The Cinematheque

“Simply one of the finest noir-drenched crime films of the 1950s (and maybe ever).”

Eddie Muller, Film Noir Foundation

A sensational rediscovery! Argentinian director Fernando Ayala’s 1956 film noir, brilliantly photographed and boldly told, was thought lost until a negative was found in a basement in 2014. Probing into the darkest corners of the human psyche, its tale of guilt, paranoia, and murder has a down-on-his luck Buenos Aires journalist partnering with a canny Hungarian immigrant on a correspondence-school scam. The Expressionist visuals, including a Spellbound-like dream sequence, are by Ricardo Younis, a student of Citizen Kane cameraman Gregg Toland. The movie, winner of Argentina’s Oscars for best film and director, was named one of the ​“best-shot films of all-time” by American Cinematheque magazine. The notable score is by nuevo tango pioneer Astor Piazzolla.

Preservation funded by the Film Noir Foundation.