Pedro Beltran Movies

The spirit, hopes, and failures of a troupe of itinerant performers in the 1950s create a poignant, humorous leitmotif in this drama by Fernando Fernan-Gomez. The story of the wandering players is told in flashbacks, as Carlos Galvan (Jose M. Sacristan) reminisces about the good times while under therapy with a psychiatrist in a senior citizens' home. Carlos and his lover Juanita (Laura del Sol), his teenage son, his father, and a few other actors try to eke out a living by putting on shows in small towns and villages. No one has very much money, but life is lived to the hilt, and Carlos himself has some pretty tall tales. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

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, Rovi

A monosabio or "wise monkey" is one of the many necessary attendants at bullfights, working alongside the picadors and toreros. Of them all, the monosabio is the least respected and the poorest-paid. In this story, Juanito (Jose Luis Lopez Vazquez) is such a man. He has no real hope of fulfilling his own dreams of bullring glory but has noticed a young man in the neighborhood who looks promising. His daughter, who has been seeing the young man, has become pregnant by him. Without knowing this, Juanito robs her of her nest egg (set aside for an abortion) so as to put on an exhibition bullfight to bring the lad to the attention of the bullfighting world. In this comedy/drama, despite a few unexpected turns of events, things turn out well for everyone. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi