The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz [Ensayo de un crimen] **** (1955, Ernesto Alonso, Miroslava, Rita Macedo) – Classic Movie Review 6354

Co-writer/ director Luis Buñuel’s 1955 Mexican thriller is a typical, weird Buñuel black comedy fantasy starring Ernesto Alonso as Archibaldo de la Cruz, a man who is obsessed with killing women with his music box after seeing his governess die as a child. Miroslava [Sternova] also stars as Lavinia in her last film.

Buñuel’s movie is witty and sinister, with a lot of impact coming from the clever, literate screenplay based on the novel by Rodolfo Usigli, and the direct attack of his filming method.

Buñuel handles it all with the splendid relish we expect from him.

The screenplay and adaptation are by Luis Buñuel and Eduardo Ugarte. The film is shot in black and white by Agustin Jiménez, produced by Roberto Figueroa and Alfonso Patrino Gomez, and scored by José Perez.

Also in the cast are Rita Macedo, Ariadna Welter, Rodolfo Landa, Andrea Palma, Carlos Riquelme, Leonor Llausas, Eva Calvo, Roberto Meyer, Manuel Donde and Armando Velasco.

Buñuel and Usigli started to collaborate on a screenplay together but fell out in under a fortnight as Usigli wanted no changes to his novel and Buñuel wanted to drop elements of it he was not interested in.

Prague-born Miroslava committed suicide by poison.

Soon after completion of Miroslava’s best remembered film, she committed suicide by poison, apparently because a love deception, on 9 March 1955, aged 30. She also starred in The Brave Bulls (1951).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6354

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