Search - Campeon Sin Corona on DVD

Rated #11 Mexican Film Ever by Somos Magazine Survey

Curtis Allan | Seattle, WA | 01/31/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Campeon Sin Corona, directed by noted filmmaker Alejandro Galindo (1906-99), is considered one of the classic films of Mexico's Epoca Dorada, or Golden Age of film from the early 1940s thru the early 1950s. I am quite happy to see that it has finally made its way to a region 1 DVD release.

Campeon Sin Corona stars chilango David Silva (una familia de tantas, el topo, castillo de la pureza) as a working stiff who makes it big as a boxer, and suffers from all types of self-inflicted errors along the way which seem so prevalent amongst the purveyors of that profession. Fernando Soto, aka "el matequilla" (the pepe el torro trilogy) plays his friend from the old neighborhood and Carlos López Moctezuma (rio escondido, sombra del caudillo) plays his trainer. Amanda del Llano and Nelly Montiel round out the cast as his love interests.

While I am very happy to se films like this released, I must say I was quite underwhelmed by Campeon Sin Corona. This is the first film I have seen with David Silva, but I found listening to his whinging "naco" accent, along with that of "el matequilla", most unpleasant. It is surprising how similar it is to current Mexican parlance amongst the streetwise; I am not sure if that accent is due to some Nahuatl influence or simply the result of poor upbringing. Los Olvidados used similar language but I never found it so annoying. Silva was not alone, however, as María Gentil Arcos gives a performance as his mother which is nothing short of stagy. And one has to wonder how Victor Parra ever made a career out of portraying gringos when his English is so heavily accented. Speaking of stagy, I think they used the same set for every boxing scene in the film, regardless of its location. And even if you compare those boxing scenes with an earlier US film, Gentleman Jim (1941), you'll see how really lifeless they were. Finally, I think the camera actually went outside the studio a total of three times, twice with very brief shots of probably stock footage.

If nothing else, Campeon Sin Corona made me appreciate other Epoca Dorada films even more. Aventurera, Los Olvidados, or most anything by Ismael Rodriguez or Emilio Fernandez look really good compared to this film. For me, the most interesting thing about Campeon Sin Corona was the very attractive, very Mexican face of young actress Amanda del Llano. I kept thinking that with Fernandez behind the camera in this film, her talents would not have been so wasted. Rodriguez did direct her in a lead role in La Oveja Negra (1949), and both she and David Silva had minor roles in Fernandez's star-laden Reportaje (1953), neither of which has yet been released on region 1 DVDs as of this posting.

Regarding the DVD, it has no subtitles (neither English nor Spanish) and no special features of note. Despite my review of the film I still think this is a must buy for fans of Mexican cinema, especially at this reasonable price.
"