Los misterios de Barcelona

Based on Antoni Altadill 1864 two volume best seller novel Barcelona y sus misterios (Barcelona and its mysteries), this serial movie includes eight episodes: 1. Barcelona y sus misterios (Barcelona and its mysteries), 2. El barco contrabandista (smugglers' ship), 3. La herencia de los seis millones (six millions inheritance), 4. Los falsos monederos (the counterfeiters) 5. Los limpiabotas (shoeshine boys) 6. La voluntad de un moribundo (a dying man's last will) 7. El retorno de un presidiario (the prisoner return) and 8. La muerte de Diego Rocafort (death of Diego Rocafort) Filmed by Albert Marro and exhibited in cinemas in 1916 as one episode per week, the movie was an enormous success, getting excellent reviews and audience acclamation. Sadly, in 1918 a big fire destroyed Albert Marro's hispano films industries, getting not only this movie but almost his entire production lost (a much shorter version of another Marro serial movie, La secta de los misteriosos, was recently partially recovered and edited in German).

The movie tells the unfortunate love story of Diego and Clara in nineteenth-century Barcelona and their struggle to meet again through all kinds of adventures and misadventures ranging from a slave ship to the social and political changes of the Barcelona of the time. Filmed in Barcelona, the now lost eight part movie shows a city full of mysteries and corruption where, in spite of the calamities suffered by the main character and the vicissitudes that happen to him throughout the film, his moral integrity and unconditional love and fidelity to his principles will manage to make him triumph over any adversity, thus overcoming all obstacles.

Due to its huge success a second six part series was filmed in 1917, entitled El testamento de Diego Rocafort with a similar cast.

Although the movie is not available to watch, this is a highly recommendable novel to read.