Is Juan Camaney just 1 man? Or are there more in alternate universes? In the early days of Frontera Films, Luis de Alba’s famous character Juan Camaney had appeared 5 times in total. In Los Verduleros part 1 & 2, he is a serious policeman but will talk heavily in slang & always chasing women. In El Dia De Los Albañiles part 1 & 2, Juan Camaney is a construction worker who only cares about getting laid & stealing. A real shit-kicker, but one that’ll devour your sisters, wives & girlfriends and steal your entire living room in the process. After Los Verduleros & Dia De Los Albañiles; Juan Camaney got his very own movie (a Frontera Films production) and this time around he’s a full-on good guy with a menial job, dating the maid who perhaps is the same one from El Dia Los Albañiles and of course always getting into some kind of crazy, sexual mischief with other women. No time is wasted whatsoever.
As Chico Che’s “Chido Chido” plays, Juan Camaney is making his daily alcohol deliveries on his bicycle. He then gets into an accident with a wealthy architecture who seems to have no remorse of what happened and the only thing on his mind is getting laid. When he meets Juan Camaney’s girlfriend “La Pelangocha”; the architecture cannot stop thinking about her and sets a goal on getting with her or to any other woman he sees. La Pelangocha also attracts her goofy-looking/married employer who constantly harasses her while she cleans his apartment. As this weirdness & sexy nonsense goes on, a bizarre psychic in Egyptian attire is brutally murdering various women around the neighborhood and just maybe, maybe La Pelangocha is next!
Los Gatos De Las Azoteas ("The Rooftop Stray Cats") feels almost different from other Gilberto Martinez Solares-directed sex comedies and that is because the tone of the movie feels a little more “mature” and by that I mean it doesn’t always get so goofy as the other movies tend to get, which by the way is not a bad thing. It is almost as if Gilberto was trying to make a little bit of a more serious comedy just like in the old days, but still have plenty of nudity & albures to capture the very same audience that made his other sexy comedies so damn successful.
With the movie having “Azoteas” (rooftops) & “Gatos” (cats, or stray cats) in its title, the movie focuses on various characters living in the neighboring apartment buildings that consist of Juan Camaney’s employers (a very horny Roberto Ballesteros & his cheated on wife played by Lina Santos), La Pelangocha along with her fellow maid pals, her weird/perverse & married employer (Sergio Ramos “El Comanche”), the Egyptian killer psychic (Hugo Stiglitz) and of course the weird/perverse architecture who’s played by Hector Lechuga. This old fool of an architecture seems very sexually oppressed for whatever reason and what a strange character he is and to be played by such a refined comedian as Lechuga is all the more bizarre. This seems more of a role for El Mimo or even Zayas, but nope. It was Hector Lechuga.
I must not forget to mention the women of the movie and of course they’re all gorgeous and most of them either get fully nude or just look really good and you just undress them with your eyes. There’s of course Maribel Fernandez “La Pelangocha” (that maid outfit on her looks so good on her) Lina Santos (who barely appears in the movie but still looks good), Alicia Camps, Yirah Aparacio and the great Rossy Mendoza. Rossy plays a lonely housewife who takes a liking to Juan Camaney and right away wants to screw him as he delivers booze to her. It’s a very memorable scene and perhaps my favorite scene of the entire movie as well. The scenes with the killer psychic are also very amusing since Hugo Stiglitz is completely bonkers in it. He appears in a cheesy demeanor, but I saw it as more of a strange man who perhaps has actual supernatural powers & definitely has a mindset of a complete psychopath. Hugo of course is always good at playing these type of roles.
Los Gatos De Las Azoteas is amusing as the other Frontera Films sexy comedies. As I mentioned before, it does feel more refined in tone so you’ll definitely feel something just a tad different when watching it. Luis de Alba as usual will make you laugh with his epic character Juan Camaney because Juan Camaney is always hilarious. Juan Camaney is a character that no matter what situation and whatever time it is, he will surely make you laugh. Even just a little bit. Juan Camaney is the shit. Juan Camaney is you, me and the rest of us guys just looking for a good ol’ time with whatever makes we have in life.