A not very grief-stricken young widow flutters her hand fan between a dashing young soldier and an elderly politician in Bracho’s lively debut, a brash musical comedy romance set in Mexico’s belle époque. “I wasn’t aware I had a heart,” sighs Captain Miguel (Arturo de Córdova) through his stiff upper lip as the lovely widow (Puerto Rican sensation Mapy Cortés) jilts him for the scheming Don Simón, who heads the “moral improvement society” but who’s more preoccupied with leering at showgirls. Filled with dance-hall sing-alongs, sexual innuendos, and comic interludes, Those Were the Days is Bracho—and the Mexican studio system—at their effervescent best.