When he receives a "Dear Juan" letter from his flashy "bottle blond" girlfriend Carlota (Chula Prieto), he decides to settle down with a peasant girl, Lupe (Lilia Prado), who for years has been carrying a torch for him.
With Lupe and the womenfolk in tow, Juan and his army enter a town that has been decimated by war. There, he encounters Carlota, who has married a wealthy landowner (Jorge Mondragón) but still harbors a desire for the macho general. While Juan struggles to maintain the loyalty of his troops and gain the trust of the villagers, Lupe (who is now pregnant) becomes convinced that Juan is still in love with Carlota. Juan manages to convince her otherwise by staging a mass serenade with 100+ sombreroed guitarists harmonizing beneath her balcony.
On the day they are to be married, Lupe finds Juan in Carlota's arms and the beleaguered general is once again in romantic turmoil. His situation worsens when Carlota's husband returns and -- to keep him from discovering the general hiding in the bedroom -- Carlota shoots him with Juan's gun. Juan accepts the blame, which further weakens his influence with the villagers and his men.
Lupe has a baby girl. Though Juan's best friend Domingo Vargas (Miguel Manzano) volunteers to care for the mother and child, Juan returns and demonstrates his own brand of paternal affection: firing a pistol in the air to help the baby grow accustomed to gunfire. The scorned Carlota makes another attempt to separate Juan and Lupe. Fortunately, her comically gay manservant Marco Polo (Alberto Catalá) warns Domingo of the deception she is perpetrating.
A well-armed army approaches the town, and Juan must rally his under-equipped troops to resist them. With his baby girl tucked under his arm, he marshals his forces and mounts a desperate last stand against the invaders. And the burning question is not whether the army will crush the rebels, but whether Juan and Lupe will reconcile before the siege commences.
During his rise to prominence, director Rodríguez gained invaluable experience in filmmaking by working at a wide variety of jobs in the industry. "I have been a projectionist, editor, laboratory technician, sound technician, cameraman, screenwriter, distributor, and even exhibitor," he said, "In reality the only thing I don't know how to do in moviemaking is to manufacture the raw film, or the celluloid on which the photographs are recorded. Everything else I know, and one of these days I'll take off for Guadalajara to learn that celluloid business." (quoted in Beatriz Reyes Nevares's The Mexican Cinema: Interviews with Thirteen Directors)
Shepherding Rodríguez through these occupations were his older brothers, Roberto and Joselito, who worked as sound technicians in Hollywood at the dawn of the talkies. In 1931, they moved their operation to Mexico and, nine years later, opened their own production company: Rodríguez Hermanos (Rodríguez Brothers). By this time, Ismael Rodríguez's apprenticeship was complete, and he was ready to apply his hand to directing, first with Qué lindo es Michoacán! (1943).
In his book Mexican Cinema, Paulo Antonio Paranagua commented upon Rodríguez's penchant for excess. "His sets were always exaggerated, his actors overly dramatic, his characters victims of the greatest misfortunes." Paranagua wrote, "His melodrama shamelessly strove to manipulate the most elemental levels of emotion in the spectators."
Nevertheless, Rodríguez believed there was a deeper meaning to his work, and that he, "tried to reveal the problems that affect Mexicans, our way of thinking, and the character that distinguishes us" (Nevares).
Rodríguez and Infante worked together frequently, but their collaboration peaked with a group of features known as La Trilogia de Pepe El Toro: Nosotros, los Pobres (1948), Ustedes, los Ricos (1948), and Pepe el Toro (1953). According to Paranagua, "The unexpected but delirious box-office success of these films...redirected Mexican cinema towards a primarily commercial practice dedicated to satisfying the demands of the great urban masses for whom the cinema had become the primary form of entertainment."
Of the actor, Rodríguez told Nevares, "He was one of the most versatile actors I have known. In the middle of shooting, after joking around, laughing his head off and punching people, we would start shooting and right away he would cry if that's what the script called for. He mastered like no one else not only vocal expression but that of the gesture and the hands. He was a consummate artist in creating character."
"He was very intuitive," Rodríguez remembered, "If you gave him a book to read, he'd get bored after a few pages. He preferred to have things explained to him, and he picked them up very quickly."
Infante enjoyed considerable success both as an actor and a recording star. He died in a plane crash in Yucatan, on April 15, 1957, while piloting a converted B-52 bomber to Mexico City. Three months later, the Berlin Film Festival awarded Infante the Silver Bear for Best Actor, for his performance in Rodríguez's Tizoc (1957).
Director: Ismael Rodriguez
Producer: Roberto and Joselito Rodriguez
Screenplay: Ismael Rodriguez and Jesus Camacho V. Urdimalas
Based on the story "La Soldadera" by Joselito Rodriguez and Celestino Gorostiza
Cinematography: Jose Ortiz Ramos
Production Design: Jose Rodriguez Granada
Music: Raul Lavista
Cast: Pedro Infante (General Juan Zepeda), Lilia Prado (Lupe), Chula Prieto (Carlota), Miguel Manzano (Colonel Domingo Vargas), Arturo Soto Rangel (Don Felipe), Miguel Inclán (Blas), Lupe Inclán (Tacha), Alberto Catalá (Marco Polo), Jorge Mondragón (Fermin Mendoza). BW-112m.
by Bret Wood
