Castilviejo is a town located on the Castilian plateau that has been dying of thirst for years and years. It has a large swamp very close, but it is like having nothing, since its waters do not reach there. Suddenly, some Americans who claim to be experts in oil prospecting descend on those lands, claiming that there is oil. These lands are the property of Don Zoilo Mendoza (Manolo Morán) who, given the evidence of the treasure that his underground contains, puts himself in the hands of Don Fausto (Félix Fernández) , one of the town's rich people, to decide. Of course, the Mayor (Mariano Ozores) and the Secretary of the City Council (José Luis Ozores) claim it for the town. The living forces of the town come together to search for it on their own and find water that is much more necessary for the town and the inhabitants. Don Fausto's verdict is this: nothing for the Americans, because what is in Zoilo's lands is worth more than oil, it is water for Castilviejo.
The scriptwriter and director Rafael J. Salvia, director of such characteristic films as ¨Manolo Guardia Urbano¨ and ¨Las Chicas de la Cruz Roja¨ uses a news story from the time, in which it was stated that oil had been found in a small town in Burgos to carry out this experiment. With an approach somewhat similar to that of ¨Welcome Mr. Marshall¨(1952) by Luís Garcia Berlanga, it also has a choral protagonist and also contains a message: the problem of the Spanish is that they don't work, but when they do they achieve great things. However, the film has a somewhat boring central part where the Spaniards fraternize with the Americans, drink their typical drinks, play baseball, even dance modern US dances and of course raise the American flag to the beat of their national anthem. The main problems derive from the weak script by Pedro Masó, who also appears as head of production. And of course there is praise for the Franco period, including the construction of swamps, which seems to be an added value to obtain a better subsidy. The best distraction of the film is guessing what secondary playing a sympathetic role appears here and there, these include the following: Manolo Morán, José Luis Ozores, María Rivas, Félix Fernández, Antonio Riquelme, Mario Berriatúa, Josefina Serratosa, Xan das Bolas, Pilar Gómez Ferrer and José Sepúlveda
The film pays homage to the so-called Madrid Pacts of 1953 were three "executive agreements" signed in Madrid on September 23, 1953 between the United States and Spain, which was then living under the dictatorship of General Franco. According to them, four US military bases would be installed in Spanish territory in exchange for economic and military aid. For the Franco regime, they meant, together with the concordat with the Catholic Church signed a month before, the definitive integration into the Western block after the isolation it had suffered since the end of the Second World War due to its links with the Axis powers. And a few years later, in 1959 Eisenhower would visit Spain.
It contains an evocative cinematography in black and white shot on location in Turegano, Segovia, Castilla y Leon: Exterior scenes and inside in Estudios Ballesteros, Madrid, Spain. The motion picture was well directed by Rafael J. Salvia , he was born in 1915 in Tortosa, Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain and died in Madrid 1976. Rafael was a prolific writer and director, being especially known for ¨Las chicas de la Cruz Roja¨ (1958), ¨La gran familia¨ (1962) and ¨El Judas¨ (1952) . Salvia wrote and shot a lot of films with penchant for comedies. As he wrote and directed various flicks , as two successful pictures starred by Manolo Morán : ¨Manolo, guardia urbano¨ and ¨¡ Aquí hay petróleo ¡¨ . Rating : 6/10. Decent comedy, but exclusively for Spanish comedy fans . The years do not weigh on this good-natured comedy but rather increase his value as an important work.
