El hombre de los hongos

Clearly this adaptation of a novel by Mexican writer Sergio Galindo, was an ambitious co-production between México and España. It sought a prestige similar to that enjoyed by most of the creators involved, from director Roberto Gavaldón to his distinguished cast, plus the co -authors of the script, that included Mexican writer Emilio Carballido, Chilean director Tito Davison and Spanish Fernando Vizcaíno Casas, writer of Francoist affiliation. However, the 1970s were not the best years for Gavaldón, whose style was akin to the films of the golden age of Mexican cinema, and outdated when compared to the most freewheeling products of that time, signed by Paul Leduc, Arturo Ripstein and Felipe Cazals. "The Man of Mushrooms" is artificial and very formal in the way it approaches a story that contains elements that are always thorny, such as racism, incest, the use of hallucinogens and adultery. The story focuses on the family of a ruthless Spanish landowner (Adolfo Marsillach) who one day finds a mulatto child in a place full of mushrooms, names him Gaspar and gives him to his youngest daughter. However, the boy's entrance in his life will bring out all the vices and injustices that he commits, as well as his Mexican mestizo wife (Isela Vega) and his depraved elder sons (Ofelia Medina, Fernando Allende). In addition to the presence of a black panther that terrifies almost all the characters, now there is the disturbing presence of Gaspar, played in adulthood by Philip Michael Thomas, who spends much of the film naked, before he became popular in "Miami Vice." But the erotic tone that Gavaldón achieved with freshness and naturalness in "Sombra verde", one of his most disturbing films, is not perceived here. Although the twists of the plot keep the interest, the film does not have the vigor of the previous works by Gavaldón, who, by then, for his constant bad mood was called "The Ogre", as Ofelia Medina reveals in an interview that accompany the edition of the film on DVD. He would retire three years later.