User reviews

This ironic film is an "alternative " vision of ¨Juana La Loca¨ history and it displays a good cast , such as : Lola Flores as Reina Isabel I 'La Católica' , Beatriz Elorrieta as Infanta Doña Juana De Castilla , Jaime Morey as Felipe 'El Hermoso' , Manolo Gómez Bur as Cardenal Cisneros and Quique Camoiras as Fray Tomás de Torquemada . This is a spoof concerning the known history of the deep love transformed Juana , the nutty Queen of Spain , (Beatriz Elorrieta) into Juana "The mad" . The film is freely based on the notorious novel by Manuel Tamayo Y Baus in which Juana is married off by her pious parents , the two famous Catholic kings : Fernando of Aragon (Jose Luis López Vázquez) and Isabella of Castille (Lola Flores) , to ally Spain , united by their marriage , to the Burgundian and other Habsburg heritage of archduke Maximilian and Maria's son Philip (Jaime Morey) . As in 1496, Juana De Castilla , daughter of the Catholic Kings, travels to Flandes to marry the Archduke Felipe De Austria , known as 'El Hermoso' or The Handsome . When they meet, it's love at first sight, for her all-consuming, for him one of many happy bed partnerships as she later figures out . Deaths in her family soon make Juana Isabella's heir , but Ferdinand suggests she inherited her grandmother's craziness and supports Philip's ambition to govern instead , which becomes the stakes of political maneuvering in the Cortes and then multiple drama is inevitable . Combined with Philip's relentless infidelity , which includes a Moorish whore-princess Zoraida (Adriana Vega) , and other lovers as the things go awry when Juana uncovers his treason . As mental health Juana starts getting worse and Felipe makes the Burgos Court , nobility-dominated parliament , declare the incurable insanity of Juana and confines her in the monastery of Las Huelgas, proclaiming himself as the king . But Felipe dies and happenings go wrong .

In this ridiculous tale there are anachronisms , goofs , abstract incidents , musical numbers , songs and amusement . The parody is continuous , hilarious , surrealist , absurd and sometimes is gross-out , but in some moments here and there is also bold and risible . This Juana "The mad" concerns an insane story of love , lies and jealousy with silly political confrontation behind , including crazy characters as the torturer Torquemada - Quique Camoiras- , the amnesic Cardenal Cisneros -Manolo Gómez Bur- , discoverer Cristóbal Colón -Juanito Navarro- , and the Infants : Don Juan -Guillermo Montesinos- and Isabel - Paloma Hurtado- , among others . This picture contains acid political remarks with inclusion some embarrassing re-enacting of historical deeds as the capitulations of Santa Fé between Colón and Catholic Kings . Adding several observations to political aspects of Spain of the eighties , as the Regional Autonomias ; including the past-present politicians , such as : Manuel Fraga , Adolfo Suarez , Alfonso Guerra , Felipe Gónzalez , and several others . The flick belongs to a trio mostly written by Juan José Alonso Millán and produced by Jose Frade , in which there are deep satires to historic events mingled with actual political events , such as ¨Cristóbal Colón , Oficio Descubridor¨ by Mariano Ozores with Andrés Pajáres , Fiorella Faltoyano , Angel De Andrés , María Kosty , Rafaela Aparicio and ¨¨El Cid Cabreador¨ by Angelino Fons with Angel Cristo , Carmen Maura , Manolo Gómez Bur , Paquita Rico , Pepe Da Rosa , Adriana Vega . In similar style was made ¨La Loca Historia de Los Tres Mosqueteros¨ (1983) by Mariano Ozores with Martes Y Trece , Antonio Ozores and Paloma Hurtado . The flick will appeal to Lola Flores fans and lunatic humor lovers .

The motion picture produced by the notorious producer Jose Frade was lousily directed by Jose Ramon Larraz . Here he makes other genre spoof with great loads of gags , slapdash and slapstick ; as Larraz also directed other spoofs , such as ¨La Momia Nacional¨ and ¨Polvos Mágicos¨ that had enough success . The recently deceased (2013) Larraz started in cinema world by casual way when he meets the famous director Josef Von Stenberg running a cinematographic course in Brussels . Larraz was a director of horror and erotic films and former comic book illustrator and fashion photographer. Worked in England as Joseph Larraz, and in Spain, using the pseudonym Joseph Braunstein . As he shot his first movies in England, plenty of horror , suspense and sex , such as ¨Whirlpool¨ (1970) , ¨Deviation¨(1971) , ¨La Muerte Incierta¨(1972) , ¨Scream or die¨(1973) and ¨Symptoms¨ with Angela Pleasence and Peter Vaughan . He also shot soft-cores and then Jose Ramon returns Spain filming horror and semi-exploitative movies such as ¨Estigma¨, ¨Ritos Sexuales Del Diablo¨, ¨Al Filo del Hacha¨ and ¨Descanse en Piezas¨ , imitating the American Slahers of the 70s and 80s . His most successful film was ¨Vampyres¨, played by Playboy young models , blending arty house , horror and erotic situations ; dealing with alluring females vampires coerce unsuspecting motorists to their castle for a good time .

Other retellings about this known story based on the play by Manuel Tamayo Y Baus are the followings : A silent version (1909) by Ricardo Baños ; the Spanish classic ¨Locura De Amor¨(1948) by Juan De Orduña with Aurora Bautista as Doña Juana , Fernando Rey as Felipe El Hermoso , Sara Montiel as Aldara , Jorge Mistral as Capitán Don Alvar and , of course, the prestigious version (2001) realized by Vicente Aranda with Pilar López De Ayala , Daniel Liotti , Susi Sánchez , Rosana Pastor , Giuliano Gemma , Roberto Álvarez , Eloy Azorín , Guillermo Toledo . And recently ¨Isabel¨ TV series with Michelle Jenner , Rodolfo Sancho and Irene Escolar as Juana and finally ¨La Corona Partida¨ .

First of all I'll make a suggestion: This film should be only for Spanish viewers. If you're not Spanish, then you'll probably think it's trash. But it's not. It's very funny. It's a film released in 1983, and it has lots of references to political aspects of Spain in the 80's. In fact it's just another forward critic of Spain (both past and actual), in the same mood of many other Spanish films of the decade. As in Airplane! (1980), nobody is safe from satire. The acid comments and the past-present mixture reminds me Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). It's almost the same kind of film, but with Spanish characters and references.

I really love Lola Flores as the Queen Isabel I. She's not a great actress, but she's tremendously charismatic. José Luis López Vázquez and Jaime Morey are also splendid.

My rating: 6 or 7 out of 10.