Fernando Rey Movies

Financed in the U.S. and filmed in Spain, Day of Fear was one of the first films to be directed at a bilingual audience. Essentially an American gangster melodrama with a Latino accent, the film stars Fernando Rey as a Madrid mobster who forms an uneasy alliance with a young doctor (Ruben Rojo) and a nurse (Elena Barrios). The doctor needs the mobster's aid in stemming a deadly epidemic, which rages unchecked because of the crooked activities of a dishonest medico (Rolf Wanka). His sense of humanity aroused, the gangster strong-arms his associates into releasing the rare drugs necessary to stem the epidemic. Day of Fear comes to a particularly exciting climax at a deserted amusement park. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Per its title, Faustina is a distaff variation on the Faust legend. In this case, Mexican film favorite Maria Felix plays a woman who sells her soul to the Devil in exchange for beauty and wisdom. Actually, she bargains with the Devil's assistant (Fernando Gomez), who happens to be one of the woman's former lovers. The would-be demon spends the rest of the film trying to thwart the poor woman's happiness, but eventually declares that he's still in love with her. Not to be taken seriously, Faustina was an enjoyable digression from the usual portentous fare at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Simmons stars as a secret agent assigned to the Tangier beat (hence the title). Simmons is assisted by songstress June Powell. The head of a gun-running gang captures Simmons and Powell, and for a while the outlook is decidedly grim. But Powell effects an escape and notifies the police. Slow going until its final reel, Tangier Assignment is a good example of the sort of espionage fare that audiences were willing to accept until being spoiled by James Bond in the sixties. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bienvenido Mr. Marshall (Welcome Mr. Marshall) is a comedy predicated on the Marshall Plan, which provided American financial aid to deserving European communities. When two Marshall-Plan representatives announce plans to drive through a small Spanish town on the Iberian peninsula, the mayor, in cahoots with a publicity agent, intends to make as good an impression as possible. As a result, all signs of Western culture are hidden, and the town is transformed into a picture-postcard version of Old Iberia. As the townsfolk await the arrival of the Americans, each citizen conjures up visions (mostly inaccurate) of what life might be like in the good old USA. The satirical thrust of Bienvenido Mr. Marshall was misinterpreted as "leftist" by some observers when the film opened at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Mad Queen is Doña Juana (Aurora Bautista), the daughter of Spain's King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. In truth, she is no more mad than anyone else in Spain, but sinister forces have her declared insane so that they may claim the throne. Left unbalanced by these court intrigues, Doña Juana is driven further into lunacy by the philandering of her husband, Don Felipe (well played by Fernando Rey)---better known to history as King Philip. Though Aurora Bautista plays the title character, the film is stolen by the moody histrionics of Sara Montiel, cast as Don Felipe's moorish mistress. The English subtitles for The Mad Queen were written by noted film scholar (and Erich von Stroheim and Ernst Lubitsch biographer) Herman G. Weinberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Spanish cinemazation of Cervantes' Don Quixote may well have cost more money than any previous adaptation of that literary classic. Rafael Rivelles stars as the ageing, windmill-tilting knight-errant, while Juan Calvo plays Quixote's faithful manservant Sancho Panza. In fact, it is Calvo's sure-handed comic performance that keeps this elephantine production afloat. At 138 minutes, the film proved too much of a good thing for American filmgoers, many of whom were probably still resentful that they'd been force-fed Cervantes in high-school Spanish Class. Herman G. Weinberg, a film critic and historian best known for his essays on director Ernst Lubitsch, wrote the English-language subtitles for Don Quixote de la Mancha. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Oz must call on his magic to overcome the forces of evil. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide