Nosotros los pobres

For the telenovela, see Nosotros los pobres (telenovela).
Nosotros los pobres

Film poster
Directed by Ismael Rodríguez
Produced by Ismael Rodríguez
Written by Carlos González Dueñas, Ismael Rodríguez, Pedro de Urdimalas
Starring Pedro Infante, Evita Muñoz "Chachita"
Music by Manuel Esperón
Cinematography José Ortiz Ramos
Edited by Fernando Martínez
Release dates
 25 March 1948
Running time
 128 minutes
Country Mexico
Language Spanish

Nosotros los pobres ("We, the Poor") is a 1948 Mexican drama film directed by Ismael Rodríguez. It was originally titled Topillos y Planillas (named after two of the characters in the film and before the main character Jose "Pepe el Toro" was created), but later changed after its author Pedro de Urdimalas heard Abel Cureño (who's also in the film and at that time was playing a street orange seller in the radio show La Banda de Huipanguillo) commenting (in character) about the unfair treatment of the poor people in the city exclaimed: "Nosotros los pobres somos despreciados por la gente; Nosotros los pobres no tenemos nada" ("We the poor are outcast by society; We the poor own nothing".) "Although it won no prizes, it remained for many years Mexico's all-time leader in box-office receipts and is often shown on television". [1]

Plot

Two kids take a book from a trash can. They begin to read the story of a poor neighborhood in Mexico City. Carpenter Pepe "El Toro" (Pedro Infante) lives with his adopted daughter "Chachita" (Evita Muñoz) and woos pretty Celia, known as "La Chorreada" (Blanca Estela Pavón). Around them, a group of people live their lives in many different ways: a pair of always-drunk women are known as "La Tostada" (Toasted) and "La Guayaba" (Guava); a beautiful woman (Katy Jurado) who's a sleepy-head La que se levanta tarde (The one who wakes up late); and a mysterious hooker nick named: La Tisica ("TB ridden one") with tuberculosis and a dark past.

After Pepe successfully finishes some jobs, he asks Chachita to save the money in a place only she's supposed to know, but unwillingly she lets Don Pilar, (La chorreada's stepfather) know the location. He then steals the money before the eyes of Pepe's wheelchair bound mother referred to as "La Paralitica" ( the paraplegic one). When Pepe learns of the missing money he becomes upset with Chachita. Later, their friends are sent to jail because they rob some food. Pepe begins to work for Doña Merenciana in order to earn some money to bail them out, but in the process he learns of a mysterious man called Ledo who robs and kills Merenciana. Pepe El Toro finds the body and is accused by Montes, a rich man infatuated with Celia, for killing Merenciana and sends him to jail.

Back at the neighborhood, Don Pilar begans to feel guilty over his actions, until he became crazy and brutally beats Pepe's mother. Meanwhile, La Tisica tries to get closer to Chachita, who in turn rejects her attentions and became very ill. When Pepe learns that his mother went to the hospital he breaks out of jail so he can be able to say farewell to her. At the same time La Tisica is also dying as the doctors are trying to help her, but a desperate Chachita begins push off and reject all of La Tisica 's attempts to endear to her until an angry Pepe tells Chachita that La Tisica is her biological mother. As both women break in tears La Tisica dies, at the same time of La Paralitica, Pepe cries over her body and turns himself in to the authorities.

Back in jail, Pepe encounters again with Ledo who tries to rob him a memento from his mother and both began to fight in a closed cell. Ledo gains the upper hand but when he tries to stab Pepe, he counterattacks and stabs Ledo in the eye making him to lose it. Pepe then gains the upper hand but instead of killing him he sends him off to the door and makes him confess that he killed Merenciana.

Finally Pepe reunites with La Chorreada and Chachita and forms a family. At this point the poor kids stop gazing the book and throw it back in the trash can.

This is the first installment of the first trilogy in Mexican cinema. It was followed by Ustedes los ricos "You, the wealthy (1948) and Pepe El Toro Pepe, the bull (1952). A fourth film, Ni pobres ni ricos, "Neither rich, nor poor" was never made due to the premature death of Pedro Infante.[2] (This latter title is shared with a 1953 Gloria Marín movie.)

Cast

Notes

  1. ↑ Mora, Carl J. (2005). Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society, 1896-2004. McFarland. p. 81. ISBN 978-0786469253.
  2. ↑ Source: Interview with Ismael Rodríguez in The Mexican Cinema: Interviews with Thirteen Directors, Beatriz Reyes Nevares, University of New Mexico Press, 1976.
  3. ↑ The character's name derives from the nickname of the child actress.
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