Review of Pepe (1960) by Kevin R — 04 Mar 2011

This movie was a waste of time and talent. Under the thin veil of a plot it assumes, it spends the first third of the movie gawking at some of the greatest burned-out has-beens to ever grace the screen.

There are some great moments in this movie, including Billie Burke shooting Charles Coburn in the back of the head with a slingshot, Bing Crosby signing a tortilla, and Greer Garson buying tequila for a horse.

Turns out that the same year that Janet Leigh was murdered in the shower, she was walked-in-on in the bathtub. The main character, sweet little Pepe himself, is an adorable man. The ending of this movie just raised the little hairs on the back of my neck in anger and digust.

In an ending that could only have been motivated by racial prejudice, the love interest ends up with a character who has served as the villain throughout the whole movie! And all this right after a beautifully romantic scene with Kim Novack as herself (the best scene in the movie).

It nearly brought me to tears. It was so mean, so cruel to poor Pepe, and so backwards thinking that I nearly couldn't stand it. An ending like that can undo a whole movie which was otherwise not great, but not bad.