El día de los enamorados (1959) Poster

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6/10
On his Saint's day, Valentine comes down to earth turned into an elegant matchmaker.
ma-cortes13 February 2023
The motion picture was professionally directed by Fernando Palacios , being well and solidly paced. A choral and fun movie with attractive characterizations by all Spanish-star-cast, depicting various couples through several loving actions and their jobs . Four couples are aided in their troubles by Saint Valentine on lover's day. For Conchita's (Conchita Velasco) boyfriend (Antonio Casal) football comes first, Manolo is too practical for Luisa, Athena (Katia Loritz) is a television presenter, she is madly in love with a colleague (Manuel Monroy) . Atenea's beloved is resistant to her attraction , and Mª José (Mabel Karr) is too rich to find a right man. Although the main center of the plot results to be the problematic relationship between two endearing boyfriends . Entertaining , light choral romantic comedy without too many pretensions . Stars a group of beautiful women and their troubles , but in their young minds, one idea surpasses all: the hunt for a husband , while they work intending to marry a handsome suitor .

Amusing , but average comedy about some young women and men , their loving problems and jobs . Stars St. Valentine, cheerfully played by George Rigaud , who has been entrusted with an important mission: to help several engaged couples who have some complications in their relationship. The film contrasts the wedding wishes of the leading women with the joy of being single for the men , and crosses various relationships in a way that is as superficial and predictable . It displays a Spanish star-studded cast : Antonio Casal who works in a shoe store and is a soccer fanatic, something that unsettles his girlfriend Conchita finely played by Concha Velasco , Tony Leblanc as Manolo as the driver of a line bus who falls madly in love with Luisa finely performed by María Mahor , a passenger who is an expert in manicures . And Maria José is a beautiful and idealistic millionaire willing to find true love . Taking the Italian comedy of intertwined episodes ¨Anthology Picture¨ as a model, writers Antonio Vich , Pedro Masó and Rafael J. Salvia build this story shot entirely in Madrid under the guidance of Fernando Palacios who made a sequel too. As there are still a lot of problems in the relationships of the Spanish couples when Saint Valentine returns to earth and especially to Madrid in order to fix these problems by walking on the Gran Via . The picture is agile and friendly, highlighting the bond between Concha Velasco and Antonio Casal with some funny situations . Situations of comedy and brief drama are alternated with a magnificent main and secondary cast, as the chief diversion is to guess which next character to appear here and there, such as : Antonio Riquelme, Ángel Ter, Pedro Porcel, José Orjas, Manolo Gómez Bur, Francisco Bernal, Enrique Ávila , José Riesgo , Carlos Romero Marchent , Paul Piaget , José Maria Tasso , Rafael Hernández, Fernando Sánchez Polack , among others . The film depicts the Franco epoch and the dictatorship society , but no politic satire but costumbrism or social habits . It has very local aspects of the old Spanish society , concerning the necessity to marry , a traditional way of living , religious moral, sexual repression , among others . It is a so-so Spanish comedy that offers no intellectual stimulus whatsoever , though it has some fun and hilarious moments .This hilarious as well as average romantic comedy is full of humor , absurd scenes , and narrating the traditional Spanish society in which ruled a dictatorship with modernity. It is a simple , and humorous portrait of a time when the Spanish people live in the late Fifties , including the consuming society and a very slight opening to freer and more permissive societies . There are several topics in this film , though many of them we can find in current societies with certain parallelism in a traditional way of life .

It has a pleasant aesthetic full of light and color with stupendous photography in Technicolor and in filmscope by cameraman Alejandro Ulloa . As well as atmospheric and evocative musical score by Augusto Algueró . The motion picture was decently directed by Fernando Palacios who made various comedies and this was one of his greatest boxoffice hits and rightly so . Palacios directed a great number of films of all kinds of genres with especial penchant for comedies . Fernando was a good filmmaker who directed some acceptable comedies as El dia de enamorados, Juanito, Tres de la Cruz Roja, Vuelve San Valentin, Marisol rumbo a Rio, Operacion embajada, Buscame esa chica, La familia y uno mas and Whisky y Vodka. Rating : 6/10 . Good Spanish comedy that will appeal to Tony Leblanc , Concha Velasco enthusiasts . Worthwhile watching . Followed by Vuelve San Valentin 1962 by Fernando Palacios with George Rigaud as San Valentín , Amparo Soler Leal , Cassen , Manolo Gómez Bur , Teresa del Río , José Luis López Vázquez and Gracita Morales.
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