As Aventuras de Pedro Malasartes (1960)

Based on traditional Brazilian and Portuguese folk stories (possibly derived from even older stories from other places, dating as far back as the 13th century).

*spoilers below*
Pedro Malasartes is cheated out of his inheritance by his brothers, being left with only a goose and a saucepan. He decides to roam the world; he leaves his girlfriend behind, much to her chagrin. She goes after him. On the way he finds a series of homeless children which join him in his wanderings. He tricks a man into buying his saucepan by claiming it has the power of cooking without fire. Then, he approaches a house and spies through a window; he sees the owner's wife hide her brother inside a cabinet just before the arrival of her husband; she puts the meal which she had served her brother in a cabinet drawer. Outside by the window, her husband surprises Pedro, who asks for some food. The owner agrees and invites Pedro inside the house. Pedro claims his goose has the power of speech and also of making things and even people appear at certain places. The animal honks and Pedro says it is saying that there is food is in the cabinet's drawer; the animal honks again and conjures a man inside the cabinet. Pedro tricks the house owner into buying the goose. Pedro unsuccessfully tries to find an intern school that would accept the children; they all require payment, and he cannot afford it. After a while, both the man who bought the saucepan and the one who bought the goose realize they have been deceived and go after Pedro. They get together on the road, and are joined by Pedro's girlfriend; they succeed in capturing Pedro. After putting him in a cloth sack, they take him to a police station. Another man appears there to complain about Pedro. It is a farmer who had hired Pedro as a pig keeper. Pedro sold his pigs and deceived him by sticking the pig's tails, which he had cut, in the mud, and then telling the farmer that the pigs were buried there. (The events at that farm are not shown in the movie; I do not know if this is due to missing footage; I think not). Outside the police station, Pedro, inside the sack, keeps yelling: "I don't want to marry the king's daughter!". A man approaches and Pedro tricks him into switching places with him by making him assume he will now be the one who will marry the king's daughter. On the road again, and reunited with his bunch of kids, Pedro makes other two victims: he sells them a money tree (actually an ordinary one on which he had hung a few money bills of little value). Pedro is eventually arrested and put on trial. He sweet talks the jury into acquitting him. His accompanying children are placed in an orphanage. Pedro gets a job at the orphanage so he can be near his little friends, who grew very fond of him. He has to agree to marry his girlfriend, and promise never to deceive people again. Moments later, however, as he walks with one of the the orphanage's friars, Pedro draws his ear near a small hole in the ground. Through it, he claims, one could hear the mass said in Rome. Would the friar be interested in buying it?
*end of spoilers*

Although marred by the usual structure that was the main comedian's stock-in-trade -- abundant sentimentality, mediocre musical numbers, simple-minded humor -- the source material is interesting and authentically popular in origin.

Rating: 33