The King of the Neighborhood
In collaboration with Quebecine and the Cineteca Nacional de México, we present this selection of ten films, including social melodramas, film noirs, and comedies, which are representative titles from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s and 1950s. Rare gems with finely crafted direction, showcased in beautifully restored versions.
Restored version
Tin Tan leads a double life: he is the leader of a gang of thieves, a specialist in disguises and much loved by the ladies, but he is also a humble railroad worker who is always busy helping others. His existence is complicated when the quirky Nena, one of his millionaire conquests, insists on marrying him. Considered a Mexican comedy masterpiece, The King of the Neighborhood is an amusing parody of Mexican melodrama. The film established Germán Valdés as a figure whose agility and extraordinary theatricality made him an icon of modern Mexican culture. (Cineteca nacional de México)
Gilberto Martínez Solares
Gilberto Martínez Solares was a Mexican director, screenwriter, cinematographer, producer, and actor who is considered one of the most prolific filmmakers in Mexican cinema having directed more than 160 films, most of them written by him during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. He is also recognized as the most important comedy director in Mexico. After several credits as a cinematographer and as a screenwriter, he began his career as a director in 1938 with the film El Señor Mayor, starring Domingo Soler. From then on, his films successfully journeyed the most diverse genres, but always showed a predilection for comedy, farce, absurdity, and caricature. Some of his well-known films are Tender Pumpkins (1949) and The King of the Neighborhood (1950) that popularized the comedian Germán Valdés (Tin Tan). In 1994, during the Ariel Awards, he received a special award recognition from the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences for his cinematographic and directorial career.
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