User reviews

Néstor Zavarce is the class clown. His father is a police man. He is often mocked and gets into fights because he likes to be with the girls, which is considered unmanly in school. One of his friends tells him that she has a friend, an older man who gives her candy. She makes him promise not to tell anyone. Then she disappears. Néstor's father catches the case, but his promise keeps Néstor silent. Another friend likes to draw on buildings with colored chalk. She says a friend, an older man, who gives them to her. Then she disappears.

This story was intended to be the third story in director Carlos Hugo Christensen's film NO ABRAS NUNCA ESTA PUERTA . However, his studio would not produce a film that long, so the Cornell Woolrich story it was based on was lengthened to full feature length.

The story telling technique is very fairy-tale-like in its details,there's some fine dialogue and acting to fill out the characters, and a dream sequence shows off the excellence of production designer Gori Muñoz.

Bob.

(1952) If I Should Die Before I Wake/ Si muero antes de despertar (In Spanish with English subtitles) THRILLER

Adapted from the short story by William Irish aka Cornell Woolrich it centers on a young boy, Lucho/ Luis Santana (Néstor Zavarce) interacting and bonding with the little girl student sitting on front of him. Started as soon as he purposely dipping her ponytail into an ink jar, we find out her name is Alicia Miranda (Marta Quintela). On the very next day, Luis then notices Alicia eating some sweets and wanted to have some as well. And before she hands him some, she then makes him swear to never reveal to anyone who she got it from. And then on the day after that, she then ends up missing. Detectives then go to the class to ask for any leads, except that Luis had remembered what he had promised, as he may have remembered the man who was hanging around in the school yard, and may have seen Alicia walk away with him. He then tries to make sense of it from his father, (Floren Delbene) who happens to be an inspector. And on the following day, he then bonds with the next student, Julia (Maria A. Troncoso) who coincidentally happen to also see the same man.

Although, this movie could be the base from "The Window" from 1949, it also has familiar rings to another movie called "M" from 1931 directed by Fritz Lang.

This film has a great reputation in Argentina as one of the better from its director, Carlos Hugo Christensen. As an adaptation of the nice Cornell Woolrich short Story, "If I Should Die Before I Wake", it has all the elements generally found in the works of this author: suspense, interesting characters, atmosphere. It is - in this reviewer's opinion - the Argentinian counterpart of the best American adaptations of Woolrich: Hitchcock's Rear Window, Ted Tetzlaff's The Window, Robert Siodmak's Phantom Lady. Curiously, due to a letter published many years ago in a monster-magazine, this movie is sometimes listed in reference books as "El vampiro acecha / The Lurking Vampire" (perhaps its Mexican title ?) and generally with a wrong cast (Abel Salazar and German Robles). Neither Robles nor Salazar are in this film, but ALL you can like in Woolrich's novel and short stories ARE in it. The same year, Christensen made another Woolrich adaptation, "No abras nunca esa puerta", also a superior movie with two parts. The adapted stories were "Somebody on the Phone" and "Hummingbird Comes Home". Other Woolrich stories were adapted in Argentina, Mexico, and of course in France where ALL the books of this author are regularly reprinted.

Saw this on TCM as part of a series on Christensen films and was impressed. Great film noir atmospherics and cinematography, and acting all around excellent, especially the blind mother. She does her best to protect her son but is torn when realizes he is broken, but her instincts, both maternal and moral, play out to the ironic end. Besides the twists and turns of crime, refuge, protection, and justice, this film had incredibly modern style...a clue to how Argentina was and must still be a very sophisticated society and culture. The sets, art, and look felt ahead of it's time compared to US films of the same era.

Admittedly, it's a small sample size...maybe four or five entries...but this 1952 film from Carlos Hugo Christenson is definitely the tense-ist (is that a word?), darkest and creepiest Argentinian noir that I've seen. The final twenty minutes or so will leave you pretty darn close to the edge of your seat, metaphorically if not literally, and the buildup, while on the restrained side...the first child murder occurrs offscreen...is quite disturbing, with an atmosphere of Peronist Fascism permeating the proceedings (i.e. The authoritarian school with those eerie white, surgical uniforms on the kids, the sighting of the child murderer in broad daylight and that horrible dream sequence involving merry go rounds, prison bars, dog like beasts and phallic hands with lollipops emerging from trash). So, aside from a couple story problems in either Cornell Woolrich's original or the adaptation, like the fact that the hero's PTSD radar would and should have been instantly aroused when the second victim announces that a man gave her a gift and the needless coincidence of having both victims sit in front of our hero in school, two years apart, and the fact that Nesator Zavarce's performance will not exactly make you forget Dean Stockwell (in other words, it's way over the top, even in the calm scenes) this is highly recommended. B plus.