Apenas un delincuente

This is the last movie made in Argentina by Argentine director Hugo Fregonese prior to his Hollywood and European career, started with One Way Street in 1950. Fregonese later made other movies in Argentina, some with American actors such as Savage Pampas in 1966, others with Argentine personnel like his last two films.

Apenas un Delincuente (Hardly a Criminal, 1949) is a good action movie with the look and feel of a film noir, no doubt influenced by American and French movies of the time. Good script, somewhat naive here and there. Good acting by Jorge Salcedo, a popular actor of the forties and fifties, and an excellent supporting cast. Production values are high, typical for the Argentine studio system. In particular, black and white cinematography by Roque Giaccovino is moody and suggestive, with an expressionist look in interiors. Fregonese's direction is steady and energetic, and this film can sustain the claim of being the best he ever directed, even in view of his later Hollywood work.

A curiosity: 26 minutes into the movie, in a casino scene, we can see actress Faith Domergue in an uncredited cameo. Fregonese had married Domergue in a previous visit to Hollywood in 1947.

Nostalgics will enjoy the views of various parts of Buenos Aires at a time where the city was not cluttered with high rises.