Cantinflas
Mario Fortino Alfonso Moreno Reyes (Mexico City, August 12, 1911-Mexico City, April 20, 1993), internationally known for his character Cantinflas, was a mime, actor, producer, screenwriter and Mexican comedian.
The character is associated with the national identity of Mexico and allowed Cantinflas to establish a long and successful film career that included his foray into Hollywood, California, United States. He became a Mexican icon and his legacy lives on to this day and even Charles Chaplin once commented that he was the greatest comedian alive at the time. In the United States, he is remembered as co-starring with David Niven in the Oscar-winning film for Best Picture titled Around the World in 80 Days, for which Moreno won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.
It is said that the style of going out to do comedy, disguised as "peladito", was taken from the comedian Manuel Medel. Cantinflas's humor is so loaded with linguistic aspects of Mexican speech, both in intonation and in lexicon or syntax, was so celebrated by all Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America and Spain that a whole lexical range of new words arose: ser un cantinflas, cantinflear, cantinflada, cantinflesco or cantinflero.
Although some of his films were dubbed into English and French, the particular puns in Mexican Spanish were difficult to translate. His great success was achieved among the Spanish-speaking public, in Latin America, the United States, Equatorial Guinea and Spain.
As a pioneer of Mexican cinema, Mario Moreno contributed to its flourishing during the golden age of Mexican cinema. In his life he also served as a businessman and became involved in the politics of Mexico. Although he was a conservative, his reputation as a spokesman for the underdog gave him authenticity and he became an important figure in the fight against union charismo, which is the practice of one-party government to manage and control unions.
On August 29, 2014, a film was released in his memory starring Spanish actor Óscar Jaenada, which focuses on his arrival in Hollywood cinema in the late 1950s.
Biography
Early Years
Mario Moreno Reyes (Cantinflas) was the sixth of fourteen children of the marriage formed by the postman Pedro Moreno Esquivel and María de la Soledad Reyes Guízar. Of the fourteen children, only eight survived childbirth: Pedro, José, Catalina, Mario himself, Eduardo, Esperanza, Enrique and Roberto. He grew up in Santa María la Redonda, near the Mexican neighborhood of Tepito.
He dedicated himself to various jobs, he was a shoemaker's assistant, to later ascend to "bolero" (shoeshine), "errand boy", postman, taxi driver, billiards employee, boxer and even a bullfighter. At the beginning of 1928 he enlisted in the Mexican army as an infantryman with studies as a typist, but on May 23 of that year his father sent a letter to the army requesting the discharge of his son. The reason was none other than Mario's age: he was 16 years old and he had lied, pretending that he was 21.
He married Valentina Ivanova, a Muscovite, on October 27, 1934. He was 23 years old and they remained together until her death in 1966. Due to the inability of the couple to have children, in 1962 they adopted a child one year old, whom they called Mario Arturo Moreno Ivanova (1960-2017). The boy's biological mother, Marion Roberts, in failing health, committed suicide shortly thereafter, and there were unconfirmed rumors that continue to this day that the boy was actually the actor's biological son.
His comedic personality took him to the circus tents and from there he moved on to theater and movies. On popular stages he shared credits with the artistic partner of his early years, Manuel Medel Ruiz, with whom he also filmed three films between 1937 and 1939.
Moreno was president of the National Actors Association (ANDA) and was the first general secretary of the Film Production Workers Union (STPC). After retiring from it, Mario Moreno dedicated his life to helping others through charity and charitable organizations, especially those that help children.
Understage, Mario was a cultured and reserved man, who applied perfectionism in his work.
Beginnings in the show
Before beginning his professional life, he explored a number of possible careers such as chemistry, boxing, and even being a professional bullfighter before joining show business as a dancer. By 1930, he was already appearing in the tent circuit in Mexico City and took turns between the Ofelia, Sotelo de Azcapotzalco and finally the Valentina tents, where he met his future wife. At first he tried to imitate Al Jolson, painting his face black, but later he fashioned his own character of him after slum dwellers, with baggy pants, a noose for a belt and a very distinctive mustache. In the tents he danced, he performed acrobatics and various other trades.
