Skip to main content
In the Palm of Your Hand film image; man and woman standing around a table with a crystal ball

In the Palm of Your Hand

En la palma de tu mano

Mexico Noir

Book Now Book Now

Arturo de Córdova (The Kneeling Goddess; El) plays the charming, (over-)confident con-man “Professor Karin”, a clairvoyant who draws his second sight from gossip picked up by his girlfiend at the beauty salon where she works. He thinks he’s hit the jackpot when he hears about a beautiful widow (Leticia Palmer) whose millionaire husband conveniently expired. But you don’t need to be psychic to see that blackmailing a killer may not be a good idea…

The film develops into a gripping duel between two schemers who have each decided that crime will pay. Because it takes one to know one, their relationship has an element of attraction as well as competition. Director Roberto Gavaldón (La Otra) crafts a couple of macabre suspense sequences worthy of Hitchcock, while Karin’s sumptuously appointed studio, complete with crystal ball and zodiacal motifs, is a marvel to behold (shades of Nightmare Alley).

We appreciate the support of Fundación Televisa // DCP Courtesy of Cineteca Nacional México

Lyrical and blackly comic.

Imogen Sara Smith, Noir City

Darkly witty… We are kept guessing who will outdo who in this spirited noir, in which just about everyone has a murderous motive or a secret to hide.

Ela Bittencourt, Mubi Notebook

Director

Roberto Gavaldón

Cast

Arturo de Córdova, Leticia Palma, Ramón Gay, Consuelo Guerrero de Luna, Carmen Montejo

Credits
Country of Origin

Mexico

Year

1951

Language

In Spanish with English subtitles

19+
90 min

Book Tickets

Friday March 27

7:50 pm
Hearing Assistance Subtitles
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Book Now

Thursday April 09

6:00 pm
Hearing Assistance Subtitles
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Book Now

Credits

Screenwriter

José Revueltas, Roberto Gavaldón

Cinematography

Alex Phillips

Editor

Charles L. Kimball

Original Music

Raúl Lavista

Also in This Series: Mexico Noir

Curated by best-selling novelist Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Mexican Gothic), Mexico Noir is an invitation to discover a new shadow world.

La Otra

Dir. Roberto Gavaldón
98 min

Dolores del Rio plays twins on different sides of the wealth divide in this fiendish Mexican Noir thriller. Maria decides to murder Magdelana and step into her high heels. But can she carry it off?

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
The Night Falls
The Night Falls film image; woman peering over a man's shoulder

The Night Falls

Dir. Roberto Gavaldón
89 min

An arrogant, womanizing sports star eventually gets his comeuppance in this jet-black crime drama from director Roberto Gavaldón.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
In the Palm of Your Hand
In the Palm of Your Hand film image; man and woman standing around a table with a crystal ball

In the Palm of Your Hand

Dir. Roberto Gavaldón
90 min

Charming, (over-)confident clairvoyant Professor Karin hits the jackpot when he hears about a beautiful widow whose millionaire husband has just died. But you don't need to be psychic to see that blackmailing a killer may not be his best idea...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Another Dawn
Another Dawn film image; man and woman walking arm in arm

Another Dawn

Dir. Julio Bracho
108 min

In this overtly political thriller, a union organizer hides out from corrupt government goons with an old college flame — but the net is closing in...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
The Kneeling Goddess
The Kneeling Goddess film image; young bride with a veil draped across her face

The Kneeling Goddess

Dir. Roberto Gavaldón
82 min

In which wealthy industrialist Arturo de Cordova purchases the titular nude sculpture of his lover (María Félix) as an anniversary gift for his innocent, adoring wife. Soon enough the wife is dead, though untangling just how and why is part of the fun.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Skeleton of Mrs Morales

Dir. Rogelio A. González
85 min

In this delightful black comedy, an avuncular taxidermist (our old amigo Arturo de Córdova) is beloved by many but not his wife (Amparo Rivelles), a religious fanatic who can't bear to be touched. One day she pushes him too far...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Streetwalker
Streetwalker film image; forlorn-looking man and woman sitting at a table

Streetwalker

Dir. Matilde Landeta
101 min

Middle class and married, Elena (Miroslava Stern) has been seduced by an unscrupulous swindler, who turns out to be the pimp of Maria (Elda Peralta), a prostitute and Elena's estranged sister. But are they really so different under the skin?

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Victims of Sin

Dir. Emilio Fernández
84 min

This movie is a hot scramble of piety and passion, sentimentality and sleaze. Ninón Sevilla plays Violeta, a rumba sensation who oversteps when she rescues a newborn from the trash. This gets her fired and wins the enmity of the pimp who fathered the kid.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Salón México + Midnight Boogaloo Live!
Salón México film image; streetview at night

Salón México + Midnight Boogaloo Live!

Dir. Emilio Fernandez
95 min

To celebrate our Mexico Noir series we invited Midnight Boogaloo to get the party going with a mix of salsa, boogaloo and rock & roll. After their set enjoy the seminal dancehall melodrama Salón México, a classic from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Gabriel Figueroa & Alex Phillips: Painting It Black
Painting It Black film image; collage of black and white film imagery

Gabriel Figueroa & Alex Phillips: Painting It Black

30 min

In this free talk, educator and filmmaker Devan Scott (himself a professional cinematographer) will introduce you to the artistry of two giants of Mexican cinematagraphy, Gabriel Figueroa and Canadian Alex Phillips.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Él (This Strange Passion)

Dir. Luis Buñuel
93 min

A seemingly genteel and highly reputable gentleman reveals his true nature on his wedding night in this searing melodrama from surrealist Luis Buñuel, one of the most shocking films from his Mexican period.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Take Me In Your Arms

Dir. Julio Bracho
91 min

In this boldly stylized musical melodrama mixing reformist politics with outrageous musical numbers, the incomparable Ninón Sevilla is the poor fisherman's daughter navigating a success of dodgy men on her way to true love.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Sensualidad
Sensualidad film image; woman sitting in a shadowy prison cell

Sensualidad

Dir. Alberto Gout
90 min

Prostitute Aurora (Cuban-born dance queen Ninón Sevilla) gets out of prison and exacts her vengeance by seducing the very married and respectable judge who put her behind bars (Fernando Soler). Eros makes a mockery of rectitude and righteousness.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Criminal Life of Archivaldo de la Cruz

Dir. Luis Buñuel
89 min

Wealthy aesthete Archie de la Cruz has a confession to make (several in fact). Luis Buñuel's kinky black comedy is an elegant study in perversity, steeped in Freud and revelling in the repressed.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
El Suavecito
El Suavecito film image; group of people gathered in a room

El Suavecito

Dir. Fernando Méndez
99 min

Victor Parra is Roberto, "el Suavecito", the smoothie. Sprinkling his Spanish with slang and English, and sporting a Zoot suit, he's a gangster-wannabe, an obnoxious macho who isn't quite as tough as he likes to make out...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Salón México
Salón México film image; woman sitting next to a police officer on a staircase

Salón México

Dir. Emilio Fernandez
95 min

Cheated by her pimp, Mercedes recklessly steals his wallet and is only saved from a severe beating by the intervention of a kindly policeman. Hard-hitting social realism sits beside patriotic sentimentality and multiple red hot dance sequences.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Crepúsculo
Crepúsculo film image; man staring down at a cross head stone

Crepúsculo

Dir. Julio Bracho
108 min

A brain surgeon (Arturo de Córdova) begins to doubt his own sanity when the woman he's in love with (Gloria Marin) marries his brother — and he starts fantasizing about murder.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema