Historias de la radio (1955)

Director:

José Luis Sáenz de Heredia

Writers:

José Luis Sáenz de Heredia (screenplay)
José Luis Sáenz de Heredia (story)

Release Date:

25 July 1955 (Spain)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot Keywords:

Quiz Show | Radio

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Carlos Acevedo	...	Niño
Alicia Altabella	...	Compañera de redacción
Margarita Andrey	...	Carmen
Rafael Bardem	...	Director de la emisora
Francisco Bernal	...	Concejal
Xan das Bolas	...	Sargento de la guardia civil
Félix Briones	...	Guardia de la obra
Juan Calvo	...	Señor gordo
Ángel de Andrés	...	Ladrón
Bobby Deglané	...	Locutor
Teresa del Río	...	Empleada (as María Teresa del Río)
Antonio Fernández	...	Alguacil
Rafael Gómez 'El Gallo'	...	Figura ante el micrófono
Manuel Guitián	...	Triunfador
José Isbert	...	Inventor
José María Lado	...	Don Senen
Tony Leblanc	...	Chófer de la camioneta
Juanjo Menéndez	...	Alfredo
Luis Molowny	...	Figura ante el micrófono
Gracia Montes	...	Cancionista
Guadalupe Muñoz Sampedro	...	Esposa de Don Anselmo
José Orjas	...	Ayudante del inventor
Adrián Ortega	...	El alcalde
Carlos Osorio	...	Transeúnte
José Luis Ozores	...	El cura
Isabel Pallarés	...	Lavandera
Teófilo Palou	...	Viajero que busca taxi
Nicolás D. Perchicot	...	El médico
Pedro Porcel	...	Párroco
Francisco Rabal	...	Gabriel
Gustavo Re	...	Esquimal
Alberto Romea	...	Don Anselmo
Juan Vázquez	...	Señor calvo

Also Known As:

Radio Stories (International: English title) (literal title)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Madrid, Spain

Company:

Chapalo Films S.A.

Soundtrack:

La Romera

Dated, wincingly sentimental, mildly entertaining

By the time he made this, Sáenz de Heredia (who also filmed the Generalísimo's pungent attempt at a movie script, "Raza") was as efficient a facilitator of respectable, high-gloss, low-calorie regime-friendly entertainments as they come. Where this one deserves most credit is in the storyline, which contrives to hang several short tales onto a single narrative thread. The device works, and this in combination with a suavely persuasive offscreen narrator gives a sense that "the radio" is not merely a plotting pretext, but the object of a genuinely felt tribute. Of course we're talking not about the radio as instrument of government propaganda, nor as purveyor of mindless muzak, but as something that gets fat middle-aged men out of bed in the morning (to do slimming exercises), gives humble inventors the chance to win money for their prototypes (by dressing up as eskimos), persuades thieves to reach agreement with their intended victims in donating money to the Church, and allows old schoolmasters to win money in a quiz game called "Double or Nothing", in order (natch) to send a sick child to Stockholm for treatment.

When Heredia tries his hand at straightforward slapstick, as with the José Isbert number of the eskimo-inventor with the dangerous dog early in the film, it's quite nicely done, and the laughs come easily. When he laces the comedy with sentimentality, and deliberately racks up the sentiment in a steady crescendo throughout, it would take a very undemanding (or old-fashioned) audience nowadays not to get restless. That a dispute (for example) between would-be burglar and intended victim is resolved by a Parish priest is perhaps sociologically admissible; that this priest should be portrayed as a paragon of wisdom and Christian virtues is perhaps understandable given ths strictures of censorship and so on; but the sentimental excesses of this movie go well beyond that, and include a penitent bread-thief in a church, a dying boy whose every other script sentence contains a Noble Gesture; and a schoolmaster who is so well aided by the praying boy and the intercession of Saints, that he develops a previously unsuspected footballing career. If this kind of thing doesn't stand up so well nowadays (not to mention statues of saints that come alive) it's perhaps just a question of fashion. All the same, you end up thanking your nearest St Antony for the genius of a Berlanga, who could make a film funny without playing any of the cheap sentiment cards that this movie has recourse to. Watchable but terminally dated.