Cantinflas
Cantinflas, the character, was born —according to an interview given by Mario Moreno himself in 1961 to Luis Suárez from the magazine Siempre!— in the city of Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, exactly in the heart of it; the well-known Parque Juárez, the main park of the city.
As a young man, he performed a variety of acts in mobile tents, and it was there that he received the nickname "Cantinflas"; however, the origin of the name is lost in legend. According to an obituary, it is a meaningless name, invented to prevent his parents from finding out that he worked in show business, which they considered a shameful occupation. This is the explanation given by Mario Moreno himself in his last television interview in 1992.
In another version, the Mexican essayist Carlos Monsiváis cites the legendary origin of the character's speech:
According to a legend he agrees with, the young Mario Moreno, intimidated by scenic panic, once in the Ophelia tent forgot his original monologue. He began to say the first thing that comes to mind in a complete emancipation of words and phrases and what comes out is a brilliant incoherence. The attendees attack him with the syntax and he realizes: fate has placed in his hands the distinctive characteristic, the style that is the manipulation of chaos. Weeks later, the name that will mark the invention is invented. Someone, upset by the meaningless phrases screams: "How much inflates" or "in the canteen inflates", the contraction is created and becomes the proof of the baptism that the character needs.Carlos Monsivás
But according to the actor's nephew, this theory is an invention of the people who made Mario Moreno laugh. In addition, he affirms that the name was the actor's own creation and that his true origin took it with him to the grave.
Film career
At the end of the 1930s, Cantinflas met Santiago Reachi Fayad, businessman and owner of POSA (acronym for: Publicidad Organizada S.A.). Reachi was one of the pioneers of advertising in Mexico, seeing Cantinflas perform in the Follies, hires him as an employee of the POSA company, to advertise drinks, electric batteries, cars.
Reachi creates POSA Films, S.A. So that Cantinflas could film films with a better budget than he had done to date, the success of the initial films was overwhelming and it was in 1943 that the commercial representative Jacques Gelman bought shares in the film production company Posa Films, S.A. created by the producer Santiago Reachi, where Cantinflas was the exclusive artist and Reachi managed to internationalize the figure of Cantinflas; Reachi produced, directed and distributed, while Cantinflas acted. This Reachi-Moreno-Gelmans partnership was very controversial because Reachi insisted on preserving Cantinflas's improvisations and "people's" character, while Gelmans wanted to dub Cantinflas's voice into several languages and avoid improvisations, Reachi leaves the partnership due to his disagreement about dubbing the voice into different languages and about the change in the essence of the character.
Cantinflas made his debut in 1936 in the film Don't fool yourself, my heart but the film received little attention. In 1939, Reachi founded Posa Films, producing short films that allowed him to develop the character of Cantinflas, but it was in 1940 that he finally became a star after shooting There's the Rubble. The line that gave the film its name became his main line for the rest of his career. The film was a success in Latin America, and was recognized by the magazine Somos, Somos (Mexico), as one of the ten largest productions in Mexico.
In 1941, he first played the role of a police officer in the film The Unknown Gendarme. By this time he had distinguished himself quite a bit from the typical 1920s "badhead" and his character transitioned comfortably from lower-class outcast to powerful public servant. The political nature of the rhetoric of cantinflismo facilitated this fluidity. He would reprise the role of "Agent 777" and would be honored by police forces throughout Latin America for his positive image of law enforcement.
Ni sangre ni arena, a satirical film about bullfighting in 1941, broke box office levels for Mexican films in several countries in the Americas. In 1942 she teamed up with Miguel M. Delgado and Jaime Salvador to produce a series of parodies, including one of Chaplin's Circus.
