La encrucijada

Alfonso Balcázar (Con muerte a la espalda or With Death Behind) writes and directs this Spanish drama with a well ensemble cast , starring Analía Gadé (Las melancólicas) and Jean-Claude Pascal (La bella mentirosa or The beautiful liar). Max (Roberto Camardiel) and Sandra (Analia Gadé) are a couple who want to escape the civil war by traveling to France through the Pyrenees. The couple travels in a wagon and along the way they stop in towns where they expose their poor spectacles, as Max does tricks as a prestigitator and she sings songs in the local bars. While Javier, an expert French guide (Jean-Claude Pascal), will help them, and with whom Sandra will fall madly in love .As fugitives have to cross the border in broad daylight and no one suspects Javier's illegal activities in a tiny town occupied by Republican troops . Once they have crossed the border, they both decide to run away together, but her conscience bothers her about becoming an unfaithful wife and neglecting her chores . In addition, on his trip a mysterious priest will be incorporated, whom no one knows, and whom Javier will have to stop. Father Antonio (Jaime Avellán) must choose between escaping anti-clerical persecution or his sacrifice for the sake of the freedom of others. While the Republican commander (Carlos Casaravilla), has to take decision whether his dealings with the smuggler or the pressure of the political commissioner to find and subsequently execute the priest .

The crossroads treated in this Alfonso Balcázar film is not unique, but concerns the developing of various thought-provoking crossroads or important , perfectly implausible decisions that our protagonists have to take : the first results to be the hard way to pass France crossing Pyrenees and the second Sandra must decide between her fidelity to Max or her passion for Javier , while this latter must choose between the immediate benefit of her when passing the escapees from Spain through the routes of the old smuggling or the assumption of the immorality of his behavior. All of them will behave in accordance with what the Spanish Censorship expected of them . The story is set in a delocalized as well as improbable Spanish Civil War . Along the way, a process in which it is not difficult to locate the sources of the plot in two Humphrey Bogart films : ¨Casablanca¨ ( Michael Curtiz, 1942) , ¨To Have and Have Not¨ (Howard Hawks, 1944) , and the posterior ¨Behold a pale horse¨(Fred Zinnemann , 1966) the latter dealing with the frontier Spain/France and the maquis , adding some elements of western and adventure cinema and superimposed on this plot of religious persecution. This circumstance is reinforced by the expressionist photography of one the best Spanish cameramen : Alfredo Fraile, who endows the film with atmospheric environment and an intense formalist halo .

The motion picture was middling but professionally directed by Alfonso Balcázar He was a prolific writer, producer or director who used to sign his films as Albagran / Al Bagran / Alphonso Balcazar / Alfonso Balcázar Granada . In La Encrucijada (1960) managed to make a fluid but slow-moving at times Spanish Civil war melodrama .Spanish filmmaker Alfonso Balcázar is best-known for directing numerous low-budget "Eurowesterns" and for producing Italian spaghetti Westerns via the P. C. Balcázar production company he co-founded with his brother Francisco Balcázar. Alfonso later founded the Filmax distribution company. Born into a life of privilege in a family of fur traders, Balcázar made his directorial debut in 1959 with La Encrucijada (aka Crossroads), a religious drama set during the Spanish Civil War. Balcázar became a producer in the early '60s and became involved with Italian Westerns, many of which were filmed in his own Barcelona-set studio. Alfonso alongside his brother Juan Jose Balcázar produced and directed a lot of Chorizo or Butifarra Western , most of them starred by Jorge Martin or Robert Woods ; such as 1972 ¨The return of Clint¨ , 1968 ¨Sartana no Perdone or Sonora¨ , 1967 ¨With Death on Your Back¨ , 1966 ¨Dinamita Jim¨ , 1965 ¨Doc, Manos de Plata¨ , 1965 ¨Viva Carrancho¨ , 1965 ¨Five Thousand Dollars on One Ace¨ and especially "Clint the Nevada's Loner" . But he also made other genres as Giallo : ¨Night of the Scorpion¨or ¨La Casa de las Muertas Vivientas and Drama : ¨La Encrucijada¨ , ¨? Donde vas triste de ti ?¨ , ¨Cena de Matrimonios¨ , ¨La Bella Lola¨ , among others . Much later in his career, Balcázar made a number of low-budget erotic exploitation films under the name "Al Bagran" , these Erotic films are the following ones : ¨Julieta¨ , ¨Deseo¨, ¨Colegialas Lesbianas¨ , ¨Las Primeras Experiencias¨, among others . Rating : 5.5/10 . Mediocre but acceptable and passable.