Engaging Spanish Film Noir well set , nicely paced and competently directed . We are in the Spanish postwar period, the 60s in Zaragoza, in a neighborhood gym where several boxers train . The promoter appears and immediately judges his boxers: "This one is finished, this one can still do something." Martín Baumer (Hans Meyer) is in the ring, training some beginners . He is a sparring partner , a washed-up former boxer who is no longer able to move . He trains a skinny and scrawny rookie young , while the coach encourages Martín to move and do his job . Martin gets fed up and punches the rookie boxer , who he leaves to knock him down , as the coach tells him that his time has passed and that he cannot finish off the unexperienced beginner . Later on , Martin receives a phone call. He is an old friend, Horacio Birakis, who asks him not to hold a grudge against him , since the matter is life or death ; in the end , Martín softens and says that he will leave that night on the express train for Madrid. When they see each other at the station, they hardly know what to say to each other, although at the end Martín generously offers his hand . When they get together , someone in the crowd stabs Horacio. Martín catches the falling body, and everyone thinks it was him . Obviously, of the many witnesses who will later testify against him, no one really saw the event, but everything points to the fact that he was the murderer, and he gets aways . A bit later on , two police inspectors (Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui, Adriano Domínguez) start investigating the strange killing detaining the prime suspect. After that , Horacio's wife , Patricia Birakis (Yelena Samarina), says that Martín is a good man , but she doesn't give any explanation either. She says that neither Horacio nor she have seen him for 7 years , since Horacio and she got married , but the widow had previously been Martin's girlfriend .
An interesting film with a nice jazzy soundtrack and evocative cinematography , dealing with the classic theme of the wrong culprit through a lonely man who's accused of a grisly crime. Deeming the date its shooting it can bee considered as one of the last ones in the classic Spanish criminal genre , having some changes from the vintage period happened in the previous decade , as the Police isn't who discovers the identity of the killer , but the own suspicious person . Likewise , this is one of the first Spanish productions in which the Boxing issue is compellingly treated , similarly made the American cinema at the time , such as : the Noir Films as Cuerpo y Alma (Body and soul, 1947) by Robert Rossen , Nadie puede vencerme (The set-up, 1949) by Robert Rossen , El idolo de barro (Champion, 1949) by Mark Robson and Más dura será la caída (The Harder They Fall, 1956) by Mark Robson. Stars Hans Meyer who was born in South Africa, into a German farming family, and giving a nice acting . Meyer was a successful player , working with many of the top directors in both films and television in Europe. He was fluent in English, German, French and Zulu. Being highly respected by fellow actors, a very cultured man who is both reserved and modest about his long and distinguished career that includes movies as Barry Lyndon , The Riddle of the Sands, Red Sonja , Bad Blood , Holocaust and Inside the Third Reich and many others. Accompanying him a splendid plethora of prestigious secondaries , such as : Yelena Samarina , Perla Cristal , Dina Loy , Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui , Adriano Dominguez , George Rigaud and Antonio Molino Rojo.
It displays an atmospheric and appropriate soundtrack by Antón Garcia Abril with full of jazzy music and saxo sounds . As well as an adequate and atmospheric cinematography in black and white by cameraman Víctor Monreal , being shot on location in Zaragoza, Aragón , Spain . Culpable para un delito (1966) also titled Balada para un hombre solo (Spain) or Murder at the Metro (United States) was well directed by José Antonio Duce in his first and only film , though he made documentaries about his local region , such as : A través del Pirineo , Campos de España , El románico en el Alto Aragón , Huesca , Ordesa and Zaragoza, ciudad inmortal . Rating : 7/10 , better than average.
