Margarita Calahorra Movies
- 1990
After paying people-smugglers everthing they could afford, a mixed group of Africans and Arabs are brought to an abandoned beach in Spain and are left there to fend for themselves. Alou, who is from Senegal, is one of them. He actually manages to get by doing menial jobs, and gradually learns enough Spanish to have a modest social life. However, he has a quick temper, and easily interprets the actions of the well-meaning folks around him as slights and insults. As a result, he moves around a lot. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eulalia Ramon
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, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chris Rydell, Sharon Stone, (more)
Policemen everywhere are sometimes lampooned for their self-importance and pomposity, and it is not unusual for a particularly impudent thief to become a national hero. However, Spain's Guardia Civil in the 1960s were an unusually self-righteous lot, and the otherwise not particularly edifying real-life exploits of the young thief Eleuterio Sanchez, nicknamed "El Lute," thrilled the nation. This crime adventure drama retells his story. After being arrested for a robbery gone bad, the young thief refuses to finger his partners in crime even under torture. Despite this, they are rounded up and executed for the murder they committed while robbing a jewelry store. El Lute received a commutation from General Franco, and was on his way to prison when he escaped, eluding a nationwide manhunt for several weeks despite having a broken arm. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Imanol Arias, Victoria Abril, (more)
An amusing spoof of the good 'ole westerns back in the halcyon days when all the cliches were held up as icons, this parody by Hugh Wilson works best for savvy audiences. Rex O'Herlihan (Tom Berenger) is a singing cowboy with a wardrobe straight out of the Hollywood westerns of the '40s -- he worships his horse, and has a trusty sidekick too. Every town he wanders into has a sheriff on the dole, a shady cattle rancher, a prostitute with a heart of gold, an innocent young damsel, a town drunk, and the standard bad guys in black hats and long coats (Spaghetti-western style) who brutalize the poor sheep ranchers. After setting things straight in each identical town as he goes, Rex is beginning to feel like a re-run junky when he saunters into a town that is slightly different -- and the parodies continue. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Berenger, G.W. Bailey, (more)
- 1984
In the ancient Phoenician city now known as Almería on the southeastern coast of Spain, three Civil Guards were convicted in 1981 of torturing and then murdering three men that were suspected Basque terrorists. This well-paced and suspenseful docudrama is about that case and how the courageous prosecutor -- insightfully interpreted by Agustín Gonzalez -- had to persevere in the face of death threats to himself and his family, had to brave the ominous power of the Civil Guards of Spain, and had to overcome the judges' reluctance to proceed with the case. The chilling presence of the Civil Guards at every turn in the court trial are like fascist remnants from the rule of Francisco Franco that ended only five years or so before these murders were committed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Agustin Gonzalez, Fernando Guillén, (more)
- 1981
- R
In this drama, a young wife leaves her German home to discover the identity of her mysterious late mother who married a Jewish German during WW II. Her mother was French, and soon after she married her aristocratic husband, Hitler came to power, causing the couple to flee to Argentina. Later he abandons the woman. Much of the complex tale is told via flashback, and in learning about her mother's past, the daughter begins to experience an emerging sense of identity and the knowledge of what she must do to avoid the same mistakes her mother made. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ingrid Caven, Grischa Huber, (more)
