Guillermo Montesinos Movies

Previously filmed in 1922 with Rudolph Valentino and in 1940 with Tyrone Power, Vicente Blasco Ibanez's mystical bullfight novel Blood & Sand was given a third big-screen treatment in 1989. Though filmed in Spain by a Spanish director, the 1989 Blood & Sand casts American actor Christopher Rydell as the bullfighter hero. Also hailing from the USA is a pre-Basic Instinct Sharon Stone, playing the vamp role previously essayed in 1922 by Nita Naldi and in 1940 by Rita Hayworth. The story remains the same: a dirt-poor youth rises to fame and fortune in the bull ring, forgets his roots, cheats on his wife, has a last-minute change of heart, and pays for his sins in grotesque fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This complex and confusing Spanish feature intercuts stories from 1936, 1940, 1970 and 1988, and has Victoria Abril play three different parts in them. The lives of many people are shown to be tangled together in nearly incomprehensible ways, and many of the characters are prone to engage in unsavory sexual acts involving fetishism and sadomasochism. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

La Corte de Faraon is a romp of a zarzuela ("operetta" is a loose translation) that first appeared in 1910 (original libretto by Guillermo Perrin and Miguel de Palacios, original music by Vicente Lleó). The Pharaoh rewards his victorious general Putifar (Josema Yuste) with a new bride, Lota (Ana Belen), but the general is more intrigued with his own ego on his wedding night, and in the morning he dashes off. Along comes Friar José (Antonio Banderas) with his soulful eyes and innocent sexuality, and Lota aggressively goes after him. He escapes, but when brought before the Queen, she follows Lota's precedent and the poor Friar barely escapes a second time with his virtue intact. (In the original the Friar is none other than Joseph of the colored coat.) In this updated version, the troupe of zarzuela players gets in trouble with the police, and the whole lot of them are hauled in for scandalous behavior. Between the on-stage and off-stage insanity, the singing, the dance numbers, the music, the slapstick, and the slams at censors, police, and political repression -- this zarzuela upholds the tradition of pleasing all types of viewers. Except Franco, that is -- he banned the operetta. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This entertaining comedy is set in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War when a group of Republican soldiers sneak into a village in enemy territory to steal a bull with plans of butchering it to feed themselves. Fate and the bull itself, however, have other plans. One of the surreptitious bull-snatchers knows the village well -- he grew up there, but that advantage alone cannot guarantee their success, as it turns out. The group of five would-be thieves dress themselves in uniforms of the Nationalist troops in an attempt to dissimulate their true identity. But instead of a neat getaway with a bull in tow, they are caught up in the "correo" or running of the bull, they get involved in a religious procession, and in the end, watch as the bull breaks out of a flimsy ring in a bullfight and heads for the hills. Still hungry, the group of men now have to worry about getting back to their own battalion before they are found out. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Enrique (Enrique del Pozo) and Ana (Ana Anguita) are two popular singers-turned-actors in this adventure story of the evil Baron Von Nekrus and his minions who are intent on becoming masters of the world, and the two youngsters who are out to stop him. Ana's good-hearted grandfather has been imprisoned by the Baron so he can extract his scientific knowledge, and now Ana and Enrique have joined a musical group called the Coconuts to go on tour and in that guise to infiltrate the Baron's headquarters. They are accompanied by their nanny and tutor Castaneta (Amparo Soler Leal) and an African explorer named Stanley (José Lifante). Against all odds, they get into the Baron's stronghold and free the grandfather -- but it does look very much like the nasty Baron will escape to continue with his nefarious plots in a sequel. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Long known for his stylish and terrifying werewolf films, Spanish actor/director Paul Naschy takes terror to a whole new level in this dark tale of an out-of-work actor's harrowing decent into madness and murder. His glory days long behind him, forgotten film star Pablo Thevenet (Naschy) bitterly resents the lavish attention heaped upon the film industry's latest generation of youthful and photogenic up-and-comers. When audition callbacks yield deafening silence, the destitute Thevenet is forced to accept a humiliating job as a doorman and entertainer at the mysterious Pandora Club. His performances as some of history's most notorious murderers -- including Jack the Ripper and Giles de Ray, among others -- prove increasingly disturbing as fantasy slowly bleeds into reality, and it isn't long before the disillusioned has-been is extracting bloody revenge on those he feels have hindered his late-career comeback. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide