This movie could've been really good -- the premise was wonderful, and the cast was pretty darned good. Unfortunately, the characters were drawn as fairly one-dimensional -- the good characters (esp. The main character, Chu-chu Ramirez) were too goodie-goodie, and the bad characters (the Ameses in particular) were stereotypical in their vileness.
The movie concerns newly naturalized citizen Chu-Chu Ramirez (played very well by Ricardo Montalban). He is so proud to be a United States citizen, and carries around a letter written to him by the president of the U. S. which he reads quite often. Chu-Chu believes in the wonderful system of his new country: hard work, fairness, lawfulness, and justice. Some of the lines he spouts are pretty corny, though R. M. does as good as anyone could to make them sound earnest and sincere: pointing to a stack of books he just purchased, he tells his Mexican friends, "Encyclopedia: second-hand set, information as good as new." and tells one of his friends who is unwilling to pick asparagus because the pay is too low, "A poor job is better than no job."
Chu-chu goes off to find work. He comes to some land owned by a Mr. Ames and gets hired on for a month to clear a plot of land, at the end of which time he is to be paid $90. Mr. Ames and his wife are both about as stereotypically bigoted as you can get. To further the cliché, Mrs. Ames (the always great Claire Trevor) is sexually frustrated and is attracted to the handsome and very buff and shirtless Chu-Chu Ramirez. When she comes on to him, he refuses her advances (with yet another corny line which I failed to write down so I can't quote it here) -- from then on, Mrs. Ames is a woman scorned and is out for revenge.
In the meantime, Chu-chu meets alcoholic Nancy in a bar in town (played by Shelly Winters, whose character is the least one-dimensional of the bunch). For some reason that was never clear to me, Chu-chu is instantly smitten with her (even though we never see her when she's not drunk and full of self-pity), and goes out of his way to help her -- pays her bar tab, puts up his beloved letter from the President as collateral so he can borrow $20 from his cousin to give to Nancy whom he's just met that evening, etc.
After Chu-chu's work is done at the end of the month, he collects a check for $90 from Mr. Ames, which is pure rubber. Chu-chu makes several attempts to collect the money, including suing Mr. Ames in small claims court (and Chu-chu wins), but Ames still refuses to pay. Later on, a fight ensues between Mr. And Mrs. Ames (Mr. Ames knows the Mrs. Is hot to trot for Chu-chu) and good old wife-beater Ames slaps the Mrs. Around and ends up getting shot in the shoulder from his own gun. The two Ameses agree to tell the authorities that Chu-chu shot him -- this is Mr. Ames' revenge on Chu-chu for daring to stand up to him and try to collect his wages, and Mrs. Ames' revenge on Chu-chu for him having turned down her sexual advances.
Chu-chu is tried and convicted, but remains the eternal optimist (please!). He briefly escapes captivity to find Nancy and tell her he loves her and to make her promise she won't try to kill herself again (she attempted suicide while he was in jail). He is taken back to jail, and the sheriff (who has taken quite a liking to big-hearted Chu-chu) drops some hints to Chu-chu's friends as to how they might get the Ameses to confess to their lies about Mr. Ames' injury. The friends camp outside the Ameses' land, staring at them day and night, singing songs at night, in an attempt to psych them out and break them down. Nancy comes to the Ameses' door and tells them about what a wonderful man Chu-chu is and how his love saved her life. Mr. And Mrs. Ames look at each other and wonder how they got to be so mean and bad as they are, and decide to tell the police that they lied about Chu-chu. (Unbelievable plot development!)
Chu-chu is released from prison, still the eternal optimist, not jaded in the least by the injustices done to him. Yeah, right! As I said, there was tons of potential here -- a story of a hard-working immigrant and the struggles he faces in his new home country -- but Chu-chu was played as too cloyingly good, and his adversaries were missing only the handlebar mustaches that they'd twirl with their fingers. That being said, though, I felt all the actors did really well with their mediocre material; they definitely made the best of the bad script.
The movie concerns newly naturalized citizen Chu-Chu Ramirez (played very well by Ricardo Montalban). He is so proud to be a United States citizen, and carries around a letter written to him by the president of the U. S. which he reads quite often. Chu-Chu believes in the wonderful system of his new country: hard work, fairness, lawfulness, and justice. Some of the lines he spouts are pretty corny, though R. M. does as good as anyone could to make them sound earnest and sincere: pointing to a stack of books he just purchased, he tells his Mexican friends, "Encyclopedia: second-hand set, information as good as new." and tells one of his friends who is unwilling to pick asparagus because the pay is too low, "A poor job is better than no job."
Chu-chu goes off to find work. He comes to some land owned by a Mr. Ames and gets hired on for a month to clear a plot of land, at the end of which time he is to be paid $90. Mr. Ames and his wife are both about as stereotypically bigoted as you can get. To further the cliché, Mrs. Ames (the always great Claire Trevor) is sexually frustrated and is attracted to the handsome and very buff and shirtless Chu-Chu Ramirez. When she comes on to him, he refuses her advances (with yet another corny line which I failed to write down so I can't quote it here) -- from then on, Mrs. Ames is a woman scorned and is out for revenge.
In the meantime, Chu-chu meets alcoholic Nancy in a bar in town (played by Shelly Winters, whose character is the least one-dimensional of the bunch). For some reason that was never clear to me, Chu-chu is instantly smitten with her (even though we never see her when she's not drunk and full of self-pity), and goes out of his way to help her -- pays her bar tab, puts up his beloved letter from the President as collateral so he can borrow $20 from his cousin to give to Nancy whom he's just met that evening, etc.
After Chu-chu's work is done at the end of the month, he collects a check for $90 from Mr. Ames, which is pure rubber. Chu-chu makes several attempts to collect the money, including suing Mr. Ames in small claims court (and Chu-chu wins), but Ames still refuses to pay. Later on, a fight ensues between Mr. And Mrs. Ames (Mr. Ames knows the Mrs. Is hot to trot for Chu-chu) and good old wife-beater Ames slaps the Mrs. Around and ends up getting shot in the shoulder from his own gun. The two Ameses agree to tell the authorities that Chu-chu shot him -- this is Mr. Ames' revenge on Chu-chu for daring to stand up to him and try to collect his wages, and Mrs. Ames' revenge on Chu-chu for him having turned down her sexual advances.
Chu-chu is tried and convicted, but remains the eternal optimist (please!). He briefly escapes captivity to find Nancy and tell her he loves her and to make her promise she won't try to kill herself again (she attempted suicide while he was in jail). He is taken back to jail, and the sheriff (who has taken quite a liking to big-hearted Chu-chu) drops some hints to Chu-chu's friends as to how they might get the Ameses to confess to their lies about Mr. Ames' injury. The friends camp outside the Ameses' land, staring at them day and night, singing songs at night, in an attempt to psych them out and break them down. Nancy comes to the Ameses' door and tells them about what a wonderful man Chu-chu is and how his love saved her life. Mr. And Mrs. Ames look at each other and wonder how they got to be so mean and bad as they are, and decide to tell the police that they lied about Chu-chu. (Unbelievable plot development!)
Chu-chu is released from prison, still the eternal optimist, not jaded in the least by the injustices done to him. Yeah, right! As I said, there was tons of potential here -- a story of a hard-working immigrant and the struggles he faces in his new home country -- but Chu-chu was played as too cloyingly good, and his adversaries were missing only the handlebar mustaches that they'd twirl with their fingers. That being said, though, I felt all the actors did really well with their mediocre material; they definitely made the best of the bad script.