El Caso de Carmen Broto (1990)

Spanish Circulo Digital 2003 DVD edition



From the Spanish TV series La huella del crimen (1984-1990) with episodes about famous Spanish crimes comes this late entry
to the series with direction, script and production by Pedro Costa. In the main role we have the beautiful actress Silvia Tortosa (born
in Barcelona 1947) who has appeared in a lot of TV series but also in a lot of films by popular genre directors as i.a. Jesús Franco,
Carlos Aured, Paul Naschy, Amando De Ossorio in Las Garras de Lorelei and in the horror classic Horror Express by Eugenio Martin
and she's still fully active as an actress today in Spain 2019. (La huella del crimen - The Trace of the crime)

I would like to have the whole TV series if i could find it with subtitles, as my Spanish is very poor, but that's probably not a possibility.
Because i was pretty impressed with this late film in the series, with the fine acting from everyone, with nice camerawork giving it some
nice atmosphere and with good direction.

El Crimen de la calle Legalidad - a crime that took place in 1949 Barcelona against the background of the shady nightlife of the socialites
in the city during the Franco regime. The case is shrouded in mystery as the real reason for it still is unknown, even though robbery was
the official motive according to the police. But, and as the filmmakers seems to lean to, the crime may have had to do with the abhorrent
sexual behaviour of the rich and mighty - the Francoists, and that the murder was ordered to erase all proofs and witnesses thereof ?

Carmen Broto (Silvia Tortosa) was a prostitute that step by step got higher up in the powerful circles of the city, she met a sugar daddy in
Ramon (Angel De Andres Lopez) who gave her money and a luxurious apartment. She continued selling sex and had a lot of rich and powerful
clients and soon she had fancy clothes, furs and jewels. Carmen had met and fallen for the young and handsome Jesús (Sergi Mateu) and he's
a gangster from Mallorca. Together with his thugs, including his own father, a safecracker, he planned to murder Carmen for her riches.
The filmmakers suggests that Carmen had a brothel in her apartment and that she may've secretely photographed her powerful clients having
deviant sex and also had listings with their names and that that was the real motive for the murder.

This is a famous Spanish crime case and there's alot written about it on the Internet. One thing that is incorrect is the age, Carmen Broto was
only 26 years old when she died and Silvia Tortosa was 43 years old when she filmed this in 1990, but that doesn't matter, as a middle-aged
Carmen Broto works perfectly fine too. Silvia Tortosa is great.
The reason i bought this film, when visiting Spain, was Tortosa as i knew her from Horror Express (Pánico en el Transiberiano) and from one of
my favourite horror movies, Las garras de Lorelei. Silvia Eulalia Catalina Tortosa López still looked luscious in the 2003 DVD extras

The DVD presents the film in original 4:3 fullscreen ratio and with a spanish audio 2.0 DD mono WITHOUT any subtitles, region 2.
This TV movie lasts for 60 minutes. Extras: a lot of featurettes with interviews, with director, scriptwriter and producer (also of the whole very
highly regarded TV series) Pedro Costa, with Silvia Tortosa, with crime experts etc., biographies and filmographies, ficha tecnica & artistica

 

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