RED FISHES + THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE

Arturo de Cordova

For nearly four decades, Mexican actor Arturo de Cordova was a bankable star on “the Latin circuit” (Spain, Mexico, Argentina). His strong intimations of obsession, jealousy, and madness were his calling cards in an on-screen persona that captured seemingly infinite gradations of masculine excess. It’s only fitting that a series like MIDCENTURY MADNESS should conclude with two ultra-rare examples of de Cordova’s affinity for “men on the brink.”

In RED FISHES / LOS PESCES ROJOS (Spain, 1955, 100 min) and THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE / EL HOMBRE SIN ROSTRO (Mexico, 1950, 91 min) he plays mama’s boys driven to fantasy and fabrication that border on the supernatural. In the former, he’s a would-be novelist whose greatest fiction is invented to trick his way into an inheritance; in the latter, he’s a police investigator haunted by dreams that strongly suggest he’s suppressing his own past, leading to a set of horrific and surreal revelations. Both films are gloriously overwrought and filled with flashbacks, demonstrating that the narrative virus of film noir was even more potent (and downright queasy!) in the hands of international directors. Come see why the “latin circuit” anointed de Cordova as their “go-to guy” for toxic masculinity!