The 1940s and 1950s were the best for Cantinflas. In 1946 he stopped working with the Mexican companies and signed contracts with Columbia Pictures. By then, his popularity was such that he was able to lend his prestige to the cause of the Mexican workers, representing the National Association of Actors in talks with President Manuel Ávila Camacho. However, the talks did not give good results and as a result of a scandal, he decided to retract and return to the theater.
On August 30, 1953, Cantinflas began the presentation of his play Yo, Colón at the Teatro de los Insurgentes, the same theater that had been involved in a controversy over a mural of Diego Rivera that incorporated images of Cantinflas and the Virgin of Guadalupe. Critics, including certain conservative groups and Archbishop Luis María Martínez, called the work "blasphemy" and finally it was painted without the image of the Virgin.
I, Columbus cast Cantinflas in the character of Christopher Columbus who, as he continued to "discover America," made comic, historical, and contemporary observations from different perspectives. The jokes changed nightly and Moreno continued to use his puns and double entendres to attack politicians.
In 1956, Around the World in 80 Days, Cantinflas' American debut, won him a Golden Globe in the category of best actor in a musical or comedy; in this tape he acted together with the English actor David Niven. Variety magazine said in 1956 that his Chaplinesque quality contributed to the success of the film, which grossed $42 million at the box office. While Niven appeared as a leading actor in English-speaking countries, Cantinflas was in the rest of the countries. As a result of the film, Cantinflas became the highest paid actor in the world.
Cantinflas's second American film, Pepe, attempted to replicate the success of his first. The film included cameo appearances by Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Maurice Chevalier, Janet Leigh, Edward G. Robinson, Gary Cooper, Bobby Darin, César Romero, Debbie Reynolds and other stars. His humor, deeply rooted in the Spanish language, failed to translate well for American audiences, and the film was a notable box office disappointment. Despite that, he received another Golden Globe nomination for his performance.
In 1992, during an American interview, Mario Moreno confessed that the main impediment to his success in the United States was the language barrier. After returning to Mexico, Cantinflas created his own company, Cantinflas Films, and continued to make films until his last, which was El barrendero, made in 1981.
Like Charlie Chaplin, Cantinflas was a social satirist. He played the role of "el peladito", a nobody, hoping to succeed. With mutual admiration, Cantiflas was influenced by Chaplin's early films as well as his ideology. The Circus was a "shadow" of Chaplin's silent films. El Circo and Si yo fuera diputado had many things in common with the 1940 film, The Great Dictator.
Cantinflas' films continue to generate profits for Columbia Pictures to date. In 2000, Columbia reported an estimated $4 million generated from distribution revenues in other countries.
Impact
Among the things that endeared him to audiences was his comedic use of language in his films; His characters (almost all of whom were variations on the same character, but in different roles and situations) would engage in a normal conversation only to later complicate it to the point that no one understood what he was saying.
Cantinflas's character was particularly adept at obfuscating conversation when owing someone money, courting senoritas, or trying to get out of trouble with the authorities, managing to humiliate them without their realizing it.
This way of speaking was called cantinfleada and it became in Spanish a way of saying you're cantinfleando! whenever it was difficult for someone to understand the conversation. The Royal Spanish Academy included the verb cantinflear and the words cantinflas and cantinflada in its dictionary in 1992. Later it added the adjectives cantinflesco, cantinflero and acantinflado and the noun cantinfleo.
In the field of visual arts, artists such as Rufino Tamayo and Diego Rivera painted Cantinflas as a symbol of the Mexican man. American punk band Mindless Self Indulgence recorded a song about Cantinflas called Whipstickagostop.
Cantinflas's style and the content of his films led many students to conclude that he had influenced the many theaters that carried the message of the Chicano Movement during the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, of which the The most important was El Teatro Campesino. The theater movement was an important part of the cultural renaissance that was the social counterpart of the political movement for Mexican American civil rights. His use of social styles and themes is seen as a precursor to Chicano theater.
In the 1970s, a cartoon series called El Show de Cantinflas starring an animated cartoon appeared. The show was aimed at children and had an educational purpose. The animated character was called "Friend" and focused on a variety of topics to educate children ranging from the origin of soccer to the origin of the International Date Line.
