Good concept, poorly executed.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The major recommendation on this movie is the fact that Kim Novak to me was never more beautiful than the Star was in this movie. Gorgeous. When the camera is on Kim the movie stops and one is dazzled. Kim Novak and Columbia Pictures had a magical combination: Columbia groomed Kim Novak and Kim Novak became the Number 1 female star in Hollywood with his films such as Picnic, Pal Joey, Bell Book and Candle, especially the heartbreaking Strangers When We Meet and on loan to RKO for The Man With The Golden Arm, and to Paramount for Novak's most famous film Vertigo. Joe McDonald photographs the great star well, but then Kim Novak and the Camera had a love affair. George Sidney who worked with Kim before in Pal Joey was a long time Kim Novak admirer and while many list Alfred Hitchcock and Billy Wilder as principal Kim Novak directors, Kim herself might also add George Sidney as well to the list -----as Delbert Mann, Josh Logan, and her former lover Richard Quine.Pepe was a concoction developed by Columbia to basically plume the Latin American market and Mexico in particular with an All star fun filled film starring Cantinflas with cameos by the great stars such as beautiful Greer Garson, and Columbia stars such as Jack Lemmon and Kim Novak and up and coming Columbia contract stars such as Michael Callan and Vicki Trickett. One complaint is the minimal use of Judy Garland who was magic in front of the camera and of course sang like no one ever before or since.

Lavish sets, thousands of extras, and cameos by virtually every big star in 1960 Hollywood can't save this disaster, done in by its stupid story, witless script, and endless running time -- originally 3 hours and 15 minutes! What were they thinking?!! I turned on TCM and discovered Shirley Jones, of all people, playing a sexy, bitter, beatnik hoofer. Huh??? I was hooked. I had to watch it to the bitter end.They made several super-duper "cavalcade of stars" films like this around the same time: IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD, AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, and so on. None of them were great, but this may be the worst of the pack.Jones looks radiant and Cantinflas's charm and talent are obvious, but both are done in by the stupidity of their roles and of the story. Jones, one of the finest singers in movies, cast as a DANCER who hardly gets to sing? Dailey, a great dancer, cast in a downbeat dramatic role where he barely gets to dance? Casting doesn't get much more perverse.Don't miss the WEST SIDE STORY rip-off, a lengthy Apache-dance sequence featuring a comely, half-naked Jones trying to make like Cyd Charisse without being given a single note to sing ... all of this with loud faux-Bernstein music on the soundtrack.Even weirder is Judy Garland's "appearance" -- actually she doesn't appear, but the characters hear her voice singing a song, supposedly on the radio. As Alice would say, PEPE just gets "curiouser and curiouser ..." This must have been one of the overblown, elephantine messes that helped kill the Movie Musical in the 1960s.

It was Easter Sunday 1960 that I saw this movie with my parents. What a treat! My grandmother use to take me to see his hilarious movies here in S. Texas. He was the "Charlie Chaplin" of Mexico, comedic, as well as a dramatic actor loved by everyone. It may not have been the commercial success as Around The World In Eighty Days, but entertaining none the less. He may have been given the stereo typical poor hapless Mexican, yet I guess he had the last laugh! When was the last time a movie was centered around a poor Mexican with the most noted stars of the era? I counted at least 37! I still remember the cheery song "Pepe". When I hear "Tequila" today I still think of the dance he did with Debbie Reynolds and that big bottle they popped out of. I wish they'd release it on DVD, I'd be the first in line to buy it!!!

This movie might be pointless, meaningless fluff but it was entertaining enough to warrant a DVD release. I remember seeing a much shortened version on late night TV a long, long time ago and laughed myself silly, especially at the scene w/ Jack Lemmon in drag trying to make it to a dental appointment in between takes of a "Some Like It Hot" kind of movie, while Cantinflas, mistaken for a carhop, wreaks havoc in the parking lot w/ Lemmon's girlfriend's Jaguar. "There goes my girl's car!", he exclaims and then as the car crashes, "There goes my girl!". By the way, I don't think the preceding was a spoiler. It's fun to enjoy mindless entertainment from time to time, too bad it had to be at the expense of the talented Mario Moreno/Cantinflas who was presented as a racial stereotype. If you can get past that, there is a whole parade of stars who were THE stars during that period which, I'm sure, we all look back to w/ nostalgia. If only for nostalgia's sake, I vote for a DVD release of this movie.