Ismael Merlo Movies

In this complex drama, a drifter brings his new girlfriend home for a visit. The girl's real flame is an escaped convict, who looks her up. Before she can leave with her convict lover, the drifter's mother kills her. Even though the mother had an incestuous relationship with her son, the son is determined to kill his mother, believing that she killed his one true love. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

When an elderly relative (Francisco Rabal) who has made a fortune in the Americas returns to Spain for a visit with his relatives, the mother (Conchita Velasco) of a bevy of daughters feels certain that at least one of them can snare him for a secure future. Imagine her frustration, then, when the old fellow falls in love with the family's servant girl (Ana Belen). Not only is she haplessly preventing the family's daughters from snaring a mate, the servant has been having an affair with a priest which was not good for anyone. In the end, the old man's love prevails, the conscience-ridden priest is freed of his entanglement, and the newly married couple move out of the country. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This Spanish film explores one of the Carlist rebellions of the mid-19th century -- a period in that country's history which is little-known elsewhere. King Ferdinand VII changed Spain's laws to permit his daughter Isabella II to come to the throne. Many Spaniards objected to the idea of a woman on the throne, and since they considered her rule illegal, they also considered the rule of her heirs illegal. From 1839 until 1873 a series of bloody rebellions broke out in Spain. The ultraconservative Carlist movement continues to be influential in Spain even today, and its adherents strongly supported the rule (from 1939 to 1975) of Francisco Franco. This film chronicles the religious, military and political intrigues which flourished during the Carlist rebellions in rainy Galicia, in 1852. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The Hunt (original Spanish title: La Caza) involves a less-than-sentimental journey to the onetime battlefields of the Spanish Civil War. Three aging pro-Franco veterans of that tragic contretemps, joined by a teenaged boy, embark upon a rabbit hunt where once they had exchanged gunfire and ideologies. As tensions flare between the trio of grey-haired warriors, the rabbits bear the brunt: they are slaughtered without mercy, much to the dismay of the youngest member of the expedition. This inevitably leads to the accidental death of one of the hunters--and a virtual recreation of the pointless carnage of the Civil War. Director Carlos Saura cowrote his script for The Hunt with Angelino Fons. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi