A soap opera film around a family saga who suffers several distresses, unfortunes and deaths about their coal mining work. It is set near Gijon, Asturias 1912, there lives Domingo Ordietes : Luis Induni, wife : Ana Maria Noe and their 4 sons, these are a follows, Jandro : Arturo Fernandez, Pedro : Alfredo Alcon, Juan : Pepe Martin, ads Manolin : Miranda. Then, at the Asturian mine happens a tragic event, as in the mine underground where they work takes place a collapse, falling the galley down, it results in the dramatic deaths of the father and one brother. After that, the angry brothers frame the mine owner : George Rigaud, of low quality on security. The latter, a mean upper-class person has a beautiful daughter : Maria Mahor who falls for Pedro : Alfredo Alcon.
A nice family drama about a hard-working family including emotion, thrills, intense drama and a romantic love story . It deals with the developing of a kindly and enjoyable family, all of them with extreme effort as well as dedication arrange to make a small fortune by explotating a mine by the sea, but then things go wrong. The main characters are pretty well drawn, as Jandro played by the great Arturo Fernandez playing a womanizer with only one desire to go Paris but also to love girls, Pedro finely performed by Alfredo Alcon as the stubborn labourer who will stop at nothing to get his purport : to create a coal explotation by investing some money. While Maria Mahor is very fine as the obstinate daughter who takes on her father to marry her lover. Furthermore, a great plethora of secondaries, full of familiar faces such as : Ana Maria Noe as the kind mother, Pepe Martin as the deceased brother, Frank Braña as a foreman, Agustin Gonzalez as an entrepreneur , Rafael Hernandez, Valentin Tornos, Maria Angeles Hortelano and Luis Induni as a honest dad.
The motion picture was well directed by Julio Coll and it won National Syndicate of spectacle award to best film and the best support actress : Ana Maria Noé. Here Julio Coll delivers a nice direction, though there are some flaws. Coll was a fine writer and filmmaker, he wrote around 30 scripts, his first was Apartado Correos 1001 by Julio Salvador. His film debut was Nunca es demasiado tarde 1956, following La carcel de cristal, Distrito quinto, Un vaso de whisky, Los cuervos, these films were dramas with social denounce and Noir elements. He went on directing acceptable films as La cuarta ventana, Ensayo general de la muerte, Los muertos no perdonan. Subsequently, Coll made co-productions as Fuego or Pyro, Comando de asesinos, Persecucion hasta Valencia, El mejor del mundo and the epic La Auracana, his last one until his early death at 53. Rating : 6.5 /10. An acceptable, almost notable family drama that will appeal to Spanish cinema aficionados
