Pedro Infante and Ismael Rodriguez

A great film collaboration which I am starting to become familiar with by virtue of where I live is Mexican actor-singer Pedro Infante (1917-1957) and director Ismael Rodriguez (1917-2004). Infante, killed at age 39 in the crash of a small plane he was piloting, died young like seemingly most Mexican stars  - his fellow Gallos Mexicanos (Mexican Roosters) Jorge Negrete (1911-1953, hepatitis) and Javier Solis (1931-1966, complications of gallbladder surgery), his frequent co-star Blanca Estela Pavon (1926-1949, plane crash). Infante is often described as the most beloved person in Mexican history; the Sinaloa campus of the Tec de Monterrey, where I work, is located on Boulevard Pedro Infante. He made 62 films, 17 directed by Ismael Rodriguez, and 2 more directed by Ismael's brother Roberto. (The Rodriguez brothers, including a third, Joselito, ran their own production company.)

Pedro Infante was the prototypical working class hero, and handled that persona stylishly. His many movies are easily picked up on Mexican DVDs with English subtitles, and I am enjoying getting to know them. The Rodriguez brothers were gifted and commercially astute directors who worked at high speed, like Infante himself (who averaged four features per year from 1943 to 1957). I just watched A toda maquina (Full Throttle), an action comedy about two motorcycle cops that is like a superior Mexican version of C.H.I.P.s. It plays as what we would today call a bromance or buddy movie, and it fascinated me to learn that for an ordinary, straight, red-blooded Mexican male in the year 1951, the choosing of a best friend, assuming you didn't have one left over from childhood, was urgent, un-ironic business, as serious in its way as the choice of a fiancee, and described in some of the same language ("Could this be The One?"). Once you had such a friend, he would always have your back as you would always have his; it was a commitment. The bromantic courtship might involve competition on a number of fronts including the romantic, and plenty of banter, horseplay, and maybe some actual fighting, but that was all just in the nature of testing the bond. In A toda maquina, Infante and co-star Luis Aguilar have to undergo a near-death experience together (brought on by their own stupidity) to realize their true friendship. I'm now very interested to see the sequel (shot back-to-back), ¡¿Qué te ha dado esa mujer?! - the title* indicates that the romantic rivalry will continue, friendship or no friendship.

* Roughly, What Right Do You Have to This Woman?!