Noventa minutos

¨Ninety Minutes¨ is a film curiously set in London during the Blitz and should be of particular interest and enjoyment to British friends. It begins with a couple of bobbies (although they don't look like bobbies at all, so they could be military police patrolling the neighborhood or they could simply be part of the aesthetic of poverty so prevalent in Spanish cinema at the time), one of them named Preston (José Maria Lado) who will have an important role later, being one of those locked up. The bobbies talk and introduce us to the inhabitants of a particular building: Mrs. Winter (Julia Caba Alba) who lives and strictly controls her daughter Helen (Lolita Moreno), a Spanish colonel Coronel Urbaneta (Fulgencio Nogueras) and her grandson, a Spanish doctor, Eugenia Suárez (Nani Fernández), a nervous Mr. Marchand (Fernando Fernán-Gómez in an early character) and his wife who is waiting at any moment; and key to our narrative, Mrs. Dupont (Mary Lamar) and her husband. Mrs. Dupont was in love with her and wrote letters to Albert (Jacinto San Emeterio) now in her house trying to blackmail her with them. She wants £500 and then some. He only has 300 of her and is about to take advantage of her the moment her husband walks in on her. She takes Albert into another room to hide, and that's where the blackmailer comes face to face with a thief, Richard (Enrique Guitart). They know and don't like each other, and then they fight with each other, a bomb explodes, the blackmailer escapes, but the thief, now wounded, is forced to descend into the bomb shelter along with the other inhabitants of the building. But another bomb explodes blocking the only exit, and finally everyone is locked up. The feeling of having no way out is the main chilling plot, and the way each of the characters reacts to this claustrophobic situation is a starting point for a discussion of ideas. The film raises some thorny questions: How will each face the possibility of death? Will they go out?

¨90 Minutes¨ is a film that will fascinate people interested in Francoist Spanish culture, set during World War II, several people end up trapped in a basement after an air raid in London, with air only for 90 more minutes; turning out to be a clear reflection and condemnation of the civil war and its disasters. This is a claustrophobic story in which an intense drama collides with war , ideology and politics. The film was made in similar style to ¨Arturo Ruiz del Castillo's El santuario no se rinde (1949)¨ and ¨Augusto Genina's Sin Novedad en El Alcazar¨(1940) about people locked-up, setting on a closed location and praising the courage of the besieged heroes; these films are pretty well , though there is an excessive pamphlet tone and propaganda. The film exemplifies aspects of Franco's period: military establishment, strict marriage, condemn to adultery, Catholicism, motherhood, among others. Most of the action takes place on one set, the bomb shelter, a good way to make cheap movies, and particularly cheap considering that the entire movie was shot at night to take advantage of the daytime sets used for El Santuario no se rinde (A. Ruíz-Castillo, 1949). There is also a deadline: once all the inhabitants are under the effects of a destructive bomb, they only have ninety minutes of oxygen, then terror and lack of control take over the unfortunate people, reaching the point of wanting to kill a dog because it consumes the oxygen that can be used for the locked up. The film innocently depicts very rigid notions of gender with expressions such as: you are a real man, the delight when the baby born is a boy, and love story such as when the doctor Nani Fernández who has now fallen in love with the thief is quick to say that it is her first kiss; on Spanishness "you as a Spanish will understand"; and about religion, exposing: Catholicism is the most beautiful religion, as well as the impulse to baptize the baby due a his supposedly subsequent death and the meaning of the divine cross. But it had some legal problems because the script bordered on the censorship regulations at the time, due to its apology for peace. How this ideology precludes it from also being "a clear reflection and condemnation of the civil war and its disasters" is one of the reasons why the film remains so interesting. But it's not the only one, the plot is ingenious and interesting enough despite being developed mostly within four walls. The cinematography, carefully designed and in black and white with lights and shadows. And we have in view several different types of Spanish acting traditions, the traditional and spontaneous Julia Caba Alba, opposite Fernando Fernán Gómez who provides a histrionic performance as a cranky husband whose ailing wife is pregnant and about to have a child. Displaying a great cast with the best actors at the time such as: Enrique Guitart, José María Lado, Carlos Muñoz , Mary Lamar, Jacinto San Emeterio and José Jaspe.

It is shot by cameraman Juan Mariné with great skill and careful use of lighting, with deft compositions and expressive shallow focus. Mariné and Antonio Del Amo are filmmakers who knew what they were doing, but did not have the means to realize their ideas or make the best. The film was made by a team of experts who had fought on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War - something of an achievement in itself at the end of the forties, years of hunger and retribution - and by a filmmaker of peasant origin, Antonio del Amo. The movie was well and professionally directed by Antonio Del Amo, though it has some flaws and failures. At that time Antonio directed a trilogy of realistic films such as ¨Día Tras Día¨, ¨El Sol Sale Todos Los Dias¨ and his best film ¨Sierra Maldita' (1954) that was really influenced by the Mexican Indio Fernández. Del Amo is especially known for shooting "Joselito" films such as Saeta del Ruiseñor, El Ruiseñor de las cumbres, Listen to my song, The Little Colonel, The two urchins and Adventures of Joselito in America; although he also directed Spaghetti Western as ¨The son of Jesse James¨ and Eurospia as ¨001 Operación Caribe¨.