Although Cantinflas never achieved the same success in the United States as he did in Mexico, he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He received two Golden Globe Award nominations in the Best Actor category and recognition of his lifetime achievements from the Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The Mario Moreno Cantinflas award is given annually to actors who represent the Hispanic community with the same humor and distinction as the legendary Cantinflas and who, like Cantinflas, use their power to help those most in need.
Cantinflas' films are distributed in the United States by Laguna Films.
Critical response
Cantinflas is sometimes seen as the character Groucho Marx, who with his language skills attacks the rich, the powerful, the police and even the government. The historian and author of Cantinflas and the Chaos of Mexican Modernity writes:
- "Cantinflas symbolizes the skinny that triumphs over the powerful using their tricks" and presents Cantinflas as the very image of the transition Mexico. "
Gregorio Luke, executive director of the Museum of Latin American Art said:
- understanding Cantinflas is understanding what has happened in Mexico throughout the last century.
For his part, Monsiváis interprets his performances in terms of the importance of the spoken word in the context of "reigning illiteracy" from Mexico (70% in 1930). Particularly in the movie The Illiterate,
- Cantinflas is the iletrado that takes control of language as it can.
Journalist Salvador Novo interprets the role of Moreno's characters entirely in terms of cantinflismo:
- To condense them: in giving to the healthy laughter of the people the demagogic essence of its vacuo confusionism, it is the merit and ensures the glory of this cazurro son of the Latin and Burlone city of Mexico, which is Cantinflas.
In his comic biography, Mexican culture student Jeffrey M. Pilcher sees Cantinflas as a metaphor for the "chaos of Mexican modernity," a reality that was out of reach for most Mexicans.
- His entangled language eloquently expressed the contradictions of modernity as "the palpitating moment of everything he wants to be and cannot." Likewise “social hierarchies”, the patterns of language, ethnic identities, and masculine forms of behavior, all fell before their chaotic mood to be reformulated in new revolutionary forms.
Death
He died after suffering a heart attack from lung cancer on April 20, 1993. Thousands of admirers gathered on a rainy day for his funeral, a national event that lasted three days. His ashes lie in the family crypt of the Moreno Reyes family, in the Spanish Pantheon in Mexico City.He was honored by many heads of state and by the United States Congress, which observed a minute of silence for him.
After his death, a legal battle began between his adopted son, Mario Moreno Ivanova, and the actor's nephew, Eduardo Moreno, over control of thirty-four films made by Cantinflas. The nephew claimed that his uncle gave him he had given written permission to take the rights to the films when he was on his deathbed. Moreno Ivanova argues that he is the direct heir of Cantinflas and therefore the rights belong to him. Eduardo Moreno won the lawsuit twice, but Moreno Ivanova finally prevailed, after two appeals.
At the same time, another lawsuit arose between Columbia Pictures and Mario Moreno Ivanova over control of those films. Columbia said it bought the rights to the films four decades ago, in a court that noted several errors in the documents. Moreno Ivanova wanted the rights to remain in his power and, more generally, in the power of Mexico, as a national treasure. On June 2, 2001, after eight years of fighting, Columbia was finally left with the rights to the 34 disputed films.
August 2011 marked the centenary of his birth and was celebrated with a series of events and festivities around the world, especially in the Hispanic world. The Government of the Federal District prepared an exhibition in Paseo de la Reforma in honor of the Centenary of his birth.
Filmography and characters
Cantinflas was characterized by having performed a multitude of trades throughout his films, generally of a humble character as a bolero, hairdresser or street sweeper, although also professions such as doctor, lawyer, postman, policeman and even a priest and teacher, all personified with his unmistakable witty, outgoing and eloquent personality.
