El hombre que se quiso matar

The shy teacher Federico Solá is a thirty years man whose life seems determined not to smile : no job , no girlfriend, no friends , and one day decides to stand up his life . Thus he faces several attempts to commit suicide such as lying on the tracks to be caught by the train, poisoning himself or throwing himself off the balcony of his apartment, but things go wrong . With a lot of disgrace and affliction in his life, with no job , no fiancée , no family and no friends ,then he does not think of anything better than to publicly announce his intention to commit suicide during a lecture before a large public . From that moment on he checked with satisfaction that all doors seem to open for him without much difficulty, as people, knowing the little time remaining for him, just yield to his claims. With no social prejudices and as he changes, his life begin to change too. The plot is about a young man who can't get a job as teacher , who's fired his work , whose girlfriend split up with him and she considers him as a complete loser . But a new Federico is born and Solá is the man of the moment: "The man who wanted to kill himself."

Based on a tale from Wenceslao Fernández Florez who also wrote "El malvado carabel" and ¨El Bosque animado¨ , both of them had two good nice cinematic versions . Florez was a stunning Spanish writer known by his peculiar sense of dark humor, and dealing with interesting themes , here concerning an anxious, pusillanimous man who attempts to commit suicide but fails in his attempt several times, he then he is going to tell everybody what is his opinion about it . This ironic and black humor was equally developed by other writers , such as : Jardiel Poncela, Miguel Mihura, Tono , and ¨the Revista la Codorniz¨ and a bit later on , by the prestigious screenwriter Rafael Azcona . This dark comedy dealing with a bungling teacher who when he announces in public his attempt to commit suicide he begins to feel free , but resulting in unexpected consequences , and that's why it shows a bitter critic of the Spanish society which could be absolutely translated to nowadays . Plot isn't not credible , if is necessary to consider that the purpose wasn't to develop a realistic plot but provide entertainment and diversion. It results to be the second version, the first in 1942 , ¨El hombre que se quiso matar¨ , by Rafael Gil himself , starred by Antonio Casal, Rosita Yarza, Manuel Arbó , Xan das Bolas, José Prada. El hombre que se quiso matar (1970) is an inferior rendition, being well directed by Rafael Gil , though it has some flaws and failures . Highlights of the movie are the successive attempts of our botcher starring to commit suicide , of course , he fails several times. Here stands out the great Tony Leblanc. He entered the theatre in 40s, acting in the companies of Revista of Martín and and Celia Gámez, there coincided as a dancer with another dancer, Nati Mistral famous actress later. His entry in cinema was with little and secondary roles (Los últimos de Filipinas (1945) was his first film), many of them as what in spanish is said to be the 'chulo madrileño' (the typical classic Madrid city man, with his genuine verbal accent and special behaviour). With this type of roles he got great success in the 50's. Once he had become a known actor, he started his career as director and producer. He created his own production company and produced three films, but had no success at all with it and the company went to bankrupt. Finally, he decided to continue as an actor. In 1993 he was paid reverence in the Goya Awards Ceremony for his whole career. Director Rafael Gil took advantage of a gran main and support cast , along with Tony Leblanc appearing here and there known faces in the Spanish cinema , such as : Rafael Alonso, Aurora Redondo ,Emma Cohen, Milagros Leal , José Sacristán, José Orjas , Beni Deus , Mary Begoña , Goyo Lebrero , Rafael Hernandez , Alfonso del Real , among others.

This movie was professionally realized by prolific Rafael Gil, one of the most representatives from Franco era. Gil usually worked for Suevia Films /Cesareo Gonzalez that along with Cifesa were the most known production companies during Francoist period. Gil shoots a hastily assembled decent picture , but uneven and in ups and downs . Being filmed in usual style of the sixties and in stylistic scholarship , without leaving a trace the dramatic issues , in terms of moving and narrative excitement . He was one of the best filmmakers from Spanish cinema , fiming a large numeber of vintage movies , such as : ¨Don Quijote De La Mancha¨ , ¨El Clavo¨ , ¨La Fe¨ , ¨La Señora De Fatima¨, ¨Aventuras De Juán Lucas¨, ¨La Reina Santa¨ , ¨La Guerra De Dios¨ , ¨El Beso De Judas¨ , and several others . And he made some films about bullfighting as ¨Currito de la Cruz¨, ¨El Litri y su sombra¨ , ¨El relicario¨, ¨Sangre en el ruedo¨ , starred by known toreros such as : Angel Teruel , El Litri , Antonio Bienvenida , El Pireo , and Manuel Benitez El Cordobes. Rating : Acceptable and passable 6/10 . The motion picture will appeal to Spanish comedy aficionados .