El gendarme desconocido

The Mexican film El Gendarme Desconocido was shown in the U. S. with the translated title The Unknown Gendarme (1941). (Actually, in this context, the title should be The Undercover Policeman.) The movie was co-written and directed by Miguel M. Delgado.

Cantinflas stars as Agent 777, a ordinary guy who ends up on the police force. The plot is ridiculous, but you don't watch a Cantinflas movie for the plot. You watch it for Cantinflas.

Cantinflas is part Charlie Chaplin, part Lucille Ball, and part Chico Marx. Everything he touches ends up in mayhem. Slapstick is the key to his humor, and it really works. You just sit back and watch Cantinflax stumble from failure to success and back again. He's a brilliant comedian, and it's a pleasure to watch him being funny.

We saw this movie on the small screen, where it worked well. The film has a pretty good IMDb rating of 7.3. I thought it was better than that, and rated it 8.