| El patrullero 777 | |
| Director: | Miguel M. Delgado |
| Producer: | Jacques Gelman |
| Starring: | Cantinflas Ana Bertha Lepe Valeria Pani |
| Music: | Gustavo César Carrión |
| Editing: | Gloria Schoemann |
| Distributor: | Columbia Pictures |
| Runtime: | 120 minutes |
| Country: | Mexico |
| Language: | Spanish |
El patrullero 777 (in English: "The Patrolman 777") is a 1978 Mexican comedy film directed by Miguel M. Delgado and starring Cantinflas, Ana Bertha Lepe and Valeria Pani. The film concludes the loose trilogy around the character of the Patrolman 777, who first appeared in The Unknown Policeman (1941) and reappeared in The Atomic Fireman (1952), although the only connection between the three films is that Cantinflas's character is a policeman who uses the callsign 777.
Sergeant Diógenes Bravo (Cantinflas) is the Patrolman 777, a member of the Mexico City police. He has a high sense of honesty, but due to his very particular way of solving problems, he is regularly berated by his superior, Major Malagón (Wolf Ruvinskis). While on duty, Bravo meets a group of prostitutes, among them Claudia Loza "La clarines" (Ana Bertha Lepe) and Guadalupe "La Pingüis" (Valeria Pani). Bravo and his partner on the force (Julio Alejandro Lobato) investigate a gang of drug traffickers led by "El Johnny" (Ramón Menéndez), who exploits the prostitutes.
Many other stories take place through the course of the film, such as high-speed races in which wealthy young men participate in public roads and end in disgrace, and a robbery at a high society party. Once, while patrolling at night, Bravo stops to help a young man in a serenade, and in another case, he attends a case of domestic violence in which it is the wife (Ofelia Guilmáin) that beats her husband, and in which Bravo has to run away before the lady ends up beating him too; and in another case, Bravo ends up going through a delivery for the first time and in the absence of the ambulance he manages to get out the baby, and even a suicide attempt to in which he has to climb the ledge of a building to rescue the suicidal man (Fernando Luján).
In the climax of the film, Bravo and his partner stop near the Tlalpan road a band from which they confiscate high-powered weapons, including grenades. Subsequently, "La Pingüis" provides information to Bravo about an illegal operation by El Johnny's gang. Bravo and his partner attend the scene, where they are received with gunshots, during which Bravo results injured. To prevent the escape of criminals, Bravo uses one of the seized grenades to blow up a truck full of drugs. Bravo is congratulated by his superiors and the film ends in a formal ceremony in which he is promoted to Lieutenant, with the police contingent activating the sirens of his vehicles as a sign of respect.
In Cantinflas and the Chaos of Mexican Modernity, Professor Jeffrey M. Pilcher questioned the idea of the film portraying a sympathetic policeman, noting that at the time, corruption within the Mexico City police reached new highs under chief of police Arturo "El Negro" Durazo, who was under indictment in the United States for drug trafficking, and accused Cantinflas of "pathetically selling out his beloved old gendarme character to the power elite." Pilcher stated that "the irony was not lost on reviewers," citing that reviewers at the time described the film as "a contribution to making the abominable and feared 'blues' [of the capital's police force] sympathetic." With regards of Cantinflas's performance, Pilcher stated, "Having gone thick in the middle at the age of sixty-six, he fit poorly in a police uniform; drooping pants had become completely unthinkable. But advanced years did not stop him from carrying his duties of karate chopping drug pushers, rescuing fallen women, and lecturing hippies."[1] Both Carlos Monsiváis in Los ídolos a nado and Joanne Hershfield and David R. Maciel in Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers considered that the film "confirmed that it is impossible the return to the vehemence of The Unknown Policeman."[2] [3]