Feb 151939
 
two reels

Julio César Napoleón (Enrique Herrera) is a high-strung writer of radio thriller plays. His doctor sends him away for a rest, using the name Justiniano Conquián to disguise his fame. However he mistakes an old dark mansion for the sanitarium and he is mistaken for the heir to a fortune, whose name is coincidentally Justiniano Conquián, and who, by the terms of the will, is required to stay in the spooky house. The other heirs are assembled there, and have planned to drive Justiniano insane by frightening him so that they can inherit. However, Julio misinterprets their attempts, as well as other unsettling events, as part of his doctor’s elaborate treatment plan, even when people start to die.

Cada loco con su tema shouldn’t be on any list of horror films; it’s a comedy. But I couldn’t ignore it as it’s horror-adjacent in two ways. Writer-director-producer Juan Bustillo Oro is considered the father of Mexican horror and this was his last gothic-tinged film of the 1930s. And it takes many of the motifs of horror, particularly Old Dark House horror. We have an old dark house complete with secret passageways, a will, the assembled quirky relatives, talk of hauntings and ghosts, and a killer gorilla (1930s cinema had a fascination with gorillas). But it doesn’t fit even into the subcategory of Old Dark House horror, which is often barely horror, due to its structure. We’re given all the answers at the beginning, so we know that nothing is spooky or mysterious. It’s an odd way to plot a film—I’d have thought it would work better for us to follow the Julio and just know what he knows. But the plot wasn’t the point, just the gags. It isn’t surprising. World cinema had been avoiding horror for several years due to censorship, sensitive critics, and the escalating world war, so Cada loco con su tema takes pains to separate itself from anything that might be considered frightening,

This is Bustillo’s most technically sophisticated film. It looks great, the sets are detailed and attractive, and star Enrique Herrera is funny, despite, or perhaps because of, his broad performance. Unfortunately, the editing, kills what could have been a very amusing film. It’s nearly two hours long. How many frothy comedies are two hours long? It’s easily thirty minutes too long and I could spot where the cuts needed to have been made in most every scene. Each joke is stated, then restate, then elongated before being stated again. Then it’s repeated. There’s funny stuff here but jokes do not get better the more often they are told or the longer they take to be told. And as we know what’s going on (remember, everything is spelled out at the beginning so there are no surprises), we can anticipate every joke. The only way to pull that off would be to get in and out quickly. It’s very disappointing as I can see a good film that’s been overfed. A strict diet and Cada loco con su tema would have been a keeper.