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El Satánico
Mexico/Puerto Rico 1968
produced by Jorge García Besné for Filmica Vergara, Peliculas Portorriquenas
directed by José Díaz Morales
starring Libertad Leblanc, Miguel Ángel Álvarez, Santanón, Gladys Rodríguez, José Yedra, Juan Batista, José de San Antón, José M. Bonilla, Vicky Hernández, Iris Figueroa, Alicia Moreda, Tino García, Ondina Canibano, Oswaldo Sánchez
story by Raúl Portillo, screenplay by Jorge García Besné, Raúl Portillo, music by Jesús Rodríguez
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Tony is the leader of a gang of jewel thieves, and his heists almost
invariably relie on the fact that ... well, that he's a midget and can get
into spots no normal-sized man can get into. And yet, Tony has an
inferiority complex because of being short as he is, something which shows
in sudden fits of rage. Tony is also madly in love with Norma, his moll he
picked from a brothel, but she can't stand him, but stays with him for his
money. She cheats on him though at every opportunity - until Tony catches
her with one of her lovers, upon which Tony kills his competition and has
his body dumped on the beach. Norma runs away of course. There also is
another side to Tony though, he does care for an innocent blind girl named
Alicia, and she falls in love with him. With the money from his heists,
Tony even pays her eye surgery so she can see again - but when she has
finally had her surgery, he's too timid to show himself to her (after all
she doesn't know he's a midget) and goes so far to leave the country ...
on a heist of course, as he steals the priceless gems off an ancient
statue inside the luggage department of an airplane, hidind in his
right-hand man Roberto's suitcase. But Roberto gets greedy and puts the
suitcase containing Tony in a bathtub to fill it up and drown Tony. The
police have since picked up the trail of Tony, but in the end they only
find his corpse in a suitcase in the bathtub. El Satánico
is a pretty decent noir actually, that manages to tell its story about an
evil midget without the sensationalism usually associated with the
concept, instead it tells a well-structured and well-paced story that
might not be completely free of clichées, but that definitely relies on
original ideas and definitely has its moments. It's not a masterpiece mind
you, but very good genre entertainment nevertheless.
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