Manolo, la nuit (1973) Poster

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5/10
Ordinary Spanish comedy with the great Alfredo Landa , creator of a hilarious sub-genre : Landismo
ma-cortes27 July 2020
Amusing , routine and average comedy written by regular Vicente Coello and Mariano Ozores himself with top-notch actors , and being middlingly made by the prolific Mariano Ozores . This comedy tells the story of Manolo (Alfredo Landa) , he is employed in a tourism agency in the Costa del Sol , while making love gorgeous tourists and in the capital , his wife Susana (Maria José Alfonso) suffers at home in the city of Madrid . Manolo usually seduces beautiful foreign girls (Nadiuska, Carmen Platero : two regular ¨Destape¨ actresses) who are on holidays in Spain . Advised by her sister Martina (Josele Román) and brother-in-law (José Sacristan) Susana schemes a twisted vengeance by simulating pregnancy . At first, Manolo is very lucky to have a baby . However, soon he realizes that he cannot be the father since he was not in the city at the time of conception ; along the way , he attempts to enjoy Madrid life style but his girlfriends from Costa Del Sol come to Madrid and things go wrong . Then , Manolo becomes involved into twisted and disconcerting incidents.

Fun and silly Spanish comedy whose main premise is simple and plain , being plenty of disconcertingly executed gags involving the botcher but philander Manolo , it should lure buffs of absurd comedy . The idiotic script is full of messes and mayhem , but being funny . You may find it so very dated and corny. The script keeps in the sillines flowing , being an unlikely and run-of-the-mill parody with no much sense . But never mind the old fashioned it may look , just watch it, considering this is a Spaniard comedy with its standard humor . It has absurd incidents , and lots of silly laughs , too ; including amusing and bewildering happenings . May be it is difficult for a non-Spanish to understand this kind of humour - as it's hard for a Spaniard to understand Mr. Bean's humour, but for those who have loved Torrente, and who know a little bit about life in Spain in late 60's and 70's , as well as the tourism impact , all of them may find this satiric glimpse at their uses very entertaining and partially realistic , in spite of the ridiculous happenings . Alfredo Landa's performance is nice and fair as a married seducer who enjoys the foreign babes . May be he was not the actor to play Shakespeare , but it seems this character was made for him. Landa (3 March 1933 - 9 May 2013) was a great Spanish actor. He was born in Pamplona (Navarre), Spain. He finished his pre-university studies in San Sebastián. He then began university studies on Law, where he began to work with university school groups. He left university to work in the theater.After working as a dubbing actor for a short time in the 1950s, he debuted with his first considerable role in film in José María Forqué's Atraco a las tres in 1962. Other essentila roles were in : Forty Degrees in the Shade by Mariano Ozores , Un diablo bajo la almohada by José María Forqué , Los subdesarrollados by Fernando Merino , Los que tocan el piano by Javier Aguirre , No somos de piedra Manuel Summers , La dinamita está servida by Fernando Merino , Tío ¿de verdad vienen de París? Mariano Ozores , Esclava te doy by Eugenio Martín , Mayordomo para todo : Mariano Ozores , Alcalde por elección : Mariano Ozores , El puente : Juan Antonio Bardem , Borrasca : Miguel Ángel Rivas , Historia de S. : Francisco Lara Polop , El rediezcubrimiento de México : Fernando Cortés . When Francisco Franco died in 1975, censorship began to disappear. This led to a growth of erotic comedies on Spanish cinema. Landa became the "sexually repressed" role of that trend, especially under directors Mariano Ozores and Pedro Lazaga. He even created his own trend, that some people called landismo . Afterwards, Landa changed his image, taking much deeper roles, like his bandit in El Bosque animado .And with filmmaker Jose Luis Garci : Las verdes praderas , began a new important period with hits as Crack I and Crack II . Landa, along with Francisco Rabal, won Best Actor award at 1984 Cannes Film Festival for his memorable performance in Los santos inocentes. He is now widely recognized as a great dramatic actor.After a career with more than one hundred and twenty movies, one dozen of television series, and several stage successes, with a great amount of Spanish and European awards, 74-year-old Landa announced his retirement at the X Festival de Cine de Málaga (10th Movie Festival of Málaga) while receiving a new award until his deat at 2013 . Alfredo Landa is well supported by a good and familiar cast , such as : Josele Román who was Winner Prize of the National Syndicate of Spectacle to Best Female Star , María José Alfonso, Juanjo Menendez , José Sacristán , Ricardo Merino , Nadiuska , Carmen Platero , Alberto Fernández , and , of course , Rafaela Aparicio playing her usual role as a servant . And especial mention for Antonio Ozores giving the most sympathetic and hilarious acting .

It contains an atmospheric cinematography by Manuel Rojas . Being shot on location in Torremolinos, Málaga, Andalucía, and Madrid. And evocative musical score by usual Antón Garcia Abril in his ordinary style of the 60s and 7os . This passable picture with some amusing moments , being professional but regularly made by Mariano Ozores in his usual style , getting big success in the Spanish box office and he made several flicks in similar wake . Mariano's family origin is into show business , being son of Mariano Ozores Sr and brother of José Luis Ozores and Antonio Ozores . Furthermore , uncle of Emma Ozores and Adriana Ozores . Mariano is a craftsman filmmaker and writer , in fact he wrote the fun screenplay , he recently won a Goya Award (2016) to his long and fruitful career . The latter made with these two famous comedians , -Fernando Esteso and Andres Pajares- several films , as they had various years partnership between the two leads , such as ¨Agitese Antes Usarla¨ , ¨Al Este Del Oeste¨, ¨Los Liantes¨, ¨Los Energeticos¨, ¨La Lola Lleva Al Huerto¨ , ¨El Currante¨ , ¨El Hijo Del Cura¨...these films are filled with humor that still holds up , especially for those not easily offended ; being sometimes cheesy and gross-out with numerous naughty and picaresque situations such as sex jokes , adulteries , crazy events , nudism , absurd situations , jealousy , and erotic scenes. His most successful films were the following ones : The Dancer and the Worker (1936) ,Desert Warrior (1957) , Night and Dawn (1958) , The Daughters of Helena (1963) , Forty Degrees in the Shade (1967) , Operation Mata Hari (1968) , La descarriada (1973). Rating Manolo la nuit : 5/10 . So-so , but passable and acceptable .
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10/10
Wonderful
yo-1710 January 2003
Manolo, nuit is one of those putrid comedies that Antonio Ozores at the rate of 5 or 6 per year directed, but provided with a special enchantment. With laughter, conjugal disagreements, deceits but with I put positive and the great final triumph of the love. Bueeeeerk!
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