| Los tres huastecos | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Ismael Rodríguez |
| Written by | Rogelio A. González, Ismael Rodríguez |
| Music by | Raúl Lavista |
| Cinematography | Jorge Stahl Jr. |
| Release date(s) | 5 August 1948 |
| Running time | 120 minutes |
| Country | Mexico |
| Language | Spanish |
Los tres huastecos ("The Three Huastecos") is a 1948 Mexican comedy-drama film directed by Ismael Rodríguez .
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Raised separately in three villages in La Huasteca (a region in the northeastern Mexico), Lorenzo, from Tamaulipas, is an atheistic bronco; Juan de Dios, from San Luis Potosí, is a parish priest; while Víctor, from Veracruz, is a captain in the army. Their great physical resemblance is a source of conflict. Juan de Dios tries to solve the problems with his two brothers and Lorenzo's father.[1] Mexican superstar Pedro Infante played in three separate roles as each of these three individual triplets.[2]
In the movie, the villain "El Coyote", whose identity was unknown, was killing and robbing people near the village where the Military Pedro Infante triplet was the commander and whose job it was to find El Coyote. The Military Pedro Infante also had a romantic interest in a village girl, Maritoña (Blanca Estela Pavon), who flirts with him, but firmly rejects all his advances. María Eugenia Llamas, who was only four at the time, made her screen debut in this movie as "La Tucita", a stage name she has used ever since.[3] She played the daughter of the saloon owning and atheist triplet, Lorenzo.
In Tucita's first appearance in the movie, she has a snake and a tarantula as pets, both of which she handles with love. She also pushes around her otherwise hardened Pedro Infante father shamelessly. For instance, she shoots at him with a pistol and misses. Then, she starts crying. Her Pedro Infante father asks her if she is crying because she shot at him. She responds tearfully that no, she is crying because didn't kill him – which doesn't make him mad. In another scene, when she is in bed, she keeps pestering her father for one thing after another, to which he always complies, if visibly annoyed. Finally, she calls to him in the next room that she is thirsty and demands a glass of water. When he grudgingly brings it, she waters her plant with it instead of drinking it – which also makes him only disgusted, but not angry with her.
It is her father's stoic acceptance (while sometimes visibly disgusted) of everything Tucita does to him that shows the movie audience that he has a soft spot and is not as thoroughly corrupt as he is otherwise portrayed in the first part of the movie. Nevertheless, the Priest Pedro Infante takes an interest in the physical and spiritual welfare of his niece, Tucita. He sometimes puts on a false mustache to disguise himself in the movie as his otherwise identical brother to look in on her, which disguise does fool her. She just can't figure out why her "father" is acting so differently.
Tucita's real father is finally formally accused of being El Coyote. However, the military identical triplet is the one who gets arrested and held in the village jail, because, disguised with a mustache like his brother, he is mistaken for Tucita's father. A mob tries to get to him in his cell to hang him. Tucita's Pedro Infante father and priest Pedro Infante overcome the real Coyote (Alejandro Ciangherotti), while he is trying to kill them, and get him to confess in writing that he is Coyote. They place Tucita's pet tarantula on his chest, which scares the confession out of him. Tucita wags her finger at him and righteously tells him off.
That confession, when presented to the authorities absolves Tucita's father and saves the military Pedro Infante from the clutches of both the mob and the law. After all that, her father turns over a new leaf and takes Tucita to church for the first time. They kneel before the alter and he lovingly shows her how to make the sign of the cross. As the movie ends, military Pedro Infante wins over the girl and the Priest Pedro Infante and Tucita's Father Pedro Infante look on with great joy that all has turned out so well as their brother rides off with his lady love.
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