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The Restored Version of Ahí está el detalle at the 19th FICM

Gustavo R. Gallardo

The restored version of the Mexican film Ahí está el detalle (1940), directed by Juan Bustillo Oro, was presented by the curator Héctor Orozco as part of a program by the Mexican director within the 19th edition of the Morelia International Film Festival ( FICM).

This is the film that marked the beginning of a successful career on the big screen for Mario Moreno "Cantinflas", known as "the mime of Mexico", with titles such as Si yo fuera diputado (1952), El bombero atómico (1952), El bolero de Raquel (1957) and El patrullero 777 (1978).

"To us, Juan Bustillo Oro seemed to have been an undervalued director, under-investigated, a very interesting character who grew up around the world of theater," said Héctor Orozco.

The film series for this year, as part of the tribute that FICM pays to the director together with Fundación Televisa. The search included movies revolving around the director's taste for police films, such as El ángel negro (1942) y El asesino X (1955), and although this is the exception, “it is very important because it launches Mario Moreno 'Cantinflas' to stardom."

"He was the master of theaters and marquees and they sold out whenever he appeared, but when he began to make his film debut, people didn't quite like him, and when they commissioned this film from Bustillo Oro, the producer Jesús Grovas told him he had already hired Cantinflas," the researcher recalls.

To write the film, he said, the director had to use his education in law and the time he worked in the courts, trying to become a lawyer to help low-income clients. At the end, it "revolves around a trial against Cantinflas, where he shows a large part of his talents, both in improvisation and his discipline [as a performer], to be guided by a rhythm of comedy and, from there, he's launched to stardom."

In Ahí está el detalle, a box office success, Cantinflas goes into the home of a powerful businessman, where his girlfriend works as a housekeeper, to get rid of a rabid dog. The confusion between the dog and a mobster of the same name triggers a series of hilarious entanglements and misunderstandings.