Cantiflas was a huge star in Mexico who had a choice support part in Around the World in 80 Days so George Sidney and Columbia gave him his own vehicle and they filled it full of stars.
Cantiflas is in Mexico with his beloved horse. The horse is sold to filmmaker Dan Dailey while Edward G. Robinson and Greer Garson as themselves look on. Ernie Kovacs is an immigration official. William Demarest is a studio guard. Zsa Zsa Gabor enters the studio. So does Bing Crosby who sings 'South of the Border' with the star.
He befriends Shirley Jones. Jay North as Dennis the Menace attacks him. There's Charles Coburn getting struck in the head with a slingshot pulled by Billie Burke. Jack Lemmon appears in his Some Like It Hot drag outfit. Cantiflas goes to a nightclug and sees Bobby Darin sing and Michael Callan dance - its' a good number, Callan, some other guy and Shirley Jones, ending with the two guys having a West Side Story knife fight.
Then there's this agonisingly dull subplot begins about Jones wanting to be a movie star but also being bitter and not wanting Dailey to shag her, and Dailey being a drunk over the hill producer trying to get up a film involving Pepe's horse or something. It's all simple yet confusing which is an achievement.
Cantiflas follows Dailey to Las Vegas, where he meets the Rat Pack (Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford and Richard Conte in one scene, then Sammy Davis Jnr, then Sinatra). The whole movie set in Vegas would've been a better idea. Cesar Romero is at a slot machine looking like he's trying to pick up. He banters with Jimmy Durante.
There's a way out number where Dailey hallucinates a dance number with a tiny Cantiflas and Debbie Reynolds clambering around giant pencils and a telephone and another prop to the music 'Tequila'. Then the film starts and Dailey, Jones and Cantiflas go see Maurice Chevalier in concert. There's a comic bit where Cantiflas visits Janet Leigh at home she thinks she's someone else, husband Tony Curtis becomes involved.
Then Cantiflas is in love with Jones but she falls for Dailey. She's almost twenty years younger than Dailey and looks it. There's a weird scene where Robinson declares Dailey's love for Jones while Dailey looks on. So we don't get a confrontation between the three.
There's a lot, as in a lot, of jokes about Cantiflas calling the horse his "son". A lot of scenes of Cantiflas being lucky - he wins at the casino, Novak pays for his engagement ring.
The film is fascinating for its oddness - an all star vaudeville act style film built around a Mexican star. Why not put some effort into the story?
An odd duck. Has a fascination.
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