(Prods. Bueno, 1965); Prod: José Luis Bueno; Director: Julio Bracho; Screenplay: Adolfo Torres Portillo, Julio Bracho; Photography: Rosalí Solano; Music: Manuel Esperón; Film Ed: Jorge Bustos; Art Dir: Jorge Fernández; Camera Operator: Urbano Vázquez; Makeup: Sara Mateos
Cast for "El Mago" story: Elizabeth Campbell (Kiria), Germán Robles (Ali Al Raschid), Rogelio Guerra (Kiria's lover), Víctor Alcocer (emcee), Lola Casanova (singer)
Cast in other episodes includes: Martha Hyer, Tamara Garina, Gmo. Murray,
Carlos Riquelme, Agustín Isunza ("El nido de amor"); Mauricio Garcés,
Rosa Ma. Vázquez, Nadia Haro Oliva, Elda Peralta ("El Bombón")
NOTES: this followup to Guadalajara en verano dispenses with
the previous film's intertwined plot threads: the format instead is
three separate "comedias de amor." The only connection between the three
episodes is their setting, the luxurious resort area of Cuernavaca in
the state of Morelos.
Elizabeth Campbell is top-billed in the second, rather short episode entitled "El Mago." She plays Kiria, the beautiful wife of jealous stage magician Ali (Germán Robles). Ali won't let Kiria out of his sight, so she is reduced to conducting her love affairs while he is on stage doing his act (he's chained up and put into a locked trunk). In his eagerness to catch Kiria cheating on him, Ali makes his exit faster and faster.
During a brief lapse in Ali's attention, Kiria meets her current lover in the gardens outside their hotel. When Ali appears, Kiria introduces the young man as her "cousin," and says he is a magic fan who wants to learn from Ali. This explanation backfires, since Ali hires the man as one of his assistants, thus requiring him to be on stage during the act!
However, Kiria is not to be denied. The last thing Ali sees (before
he is blindfolded for his act) is another handsome young man leaving
his seat in the audience and heading backstage for a tryst with Kiria!
Ali hires him, but the next night Kiria has a new object of her
affections.
"El Mago" is a brief, one-joke story and is further truncated by the inclusion of a long version of "Sombras," sung by Lola Casanova. Robles is adequate as the jealous cuckold, and Elizabeth Campbell is attractive (she is first seen wearing a bikini, and spends much of the rest of the film wearing a variety of silk robes which are constantly slipping off her shoulders), but the plot is thin and has no real resolution. Once again, it sounds like Campbell is speaking her own dialogue, or else the dubbing is particularly well-done.
Posted 30 June 99 (photo added 24 Nov 99) by dwilt@umd.edu