UN DIA CON EL DIABLO (1945)
(a.k.a. A DAY WITH THE DEVIL)
Article #817 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-10-2003
Posting Date: 11-7-2003
Directed by Miguel M. Delgado
Featuring Cantinflas, Susana Cora, Andres Soler

A newspaperboy is mistakenly taken into the army. He dies on a special mission, and visits the afterlife.

Title check: Actually, he only spends about ten minutes with the personage in question, but time is relative, isn’t it?

Arrggh! For two days in a row I find myself trying to puzzle my way through another movie entirely in a foreign language; in this case, Spanish. Fortunately, this one relies much more on visuals that LE NOTTI DELLA VIOLENZA, so I wasn’t quite as lost; the basic plot framework is easy enough to follow, the first five minutes is purely visual, and being a comedy, it also features some sight gags that translate well enough. Nonetheless, a lot of the humor appears to be verbal. Cantinflas definitely shows comic timing, and he talks a mile a minute, but I really wish I knew what he was saying. As it is, I suspect it’s a fairly decent film and someday I’ll watch it with a someone who can speak Spanish and get more out of it. Another one to file under “Further Research Necessary”.