A woman , Isabel Espinosa (Ana Mariscal) , is told his military husband , -John Brand (Adriano Rimoldi)- , is considered dead during ¨Dunkerke defeat¨ , the truth is he has been transferred to the Allied secret service . John was wounded in combat and after his recovery is ordered by his superiors to carry out a risked assignment traveling to Algiers and Spain . As Mayor Bromfield (Ángel Picazo) assigns him a dangerous mission . Meanwhile, John is being pursued by an enemy spy (Osvaldo Genazzani) . John goes to Algiers and when he returns to Spain and the marriage gets reunited he ends killing a German spy , and then she gets prosecuted at a criminal court , being defended by her friend and suitor Carlos Ferrer (Conrado San Martín).
Vintage film with great historical background about WWII , adding stock footage . In first part of the movie we watch the lovely relationship between a marriage and their friend advocate-in-law Ferrer/Conrado San Martin and how Rimoldi/John Brand is considered a war casualty in Dunkerke . From here begins the second part of the film , where the center of the story is the reunion of the couple , and the struggle to maintain the secrecy of the mission leading to sad events occurring after the meeting . A well pace movie with nice narrating structure , being well made , though containing improbable happenings . The yarn also shows some social habits as village parties , traditional ¨Romerias¨ , and folk dances . The main cast is pretty good , such as Ana Mariscal as the damsel in distress , Conrado San Martin as an intelligent lawyer and Adriano Rimoldi who gives an acceptable acting showing their bravura and comradeship . As the performance all of them results to be decent , exceeding even that acting of the two protagonists . Support cast is frankly excellent , full of familiar faces as Maria Martin , Ángel Picazo , José Ramón Giner , and the Police Inspector Rafael Bardem who also played the remake and José Isbert who delivers the comical relief , as usual .
The motion picture was professionally directed by Antonio Román , but it has some flaws and gaps . He was an uneven filmmaker , here Antonio Román surprises us with a historical film set in WWII , plenty of intrigue , court drama , heroic deeds , but being unlikely and with no much interest . Román was Spain's most celebrated filmmaker , wrote a lot of of movies and directed a few short documentaries and went on to become one of the managers of the Cooperativa Cinematográfica Castilla . And was director of the stage company ¨ La Barraca¨ along with Federico Garcia Lorca . His film debut was a documentary , ¨La Ciudad Encantada¨. And subsequently his first full length film was 1941's "Escuadrilla" (Squadron), at his best , it was made in collaboration with Raza's José Luis Sáenz De Heredia . Later on , he directed various dated historical dramas as the biographic ¨Lola Montes¨ , and ¨Lópe De Vega's Fuenteovejuna¨ . And notorious adaptations : ¨Shakespeare's Fierecilla Domada¨,¨ Buero Vallejo's Madrugada¨, ¨Angel Maria Lera's Clarines Del Miedo¨. Furthermore , several melodramas as ¨Pacto De Silencio¨ , ¨La Vida Encadenada¨ and ¨Intriga¨ . And he made some Folkloric films . Soon after , he went on writing reviews and directing films throughout the '60s and into the 70s , although his output slowed , and had his own production company : Emisora Films . In 1970, he was fired from the set of "Ringo Del Nebraska", after having filmed less than 10%, because the producer did not like his slow and meticulous pace . He was replaced by Mario Bava, his friend and protégé , in fact Román wrote "Planet of the Vampires". Out of respect for Román, Bava refused to accept credit on the film.
I was remade by Antonio Román himself in 1966 also titled ¨Pacto De Silencio¨ with Yvonne Bastien and Pierre Brice . "Pacto De Silencio" tells the story of a commander of the French army (Pierre Brice), in Algeria during the Algerian War of Independence (also called War of Algeria and the Algerian Liberation War) that took place between 1954 and 1962 and was a period of National Liberation Front of Algeria (FLN) supported by the country's original inhabitants against French colonization in Algeria established since 1830 and the bloody battles were in the form of guerrilla warfare and fighting against the French army , it ended with the recognition by France, through the "Evian agreements" of the independence of Algeria on July 5, 1962 . This film is enough interesting , along with the presence of a large supporting cast , such as Angel De Andrés, Laly Soldevilla, Carlos Estrada, Rafael Bardem, Matilde Muñoz Sampedro and Tomás Blanco .
