Maria Isbert Movies
- 2003
Javier Fesser's stylish action comedy Le Gran Aventura de Mortadelo y Filemon (Mortadelo & Filemon: The Big Adventure) brings to life a pair of comic-book characters. Filemon (Pepe Viyuela) and Mortadelo (Benito Pocino) are bumbling secret agents who are fired after their supervisor hires Fredy Mazas (Dominique Pinon) to track down a powerful substance invented by Prof. Bacterio (Janfri Topera) that has fallen into the wrong hands. At the time of its release in its native country of Spain, the film had the most successful opening weekend in history for any domestic film. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Benito Pocino, Pepe Viyuela, (more)
- 1987
In this idiomatically Spanish comedy, set in the woodlands of Galicia in the 1920s, a large cast of oddballs and fools somehow manage to carry on with their lives (and deaths). One of these odd ducks is a bandit who cannot quite manage to pull off a robbery, though the travelers he meets are quite obliging. Another is a ghost who wishes he had traveled to America before dying. Even a funeral is a source of laughter, as two spinster sisters send the dead one off into the afterworld with countless messages and admonitions for their deceased relatives. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alfredo Landa, Fernando Valverde, (more)
- 1986
- R
Antonio (Jose M. Sacristan) is a vagabond traveler who hitches a ride into a small town. He takes a job in a restaurant before landing a better job in the local movie theater. Antonio remembers the owner as the woman who employed his acting troupe years before when he was a young child. He later gets mixed up in a plot to steal a valuable painting from a convent. The English title of Cara de Acelga is Spinach Face. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- José M. Sacristán, Fernando Fernán Gómez, (more)
- 1974
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, All Movie Guide