Black and white movies
- Don't fool your heart (1936) — Canti
- That's my land! (1937) — The Badger
- Eagle or sun (face or cross) (1938) — Polito Sol
- The sign of death (1939) — Cantinflas
- Always ready in the darkness (1939) — Chencho Albondigón (advertising short film)
- Ginger against dynamite (1939) — Cold Bullet (advertising short film)
- Cantinflates in censuses (1940) — Cantinflas (advertising short film)
- The boxer (1940) — Cantinflas (advertising short film)
- Roulette cantinflates (1940) — Baldomero (advertising short film)
- Cantinflas and her cousin (Cantinflas' premium) (1940) — Cantinflas (cortometraje)
- There's the detail. (1940) — Cantinflas/"Leonardo del Paso"
- Cantinflas torero (1940) — participation as a bullfighter
- No blood or sand (1941) — El Chato/Manuel Márquez "Manolete"
- The unknown gendarme (1941) — Police 777
- Carnival in the tropic (Fiesta en Veracruz) (1942 reissued in 1946) — involuntary participation
- The three musketeers (1942) — Cantinflas/D'Artagnan
- The circus (1943) — Cantinflas, shoemaker
- Romeo and Juliet (1943) — Roulette/Abelardo del Monte-Romeo Montesco
- Gran Hotel (1944) — Cantinflas, hotelier
- One day with the devil (1945) — Soldier/Sargento Juan Pérez
- I'm a fugitive. (1946) — Cantinflas
- Fly young! (1947) — Cantinflas, Pilot
- The supersabio (1948) — Cantinflas, assistant scientist
- The magician (1949) — Cantinflas/Falso Mago Krishnar
- The doorman (1950) — Cantinflas, porter
- The seven males (1951) — Margarito/The Seven Machos
- The atomic firefighter (1952) — Cantinflas (777), firefighter and police
- If I was a deputy... (1952) — Cantinflas, hairdresser
- Mr. Photographer (1953) — Cantinflas, photographer
- Knight to measure (1954) — Cantinflas, tailor
- Down the curtain (1955) — Cantinflas, cleaners
- Love your neighbor (1958) — Luis
- Immediate delivery (1963) — Feliciano Calloso, mailman and secret agent XU 777
Colour films
- The bowler of Rachel (1957) — Cantinflas, bolero
- Round the world in eighty days (1956) — Paspartout, United States Production
- Up and down (1959) — Cantinflas, the elevator, shop employee, Felipe Del Hoyo and fake Jorge Maciel.
- Pepe (1960) — Pepe (spoke in English, co-production with the United States)
- The illiterate (1961) — Inocencio Prieto y Calvo
- The extra. (1962) — Rogaciano
- The father (1964) — Father Sebastian (Sebas, of affection), priest
- Mr. Doctor (1965) — Doctor Salvador Medina (Chava, dear), doctor
- Your Excellency (1967) — López (Lopitos, de amor), diplomat (chancellor and ambassador)
- For my guns (1968) — Fidencio Barrenillo, boticario
- The Great Sex War (1969) — General Marcos (spoke in English, co-production with the United States)
- A stainless Quixote (1969) — Right Leal and Aventado, Counselor
- The prophesy (1971) — Socrates García, professor
- Cantinflas Show (1969-1972) — Cantinflas (voz) (color animation series)
- Don Quixote rides again (1973) — Sancho Panza (coproduction with Spain)
- Concierge in condominium (1973) — Úrsulo, concierge
- The minister and I (1975) — Mateo Melgarejo (Mateíto, de amor), bureaucrat and philtelist
- Patrolman 777 (1978) — Sergeant Diogenes Bravo (777), police
- The sweeper (1981) — Napoleón Pérez García (Don Napo, de amor), barrendero (last film)
- Cantinflas and their friends (1982) — Cantinflas (voz) (color animation series)
Awards and nominations
| Year | Prize | Category | Movie | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | Golden Globe | Golden Globe to the best actor - Comedy or musical | Round the world in eighty days |  Winner |
| 1960 | Pepe |  Nominee | ||
| Golden Laurel Awards | Nominee |
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