Glamorous, selfish Magdalena (Dolores del Rio) married — and buried — money. Her estranged, mousy twin sister Maria (also Dolores del Rio) is scratching a living as a manicurist. Pawed by male clients, and unable to meet her rent, she’s ready to end it all — by disposing of Magdalena and stepping into her high heels. But can she carry it off?
This fiendish thriller may sound far-fetched (yes, yes, it is) but it’s emotionally honest, or at least, deeply romantic in the fatalistic mode of Mexican noir. We really feel for poor Maria as fate conspires to make her pay for her transgressions. (And who wouldn’t want to swap places with Magdalena, whose closet is bigger than her sister’s hovel of an apartment?)
After Bunuel, Roberto Gavaldón was probably the most gifted filmmaker working in Mexico in the 1950s. He’s a master of depth of field and loves mirror imagery, which is particularly appropriate in this tale of double dealers passing through the looking glass. In this movie he’s also blessed with two brilliant actors in the twin form of Dolores del Rio. As the novelist Carlos Fuentes wrote, “If Garbo was a woman who became a goddess, Dolores del Río was a goddess who became a woman”. Here she’s both, and doomed twice over.
Opening Night screening (March 26) will be followed by an on stage discussion with Mexico Noir curator and best-selling Mexican Gothic novelist Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
We appreciate the support of Filmoteca UNAM // DCP Courtesy of Filmoteca UNAM
La Otra takes a darker and more jaded view of morality than its Hollywood rivals… Everything we see is duplicitous and patently false.
David Melville, Senses of Cinema
Cinematographer Alex Phillips creates a variety of stunning sequences… the murder scene choreographed in silhouette is noir at its gorgeous pinnacle.
Heart of Noir
If one is pressed to explain the sensual and often masochistic beauties particular to postwar Mexican cinema, there are perhaps a half-dozen passages in Roberto Gavaldón’s La otra that could do the job in a trice.
Nick Pinkerton, ArtForum
Roberto Gavaldón
Dolores del Rio, Agustín Irusta, Víctor Junco
Mexico
1946
In Spanish with English subtitles
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Credits
Producer
Mauricio de la Serna
Screenwriter
José Revueltas, Roberto Gavaldón
Cinematography
Alex Phillips
Editor
Charles L. Kimball
Original Music
Raúl Lavista
Production Design
Gunther Gerszo
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.
The Night Falls
An arrogant, womanizing sports star eventually gets his comeuppance in this jet-black crime drama from director Roberto Gavaldón.
In the Palm of Your Hand
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...
The Kneeling Goddess
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.
Streetwalker
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?
Victims of Sin
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.
El Suavecito
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...
Salón México
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.
Crepúsculo
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.