Feature film
The Blood Stain
La mancha de sangre
Adolfo Best Maugard · 1937
Synopsis
Camelia, a hostess in a wretched Mexico City cabaret, meets Guillermo, a young man from the provinces, and falls in love with him. Her pimp, Gastón, separates them. Guillermo reappears later in a gang of thieves led by a character nicknamed the Prince, and Camelia tries to dissuade him from the job they are planning.
Context
Written by the director and Miguel Ruiz Moncada, shot in 1937 at the Azteca studios, the film was banned in 1942 by the head of the cinema department, who judged its prostitutes, dancers and singers contrary to morality. It was released, heavily mutilated, in June 1943 at the Politeama cinema, stayed four weeks, then disappeared. Regarded as lost, it was found in 1993 by the Filmoteca of the national university, which is missing one sound reel and one picture reel.
Who it is for
A film of about seventy minutes, incomplete; the missing dialogue has been reconstructed by lip-reading.
Prizes and reception
The author's only feature film, banned and then lost for half a century, it became on its rediscovery a mythical film of Mexican cinema.
Sources for this page 3
The pages consulted to check this page.