Ricardo (Rodolfo Bebán) is an executive who has great success with women and behaves almost like a play-boy. His wife, Carmen (Sonia Bruno) , an attractive housewife without children, it feels ignored by him and seeks solace from her mother (Ana María Campoy), who proposes Carmen a change in the way she acts in order to do not lose permanently her husband or even fall into madness. So the mother-in-law informs Ricardo that she is suffering from multiple sclerosis. From there, Ricardo changes his attitude and tries to make Carmen happy, who develops a relationship with a designer named Carlos (Lautaro Murúa). At the same time, Ricardo finds in the youth and beauty of Piti (Marilina Ross), the shop assistant, an attractive future for when his wife dies.
An attractive but uneven film that aims to create a black comedy in the marital sphere about a couple crisis, emotional blackmail and infidelity. The constant clashes with Franco's censorship led Luis Berlanga to film this comedy in co-production with that country in Argentina. The picture is acceptable and passable , but some of the dialogues do not lack vividness, but the script ends being a tour of dull vignettes based on an unoriginal deception and several unfunny misunderstandings. With a lot of sarcasm and details of black humor, Berlanga, with the collaboration of his usual writer Rafael Azcona in the script, analyzes husband-wife relationships in the key of a fable. The film, also known as "The Piranhas", is well paced, overtalking,and developed with long sequence shots composed with style. The performances are meritorious, Along with the leading role of Sonia Bruno who left the film showbusiness to marry a known footballer, the presence of Argentine actors such as Rodolfo Beltrán, Lautaro Murúa, a cameo by Luís Garcia Berlanga himself as a cinema spectator and the then almost debutant Marilina Ross (¨La Raulito¨, ¨Reina Zanahoria or Queen Carrot¨) stands out who would have a prosperous career in Spain. Everything is resolved with foreseeable results despite the fact that Berlanga and Azcona want to twist the story with a forced and unsatisfactory ending that delves into its blackish nature.
Direction by Luis Garcia Berlanga is decent, but inferior to his other films . He shows his skill for edition , realizing long shots that he moves easily and efficiently. Berlanga filmed several polemic movies during the 50s, all of them were beset by difficulties with the censors caused by real critical to social stratum such as ¨Bienvenido Mister Marshall¨ (1953), a very good film which tended not to be very well received by the censor for its acidity and considered to be one of the best Spanish films of the history ; however, his strong portrait of Spanish society , plenty of sharpness, didn't please the pro-Franco authorities . His next joint venture was ¨Los Jueves, Milagro¨ (1957), it was modified by the censors and delayed for several years before its eventual release . Later on , Berlanga made one of his best films ¨Placido¨ (1961) masterfully played by Cassen , this is the film debut for the great producer Alfredo Matas and received an Oscar nomination in 1963 , being well-received at the International Festivals , reviewing the useless charity , it's a sublime film but with censorship realized by this great maestro Luis Garcia Berlanga. And the masterpiece ¨El Verdugo¨ (1963) about a justice executioner with full of satire , criticism and black comedy. He continued filming other interesting pictures, as in 1973 he went to Paris to begin filming ¨Grandeur nature¨ with Michael Piccoli , another problematic film , focusing this time on the fetishism of a man who falls in love with a doll . Several years later , after Franco's death, he filmed a trilogy comprising ¨La Escopeta Nacional¨ (1978), ¨Patrimonio Nacional¨ (1981) and ¨Nacional III¨ (1982), where he clarified the evident disorders in the Spanish upper , middle-class upon being confronted with a new political status quo , realizing a sour denounce of the Spanish society . Berlanga ulteriorly shot a peculiar film titled ¨La Vaquilla¨ (1985) plenty of Spanish-star-cast and set in the Spanish Civil War , resulting to be the first time dealing with this convulsive period in comedy style . Following the same themes, he went on filming choral films such as ¨Moros and Cristianos¨ and ¨Todos a Carcel¨ (1993) that won three Goya Awards for Best Film, Best Director and Best Sound ; being his final film: ¨Paris Tombuctu¨. Rating ¨La Boutique¨: 6/10. Essential and indispensable watching for Berlanga aficionados and completists.
