Luis Ciges Movies

Spoofing local "true love confessions," this Spanish comic farce/melodrama tells the stories of a middle-aged resident of Madrid (Jacques Dufilho) and of a pregnant young woman from the countryside who longs for stardom. The man answers a personal ad in the newspaper, has a liaison with the already pregnant girl, and winds up raising her baby. She leaves him after the baby is born, and becomes a big star. The man sees her once more as she is performing as the headliner at a nightclub, but she dies onstage. The movie spoofs many aspects of Spanish society of the time, including the sappier forms of popular music. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This Japanese/Spanish co-produced, bizarre mish-mash of genres has hints of everything from The Beguiled to Eating Raoul. Director Jacinto Molina (using the pseudonym "Paul Naschy") plays a mercenary who double-crosses his partner/girlfriend Meiko and gets shot for his troubles. Falling unconscious, he is taken in by a wealthy doctor, Don Simon, who has two beautiful daughters, Alicia and Monica. His recuperation is slow, and in the meantime he is seduced by both daughters and apparently haunted by the ghost of their mother. Then there's a veterinarian who gets bludgeoned by an unseen stalker and eaten alive by pigs. It turns out that Naschy is being fattened up for slaughter by the family, whose members learned cannibalism from their servant Rachel's dad while living in Africa. The ghost turns out not to be a ghost at all, but Don Simon's third daughter, who went mad and would not join the family in their new tastes. She ends up shooting everyone, but not until Naschy has been bled and butchered. This is a very confusing film with some really silly moments, like the jungle drums on the soundtrack whenever there's a close-up of the black Rachel's rear end. It's certainly a change from Molina's usual self-pitying werewolf roles, but whether that's a good thing or not is left to the viewer to decide. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

This uneven and hastily produced film suffers from many technical difficulties and is plagued by meaningless improvisation. Some attempt is made by the director to talk of some of the social problems in Brazil, but this entry qualifies as one itself. A narrator tells tales of the poverty stricken, and the filmmaker's many attempts at symbolism are confusing and pretentious. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

This uneven story finds Ristel (Lex Barker) as an actor bored with life who breathes his soul into a doll. The doll is taken by a dim-witted servant, and Ristel's lover Ana (Teresa Gimpera) hires a detective to investigate his death and find the missing doll. When the doll begins to talk, the frightened servant smashes it on a beach, and Ristel's soul enters the body of a strangled woman. She comes to life and confronts Ana, but the woman is strangled again by her original killer. Ristel's restless soul tries to take refuge in a stone. Color process is not credited. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

David (Mark Stevens) is a physician who returns to Spain 30 years after his involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Now a member of a medical convention, he looks up old friends and finds his former lover, now a married woman with a flamenco-dancing daughter. He and the daughter (Manuela Vargas) have an immediate and mutual attraction to each other. He considers running away with the exotic beauty before asking his wife to join him for an extended vacation after the convention . ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi