doi.org/10.15178/va.2018.142.1-17

RESEARCH

METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS IN THE RESEARCH OF THE “DARK PERIOD” OF SPANISH CINEMA (1969-1975): THE CASE OF THE THRILLER

PROBLEMAS METODOLÓGICOS NA INVESTIGAÇÃO DO ¨PERÍODO OSCURO¨ DO CINEMA ESPANHOL (1969-1975): O CASO DO THRILLER

PROBLEMAS METODOLÓGICOS EN LA INVESTIGACIÓN DEL “PERÍODO OSCURO” DEL CINE ESPAÑOL (1969-1975): EL CASO DEL THRILLER

José Luis López Sangüesa¹ Degree in Audiovisual Communication and Master in Audiovisual Heritage of the Complutense University of Madrid. Currently PhD in Audiovisual Communication at the UCM with a thesis on The Spanish thriller (1969-1983). He studied Filmmaking at the School of Cinematography and Audiovisual of the Community of Madrid (ECAM). It is also Master in Camera and Lighting of Film and TV of the TAI Film School (2010-2011). He has served as cameraman for television and corporate videos for several years, he has been stage director and of several short films, and has given several lectures on film themes at the Ateneo de Madrid and Real Madrid Economic Society of Friends of the Country (RSEMAP). He is currently professor of various audiovisual materials in the audiovisual Text & Line School of Madrid and honorary associate of CAVP-1 Department of the Faculty of Information Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid.

¹Faculty of Information Sciences, Department CAVP-1, University Complutense of Madrid

ABSTRACT
Definition of the crisis period of the Francoist cinematographic machinery, hereby called “Dark Period” (1969-1975), and definition of the methodological problems found in relation to the research of this historical stage of Spanish Cinema, and especially in relation to the police thriller. The economic period has been chosen because of the importance that, according to studies, critics and spectators it has in the conformation of the modern Spanish cinema, as industry, art and historiographic element. Confronted with the possibility that an excessive lack of care by the contemporary professionals and politicians might had driven to a neglection to preserve important matherial, testimonies and documents that might had resulted invaluable to modern students. The lack of these, and the long time lapse might be the first but not only causes of the present difficulties to create complete monographies, able to submit a comprehensive explanation of the period. The demarcation of the period 1969-1975 is previously clarified before the historiographical void on this matter. Those specific movies of this current and period not listed in the funds of the state film archives are recovered. Finally, the pertinent conclusions are drawn.

KEYWORDS: Film crisis, Dark Period, Film genres, Thriller, Police cinema, Techniscope, Pulp

RESUMEN
Definición de la etapa de crisis del aparato cinematográfico franquista, llamada en España “Período Oscuro” (1969-1975), y definición de los problemas metodológicos encontrados en relación a la investigación de dicha etapa histórica del cine español, y sobre todo en relación al thriller policíaco. El periodo económico se ha escogido por la importancia que, acorde a críticos, estudios y espectadores, tuvo para la formación del moderno cine español como industria, como arte y como elemento historiográfico, ante la posibilidad de que un tratamiento excesivamente descuidado de los profesionales y políticos contemporáneos resultara en dejadez a la hora de conservar materiales, testimonios y documentos que habrían demostrado ser irreemplazables para los estudiosos posteriores. La carencia de estos y el tiempo transcurrido afloran como causas primeras pero no únicas de las presentes dificultades y deficiencias a la hora de entregar monografías satisfactorias y completas, capaces de explicar el periodo de una manera comprensiva. La acotación del período 1969-1975 es clarificada previamente ante el vacío historiográfico al respecto. Se recuperan aquellas películas concretas de esta corriente y período que no figuran en los fondos de los archivos fílmicos estatales. Por último, se extraen las conclusiones pertinentes.

PALABRAS CLAVE: Cine, Crisis cinematográfica, Período Oscuro, Géneros cinematográficos, Franquismo, Thriller, Policíaco, Techniscope, Novela popular

RESUME
Definição da etapa de crises do sistema cinematográfico franquista, chamada aqui “Período Oscuro” (1969-1975), e definição dos problemas metodológicos encontrados em relação a investigação de tal etapa histórica do cinema espanhol, e sobre tudo em relação ao thriller policial. A delimitação do período de 1969-1975 é explicada previamente ante o vazio historiográfico a respeito desse período. Se recuperam aqueles filmes concretos desta corrente e período que não aparecem nas coleções dos arquivos fílmicos estatais. Por último, se extraem as conclusões pertinentes.

