Camino De Guanajuato
Three wannabe singers, a woman and two men, form a trio that soon reaches fame. The group splits when a love triangle ruins their friendship.
Relevant facts.
The story is about Lola, Demetrio, and Juan José. They meet at a TV contest and decide to form a trio. An antique shop’s owner (José Pidal) lends them a pair of guitars they need. Success is almost immediate, and everything seems to be bright in their future. When Demetrio and Juan José fall in love with Lola, everything changes.
The rest of the cast included some very popular actors like María Gentil Arcos, as Juan José’s mother; José Pidal, Manolo Noriega, and Pancho Córdova.
Two opera pieces are included, since Demetrio González’s character was originally an opera singer that has to switch to vernacular music to meet success. It recalls the cases two famous leading men in Mexican cinema that had to do that in real life: Tito Guízar, and Jorge Negrete.
Camino de Guanajuato is a first rate musical comedy. Jaime Salvador directed it. His vast experience as a comedy screenplay writer and filmmaker shows in this film. Along his career, Salvador wrote the stories for 27 Cantinflas’s vehicles, as well as many others for other very popular comedians like Adalberto Martínez Resortes and the duo Viruta y Capulina.
Lola Beltrán, Demetrio González, and José Alfredo Jiménez led the cast. Lola was already famous as a vernacular singer. González was one of the best singers of his generation; he had operatic training like Tito Guízar and Jorge Negrete. José Alfredo Jiménez was one of the most successful Mexican composers of all times; he also performed as a singer.
These three artists also played several leading roles in Mexican cinema in the fifties and sixties, mainly in musical comedies. Camino de Guanajuato is remarkable for its playfulness, good performances, and superb musical numbers. There are more than fifteen of them along the movie, all of them cleverly embedded in the story. The musical dream sequences are splendid.
Most of the songs were big hits written by José Alfredo Jiménez that was at the peak of popularity. Manuel Esperón was the musical director. In that capacity, Esperón took part in more than 500 films, not only in Mexico, but also for MGM, Paramount, and Disney.
Songs:
Toreador (from the opera ‘Carmen) – Georges Bizet
Fragment of IV Act quartet (from the opera ‘Rigoletto) – Giuseppe Verdi
Amor mío – Álvaro Carrillo
Camino de Guanajuato, La noche de mi mal, Tú y las nubes; Canta, canta; Serenata huasteca, Tu recuerdo y yo; La que se fue; A los quince o los veinte tragos; De tanto amar; Un mundo raro – José Alfredo Jiménez.