with her mother and grandmother, both of whom shared her name. They went to see the other legendary Mexican screen stars at the Plaza, which also held live stage shows featuring local and international musical acts. The Plaza, which was razed during the 1960s, was the subject of a documentary by filmmaker Dan Buckley, a former writer for the Tucson Citizen.
For many Plaza goers, Cantinflas was the big-screen king.
As a youngster, Elva Flores would attend Sunday morning Mass at the Cathedral downtown, then lunch, followed by a visit to El Cine Plaza to watch Cantinflas, whose real name was Mario Moreno. But she first saw his movies in Ajo where she grew up.
“I thought he was hilarious. I kept thinking, why are his pants so low?”
The new film about Cantinflas focuses on his early years when the wannabe bullfighter turned to comedy on the stage. He eventually starred alongside David Niven in the movie “80 Days,” which won him a Golden Globe award for best actor. He was one of the highest paid actors in the world.
Cantinflas’ stature made him more than an icon for Mexican-American filmgoers north of the border. His admirers were proud that their movie star was known the world over.
“He was very special to people for what he did. He brought a lot of joy to people. He talked about life, adding humor and twists,” said Flores.
Looking back at his movies, his fans consider him the epitome of what a great comic film star and movies should be.
“It was always about laughing, not the shooting and killing like today,” said Arreola.
