Much more interesting than I was suggesting at first, this film starts with an introduction in Biblical times, after that, she immerses us in current times where the same protagonist , her name is also Magdala. Dealing with a frivolous woman , Magda (Lilian de Celis) , separated of her husband, a prestigious doctor, she owns some land where some humble shacks have been installed, as she goes to a little town with his lover Carlos (Armando Moreno ) and a lawyer and she decides one day to sell them. Meanwhile the good priest Father Antonio( Rafael Romero Marchent) tries to persuade her not to evict the poor people.
The movie has a surprising and breathtaking start. In fact , at the opening there's a flashback located in Magdala: city of Galilee located next to Lake Tiberias, named in the Gospels as the birthplace of Mary Magdalene. There we see an adulterous Mary Magdalane in some spectacular scenes , including brilliant dances with beautiful dancers. What Ignacio F Iquino attempts to do is a sort of follow-up to the successful ¨El Judas¨ in which a man who plays the role of Judas - the nototoious actor Antonio Vilar- in Esparraguera passion play, and following Passion performances. This film was filmed in Catalonia village Esparraguera, famous for its Easter Passion performances, where the roles usually pass from parents to children from generation to generation. While in ¨La Pecadora¨the Passion was filmed in Cervera in which Lilian plays nicely his part of an embittered, bad woman who cheats even his own husband until playing the role of Maria Magdala changing his character from her for good. This movie was shot in Cervera, Lérida, Catalonia, Spain, in fact producers thanksgiving to Cervera authorities, Bishop of Solsona and Patronato de la Pasión. At the same time this story takes place at Cervera and we follow the development of the Christ and Maria Magdala life at a theater. A film that reflects how the human being falls into a negative circle of our actions as a product of society. A movie of the classic "fatal femme" that in the end usually redeems itself or dies and the image of that Spain is priceless.
The motion picture was professionally directed by Ignacio F. Iquino, though it has some flaws, failures and rhythm drops . He managed to make a fluid and full of drama film with emotion, spirituality, religiosity, and interest enough, though average and in low budget. Juan was a Spanish craftsman , writing and directing ; working from the 40s in all kind of genres and B movies. In his filmography there are more than a hundred titles, divided between dramas, comedies, film noir and, towards the end of his career, westerns and pseudo-erotic dramas related to themes quite in line with the Spanish cinema of the Transition, known as uncovering. Unanimously considered by critics as a prolific and irregular director, he has gone down in the history of our cinema as one of the most outstanding directors of his generation along with names like Rafael Gil or José Luis Sáenz de Heredia. He began to be known by the general public at the beginning of the 1940s, with titles such as El difunto es un vivo (1941), the first and best adaptation of a well-known play. In the following years, he shot a series of films in the Spanish cinema of the time, with some exceptions: Criminal Brigade (1950), one of the few thriller samples shot in Spain, and the film El Judas (1952) -first film shot in Catalan after the civil war-, or Have a good trip, Pablo (1959), with Ettore Manni and Gisia Paradis, one of his best films, which addresses an unusual subject in the filmmaker's career: that of a salesman and the background of their personal and professional relationships, which helps Iquino to delve into the Spanish society of the time and almost dissect it. This film, now forgotten, is related to that type of film that tried to establish a direct or veiled look at Franco's society: La patrulla (1955) by Pedro Lazaga, Plácido (1961) by Luis García Berlanga, El extraño viaje (1964) by Fernando Fernán Gómez or Spain again (1964) by Jaime Camino. His film El primer cuartel (1966) addresses the founding era of the Civil Guard and its background with great success and historiographical fidelity, being one of the few titles in the history of Spanish cinema in which its script revolves around the Benemérita . And he started his fall in the Sixties with Z films.
