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jfsandin
Reviews
Aces High (1976)
OKish Entertaining, Unrealistic War Drama
The movie is overall quite alright, though if you've seen The Blue Max, the reused aerial combat footage is way too obvious.
Farmacia de guardia (1991)
Successful Spanish-made family entertainment of the 90s
This was a very popular Spanish-made TV comedy (at least in Spain and Portugal), the series aired in Antena 3 TV 1991-96, and told the stories happening around a barrio pharmacy managed by Lourdes Cano (Concha Cuetos). Lourdes had divorced Adolfo Segura (Carlos Larrañaga), a cheeky Don Juan (i.e. "philanderer") with whom she still shared a nice friendship, both tried to bring up together their children, Quique (Miguel Ángel Garzón) and Guille (Julián González).
All sorts of funny adventures, misunderstandings and even slapstick-comedy occurrences involving this family, its neighbours and the chemist's clientèle happened throughout the series.
"Farmacia de Guardia" was one of the longest running and most successful series in the history of television in Spain. This family entertainment had an efficient mixture of fresh and smart humour with some "fluffy" sentimental melodrama, the presence of some excellent actors and actresses made all these elements work together.
Tristeza de amor (1986)
One of the best-liked TV series of the 80s in Spain
Undoubtedly one of the best-liked series in Spain in the 80s, "Tristeza de amor" aired in TVE in 1986, starring Alfredo Landa and Concha Cuetos, it's about the world of radio, the first episodes deal with the crew of a radio programme, "Tristeza de Amor" (literally "Sadness of Love", however this title has little to do with the contents of the programme).
The plot evolves until the programme becomes very successful, gets a huge audience, and even wins some prestigious awards, then it is found out that Rivera, media mogul who owns the radio station, intends to discontinue this programme and fire its director, Ceferino, for no apparent reason, apart from his arrogant, spoilt and selfish will...
Great plot filled with unexpected twists and a very surprising ending. The acting is superb, Alfredo Landa at his best, trying to get rid of his image as an actor of mindless comedies of the 60s and 70s. The song by Hilario Camacho that played during the credits became one of the hits of 1986/87 in Spain.
Curro Jiménez (1976)
Masterpiece of the Spanish "Bandoleros' Movies"
Some twenty years after José María Forqué's masterpiece "Amanecer en Puerta Oscura", and twelve years after Mario Camus' "Llanto por un Bandido", came "Curro Jiménez" which would become the undisputed cornerstone of the so-called Andalusian Western.
This excellent TV series run in Televisión Española (the Spanish national public network) for three seasons (1976-79).
Its main character was loosely based in real-life bandolero Francisco "Curro" Jiménez Ledesma, from whom it barely took his name and little else, as most of the characters and events depicted were made up by the screenwriters and even the historic period was not consistent with that of the real Curro.
Curro Jiménez's gang lived a different adventure each episode, even though some of them took two, and the pilot was longer (and sometimes confused with the spin-off film), such a band was composed of Curro (Sancho Gracia) and his partners: el Estudiante ("the Student" Pepe Sancho), el Algarrobo (Álvaro de Luna) and el Fraile ("the Monk"), the latter was substituted by a new one, el Gitano ("the Gypsy" Eduardo García), when the actor who played it, Paco Algora left the show seeking (unsuccessfully) a better acting career playing main roles in cinema.
Being shot during the political transition between a military dictatorship and a democracy in Spain, the series was set in the 19th century, thus Curro and his men's struggle against the French invaders during the Spanish Independence War, and afterwards against the rural feuds, mirrored the struggle of the Spanish people themselves.
All the technical and artistic features: cinematography, music (unforgettable tune), acting etc were impeccable.
In its time the series made famous the actors who played its protagonists, as it was very popular in Spain and all over South America, giving birth to a couple of spin-offs.
In all, I guess to an American audience it must look like a mixture between El Zorro, "For a Fistful of Dollars", "the Magnificent Seven" and "The Wild Bunch", with a 19th century Southern Spanish setting.
In my opinion it was a great, funny, enjoyable, entertaining and action-packed show, I hope you will enjoy Curro's adventures, robbing stagecoaches, assaulting French military headquarters and being pursued by ruthless lawmen, as much as I did in my childhood.
If you already watched it and enjoyed it do not miss the above mentioned "Amanecer en Puerta Oscura" and "Llanto por un Bandido" and, of course, "Avisa a Curro Jiménez" (also known as "Curro Jiménez, the Movie"), and avoid at all costs its awful 1990s sequel "Curro Jiménez II: El Regreso de una Leyenda".