*spoilers below*
Zé Nó works as a gardener at a high school. He is somewhat infatuated with a girl student named Carmen, and that becomes an object of derision by Mexerico ('Gossip'), one of the boy students. Mexerico suggests to Zé Nó that he quit his job and try to make a fortune at some other line of activity, so that he becomes attractive to Carmen. Zé Nó accepts his suggestion and travels to a small town where he tries to earn a living by playing the barrel organ on the street. One local homeless woman nicknamed Pelanca ('Fold of Skin') approaches him and proposes a partnership which she says will make them rich. Pelanca knows every dirty secret of each person in town, and she helps Zé Nó establish a street commerce of selling little pieces of paper containing 'clairvoyant' information about the 'present, past and future' of each person. The fraud is enhanced by making a parakeet more or less randomly choose with its beak each piece of paper from a pile inside a box. Soon everyone becomes aware of the evil behind the façade of respectability of their fellow citizens, and that leads to feuds and enmities. Zé Nó returns to his earlier town with a sack of money. He proposes to Carmen, whose father is in a terrible financial situation, and sees Carmen's marriage with Zé Nó as a way out of his troubles. Carmen likes Zé Nó but is not attracted towards him; thus, she does not at first feel inclined to accept the marriage proposal. At her father's insistence, however, she accepts it. At the wedding reception, Mexerico plays a prank on the newlyweds and their guests: his wedding gift package when opened releases little mice which spread across the ballroom. After the mice are gone, Mexerico offers Zé Nó another package which he says has talcum powder which will take away the smell left by the mice. But it is actually itching powder which makes all the guests scratch themselves. Zé Nó returns to the small town where he made his fortune to collect Pelanca. By this time, the townsfolk have turned their rage against Zé Nó for seeding strife among the people. When Zé Nó shows up there, they chase him and he must hide from them. He and Pelanca leave town as fast as they can. Zé Nó then employs Pelanca as a maid at his home. Some days later, Zé Nó invites his wife Carmen to go out to the beach with him, but she says she prefers to stay at home. Pelanca then talks to her and scolds her gently for not going out with Zé Nó. After a while, Carmen's former school friends appear at her house and ask her out to the beach, where they hold a 'surprise' for her. Carmen decides to go with them, with plans to join Zé Nó at the beach. Once there, however, another devilish scheme by Mexerico unfolds: they take Carmen on a motorboat ride and then dump her on a stationed boat inside which is her high school sweetheart. Carmen gets furious and jumps to the sea, but before she can do it Zé Nó, who is looking through his binoculars from the shore, spots her and her former boyfriend inside the boat. When he gets home, they fight and she returns to her parents' house. The school principal happens to be visiting there, and he convinces Carmen to make up with Zé Nó, if she really likes him, which she says she does. Zé Nó says he will donate to charity all the money he earned with the 'clairvoyant' tickets, and he will only take Carmen back if she does not mind being poor. She says she doesn't. Zé Nó goes back being a gardener at the same high school he worked at before.
*end of spoilers*
This is probably the weirdest of all Mazzaropi movies which I have seen. The insertion of musical numbers at the most unexpected moments makes it even more bizarre. Every character except the female protagonist 'Carmen' seems to be a scumbag in this movie; as the film approaches the end, however, the film struggles to twist things in such a way that evil is concentrated in one single character ('Mexerico'), making him a sort of dramatic scapegoat. I didn't find this movie funny, let alone dramatically moving. But it is eccentric enough to arouse one's curiosity.
Rating: 32
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