El beso de la muerte

Magarita Xirgu's father has died. Her mother has summoned her back home to make her debut in society. All the young girls there are excited for her. What none of them know is that her mother has been carrying on an affair with "modern Don Juan" Ricardo Puga. But she has decided to end it now. Puga decides to seduce Senorita Xirgu. When a newspaper reports on the ended affair, and her mother dies, Srta. Xirgu goes mad.

Srta. Xirgu runs the gamut of broad acting, from a schoolgirl skipping around the school -- she was 27 when she made this movie -- to staggering about and staring blankly when she goes mad. Elsewhere in the film making world, this was assuredly over-the-top in performance, even given the rather melodramatic title of this movie. Yet director Fructos Gelabert -- one of three directors credited here, along with Alberto Marro and Magín Murià -- continued directing into the 1950s. He would die at the age of 81 in 1955, and some earlier work shows more restraint in performances. I suspect it was his collaborators who supported the emoting, while Gelabert attended to the visual aspects of the picture. Visually it is good for the year it was made, with good compositions and a still camera. But the acting is way too stagey.