04 · 12 · 12

Julio Alemán, the lure of his charm

Roberto Fiesco

Julio Alemán did not live through the ‘golden age’ of Mexican cinema, that period which made Mexico the center stage of film production in Latin America. Instead, when he emerged in cinema towards the end of the 1950s, he faced a deteriorating industry, with crumbling infrastructures, and a production output which succumbed to the clichés of genre cinema (westerns, comedies, adventures, melodramas, etc.) However, it was this industry that ended up giving Alemán the best opportunities of his career.

His childhood in Morelia would prove influential for this young man; his mother fed him and his brothers “guided by the bells of the Cathedral,” and his father encouraged him to embrace artistic activities from an early age. As a youngster, Alemán would sneak into theater rehearsals, and eventually got his break as an actor in the play Corazón arrebatado (1954) directed by Xavier Rojas. It didn’t take long for him to venture into cinema: his natural talent and good looks landed him roles next to Pedro Armendáriz, Libertad Lamarque, Arturo de Córdova, and he also starred in the cheap cowboy and horror serials of the Estudios América.

I never had to knock on a producer’s door to ask for a job”, the actor recalls. However, he did have to endure a long process of auditions to convince Ismael Rodríguez and Ricardo Garibay, director and screenwriter, that he could play the mad and vengeful Martín de Hierro in Los hermanos de Hierro (1961), a well-achieved western and perhaps one of the best films in the history of Mexican cinema. During the 1960s, Alemán starred in a number of films, sometimes shooting up to eight films per year, and established himself as a young promising actor: capable of shaking the cynicism of María Félix in Amor y sexo (Luis Alcoriza, 1963) or of voluptuous sex symbols like Isabel Sarli in La diosa impura (Armando Bo, 1963) or Libertad Leblanc in La perra (Emilio Gómez Muriel, 1966). And let’s not forget his roles as a romantic hero, such as his unforgettable performance as Albertico Limonta, the good working son and defender of his black step-mother in El derecho de nacer (Tito Davison, 1966) and the tough Juan del Diablo in Corazón salvaje (Tito Davison, 1967), without doubt the two most sublime melodramas in the Latin American imaginary. Due to his constant presence on screens and sets throughout America, Julio Alemán was incredibly popular in Latin America. Among his most famous roles is the unforgettable secret agent Alex Dínamo, from S.O.S. Conspiración Bikini and Peligro! Mujeres en acción (René Cardona, 1966-1967), the local version of James Bond. Alemán imprinted his characteristic charm into every one of his characters; at a time when Mexican cinema was expanding its markets, his widespread appeal only confirmed the growing popularity of the national cinema outside the country’s borders.

Before the end of the 60s, Alemán topped his brilliant career with yet another performance in a western—this time, much more influenced by the European trends that dominated the genre. In El Tunco Maclovio (Alberto Mariscal, 1969), Alemán shed the pretty boy role in which he had been typecast. Though absent during the stagnation of the film industry in the 1970s, he did manage to support the feature film debuts of a generation of filmmakers, among them Juan Guerrero (Mariana, 1967), Manuel Michel (Patsy, mi amor, 1968) and Juan Manuel Torres (Diamantes, oro y amor, 1971).

Today, unfortunately retired from the cinema, though not from acting, Julio Alemán has continued to build a long career thanks to his versatility and his always memorable presence in a wide range of genres. Embracing the whims of a carnivorous industry, he has continued to lend his noble and infinitely malleable face to his characters, and, in the eyes of his Latin American audiences, he remains the quintessential avenger, the ladies man, the cape and costume superhero, and even the most fragile of men, redeemed only by the love of a beautiful actress.

The 6th Morelia International Film Festival pays tribute to Julio Alemán with the screening of a few of his most representative films, and with the publication of a commemorative book which attests to the stellar career of this actor from Michoacán.