Doctor Navarro (Frederick Stafford) , a well-known doctor, feels strongly attracted to Juana (Maria José Cantudo), his nurse, who is also in love with the doctor . He lives with his wife Lourdes (Rosanna Schiaffino) and their son Jaime (Pep Munné) in what appears to be relative calm from a stable family. However, he remains faithful to his wife and tries by all means to prevent his relationship with Juana from crossing professional boundaries. For this he orders that the nurse be assigned to another hospital. This fact pushes Juana to take her initiative and leads her to provoke the doctor and an attempt suicide . Although the doctor feels an attractive compassion towards Juana , finally they fall in love. His dilemma towards his faith in God and his creeds falter when he sees his commitment as a member of Opus Dei positioned.
Controversial film at the time, not because of its approach to erotic cinema, but because of putting its finger on the sore point towards the ecclesial institution Opus Dei in moments of change that were clamoring for the Spanish Transition , since the Church that was very rooted in the Franco government would begin to lose prominence in subsequent years. Grau's film also has excellent sequences that show the San Fermín Festival in all its splendor , including evocative cinematography by cameraman Fernando Arribas and in documentary style, at times . Marriage continuity, on the other hand, is not offered as something solid either to the extent that the viewer knows about the adventures of the wife , who only respects social conventions. Faced with the impossibility of sincerity in the two options, a third one gains strength: Opus Dei , while a priest tries to convince him to continue in the work as a final goal of spirituality . The doctor belongs to that religious order and enjoying a wealthy position and owns a luxury car as proof of his economic status. And the truth is that the Opus appears as an ideal of perfection, as a purely moral doctrine, devoid of any direct political aspect, when we all know of its influence on the Francoist Regime about to end. With this, what is achieved is that the third force in discord acquires a somewhat confused dignity, due more to the weakness of the other two alternatives than to its own merits. The plot of 'La trastienda' is the minimum expression of how interesting it could have been if the filmmaker had delved deeper into the thorny love story . 'La trastienda' displays a decent main and support cast . Frederick Stafford gives a sober acting as Doctor Navarro , he starred in Alfred Hitchcock's 1969 epic spy film "Topaz". And being a famous film mostly because María José Cantudo starred in the first full nude in the history of Spanish cinema. They are well accompanied by a notorious support cast of prestigious secondaries , such as : Rosanna Schiaffino , Ángel del Pozo , José Suárez , Pep Munné , Carmen de Lirio, Maruchi Fresno , Joaquín Hinojosa and Santiago Rivero .
The motion picture was professionally directed by Jorge Grau , though developed in ups and downs. Grau worked as a scriptwriter for radio prior to embarking on a film career and also a playwright and a painter. And studied at the Centro Sperimentale film school in Rome, Italy. In Grau there is always a good filmmaker, who uncorked the Sixties and Seventies with truly modern cinema , sometimes what doesn't exist are plots that are up to the task . Jorge Grau was a craftsman who made all kinds of genres as Drama, thriller, comedy, such as : "El extranjero de la calle Cruz del Sur" , "La punyalada" , "El espontaneo", "La siesta" , "pena de muerte" "Tutset street" , "Cartas de amor de una monja", "Chicas del Club", "Acteon" . Being his two greatest hits in terror genre, such as : "The Femaler butcher" or "Countess Bathory" and especially the classic horror, " Living dead in the Manchester Morgue" . Rating : 6/10 . Acceptable and passable.
