Everything you have read about "Llámenme Mike" is true. A satirical comedy, it stars Alejandro Parodi as Miguelito, a gray Mexican policeman. He is the dumbest of a quartet of officers who take advantage of the drug traffic in Mexico City, maybe the less corrupt of the four and surely the one with the kindest heart, who accepts to go to jail to protect his pals and calm down the angry Chief of Police, who wants to put an end to the drug dealings and killings in the city (a situation that Luis Estrada could have dreamed of before making "El inferno").
Mike is also addicted to Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer novels: when he is badly beaten by all the inmates that he had sent precisely to prison, a surgeon performs a "bionic" operation and when he opens his eyes he is no longer Miguelito but Mike (Hammer). From then on he speaks in English every now and then, and he is determined to free Mexico from a Communist conspiracy. He mixes names, mistakes joints for clandestine meeting places, and believes the drug king is "Mr. Red" himself. Although it was made in the late 1970s and in spite of the disappearance of Socialist Europe, the movie still functions as a satire of our paranoid times.
Made with a very low budget, and without any pretensions, it has become a cult favorite in spite of all the problems it confronted. When the head of Mexican film industry, Margarita López Portillo, saw it she said it was the most terrible movie she had ever seen, although she was the mind behind the superlatively awful John Reed biography "Red Bells", directed by Sergei Bondarchuk. But she was the chief and sent "Llámenme Mike" to the vaults for a couple of years. Then, to avoid any accusation of anti-democratic practices, the film was finally released... in Easter weekend and with very little promotion. "Llámenme Mike" would win several Ariel awards (for best actor, story and screenplay), and doña Marga became the sister-in-law of the voluptuous leading lady of the film, Sasha Montenegro (widow of José López Portillo, ex-president of Mexico and Margarita's brother), a specialist in sexy comedies who for a change kept her clothes on in this one.
Along with Parodi and Montenegro, Víctor Alcocer, Carlos Cardán and the magician Trébole gave funny performances as Miguelito's partners; and "El Chicote", one of the comics from the golden days of Mexican cinema, made one of his last screen appearances. Do enjoy this comedy, if it ever comes your way.
