(1952) Never Open That Door./ No abras nunca esa puerta.
(In Spanish with English subtitles)
THRILLER
Three movies adapted from the stories by Cornell Woolrich under the pseudom name William Irish divided into two different movies. "Never Open That Door" contains two of those stories. The first story is "Somebody on the Phone"/ "Alguien al teléfono" that has adult brother, Raúl Valdez (Ángel Magaña) in charge of the family business. He is with his sister, Luisa Valdez at a celebration/ party and we then see his sister attempting to hock her ring, we later find out belonged to their mother. However, by the time she gets home the brother soon then shows up and as soon as he hears the phone, he answers it but with no answer. Later, the phone rings again but this time she waits until it five times before it stops, and then rings once more before she answers it. The brother then asks her who was on the phone, she convinces him it was nobody before he goes to the bank to withdraw money to pay off the workers. And to his surprise, there is no more money into the family account, and has more than overdrawn it. Motivating him to rush back home and confront his sister about it,, it was soon revealed she has a gambling addiction. One thing leads to another.
I'd give this 2.5 out of four as although this was one of the first films about gambling addiction, it is just a common theme whereas I was a little curious despite their privileged lives, how come being as attractive as the brother and sister are, how come they are still single.
The second movie "Hummingbird Comes Home"/ "El pájaro cantor vuelve al hogar" is a little more involving that opens with a bank robbery and one of the three happened to be shot while attempting to escape on their getaway car. Meanwhile, we are then introduced to a mother, Rosa (Ilde Pirovano) who happens to be blind living with her niece, Maria (Norma Giménez). And during her wondering around the household, she often gripes how her son is going to show up one of these days on her doorstep and make her proud. And then some time later we hear a knock on the door, with the niece opening the door, two men barge through the door carrying with them the injured third person, making viewers to realize that they are the same people who had just held up a bank. And that the son, Daniel (Roberto Escalada) may also be the ringleader. The movie ends with a small twist.
This one is a little more resonating with the twist at the end makes viewers asking questions later. I'd give this a slight edge over the first movie even though more could have done with it. 3 out of 4.
