This film was an attempt to remake a classic of Portuguese cinema, from the Forties. It came at a time when it was fashionable, in Portugal, to remake old films.
Since comparisons are inevitable, this film loses in all of them. Not only was he not able to have a joke, but he destroyed the story told by the original film, where the lives of several residents of a Lisbon neighborhood intertwine and relate. Here, the script is simply a cross between romances and flirtations, more suited to a cheap soap opera. Under the cover of a remake, Leonel Vieira ended up making a new film, taking advantage of the original film elements such as the location, the names of the characters and some iconic scenes, caricaturally imitated. For example, the famous scene where Vasco, drunk, talks to the street lamp, or the other where he provokes the anger of Evaristo, who shoots him with a lot of articles from his shop. Those scenes, poured into this film, lost the fun and look ridiculous.
Another problem in this film was the affected and artificial performance of almost the entire cast. The actresses seem to have been chosen based on the size of their bra and the actors were recruited in the cheapest comedies and soap operas on national TV. Some characters, the ones that should be the most comical, like Evaristo or Narciso, were reduced to mere caricatures of themselves. This was truly a mistake, as they were the most beloved characters for the public. In the original, they were played by Vasco Santana and António Silva, two of the most talented comedians in national cinema, at a time when making comedy in Portuguese cinema was not the same thing as making a clown figure. I don't even mention the unfortunate sex scene involving the actress Bruna Quintas, at a certain point in the film. In addition to being totally out of context in a family movie, it attests to the ability of the Portuguese to involve sex where it was needless just to sell something.
Unfortunately, this film was a success. I still don't understand, however, the need for this "remake". The original film has aged very well, has a large legion of admirers and is regularly shown on TV, which is saying something for a 70-year-old film. This is an absurd, unnecessary film and its objective was only to obtain money from the public.
