Two men die because of their eternal family vendetta (and because of a woman, Ana the anklet). The 'Ghost Boss' punishes them -they'll have to stay in the theatre where they killed each other, with no chance of resting in peace, till they become friends. 50 years pass. And they -because they're bored in an empty theater, or maybe because loneliness is too hard- start a friendship. The ghost boss sends them a 'Final Test' to prove they're really friends and they can go forever... It's a simple story, yes. But it is so well acted and, most of all, so well directed, that you forget it's from the early 50's: when Pérez (Germán Valdés Tin Tan) and López (Manuel Valdés, el Loco) find out they're ghosts, they start to use they're new powers with a brilliant use of edition. Special effects aren't sophisticated, but they work and amuse. Sometimes the humor is just surreal -a bit like Groucho's- and sometimes the story is tender and nostalgic. The happy end isn't the expected --which is good! that avoids the film of becoming a typical love/ghost story. At the end it demonstrates that, more than special computer effects, what makes a movie a good movie is the clever use of what is at hand --and a good script, rather than lousy scenes used like pretexts to show off what the computer can do.
Review of Dos fantasmas y una muchacha