PALAVRAS CHAVE: Crises cinematográfica, Período Oscuro, Gêneros cinematográficos, Franquismo, Thriller policial, Techniscope, Novela popular

Received: 02/02/2017
Accepted: 19/09/2017
Published: 15/03/2018

Correspondence: José Luis López Sangüesa. joseluislsanguesa@hotmail.com

How to cite the article
López Sangüesa, J. L. (2018). Methodological problems in the research of the “dark period” of Spanish cinema (1969-1975): the case of thriller [Problemas metodológicos en la investigación del “período oscuro” del cine español (1969-1975): el caso del thriller].
Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación, nº 142, 01-17
doi http://doi.org/10.15178/va.2018.142.1-17
Recuperado de http://www.vivatacademia.net/index.php/vivat/article/view/936

1. INTRODUCTION

There is a significant gap in regard to the monographic study of the final period of the film of the Francoism (which corresponds to the permanent abandonment, since 1969, of the cinematographic policies inherited from Garcia Escudero) and the low budget genre films of the time have only received a distant and pejorative treatment. Only the very recent sociological-cultural study on local cinema in Spain, funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (Huerta Floriano and Pérez Morán, 2012), and works by some critics and amateurs as well as of Pérez Bowie (2013) (cinema historian specialized in literary adaptations) on relations between cinema and popular literature under Franco, they begin to take care of the latter, although most approaches are either amateurish and lack therefore of real scientific interest, or they constitute only very partial approximations to it without sake of completeness or aggregate analysis, or from a prism of literary or sociological analysis that remains without comprehend the global nature and therefore it is not relevant here. Not even the monograph by antonomasia about Spanish cinema bis (Turia Billboard Team, 1974) addresses the issue with pretensions to analyze it in all its complexity, but rather it dispatches it with successive diatribes and an outdated and questionable characterization, in addition to dispense absolutely with the thriller of the time.
Moreover, it should be noted that the Spanish thriller of the seventies (let alone throughout its global historical ups and downs) lacks a systematic and comprehensive study to characterize it with the appropriate rigor.

2. OBJECTIVES

The overall objective of this article is to demonstrate the serious methodological problems impeding the investigation of a historical period of recent Spanish cinema that has not been sufficiently documented or even scientifically bounded: what here has come to be called the “Dark Period “(1969-1975). To this end, h the example of the Spanish police thriller of that period have been taken, a film current of great quantitative importance at the time, but which, however, has never been studied previously as a whole. For its part, the specific objectives would be:

1. The recovery of documentary sources of the time to help clarify the historical details of the period.
2. The finding of important documentary gaps in regard to the Spanish thriller of the period.
3. The recovery of the Spanish thriller films of the period for the film heritage, given that they are lost or the state film archives of our country lack copies.

3. METHODOLOGY

First, a filmography of the Spanish thriller “Dark Period” of 1969-1975 has been developed. To prepare it, yearbooks (those of Uniespaña the National Union of the Spectacle: 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1976), biographical repertoires (the Falquina, 1975), guides and dictionaries (Down Pablos, 2001; Aguilar 2006, Gasca, 1998; Riambau and Torreiro, 1998; Riambau and Torreiro, 2008), chronologies (Cebollada, 1996), Internet databases (IMDB, Spanish Film Library), and the professional journal Cineinforme have been consulted. For the dating of the films the date of the legal deposit (estimated to be the most reliable in the unreliability of the dates of the film productions) or from signs of credits of the films themselves viewed, either through the data of the scripts deposited in the National Library (if any) along with filing cards, final script and shooting photos for effecting the above legal deposit have been used.
In total 147 titles have been found understood as police thrillers, from which 141 have been seen in official institutions (BNE, Spanish Film Library), internet or home DVD player.
Second, the methodological problems that have been found along this arduous research have been scored, and included in the discussion section of this article, for better knowledge and understanding.
Finally, we have collected those titles absent from the audiovisual archives of public institutions (Cinematheque Spanish, BNE) titles, and described the documentation that we could find about them, since they are absolutely unknown works of our cinema. Finally, the appropriate conclusions have been drawn.

4. RESULTS

It is expected to rescue important sources for documentation of the “Dark Period” of 1969-1975, as well as the documentary film recovery funds crime thriller this stage, which may be of expensive research and historical reconstruction of this genre importance at the time given its apparently great quantitative importance, in the time of crisis the economy of Francoism film and all its political, legal, cultural and educational apparatus in the field of cinematography.

5. DISCUSSION

5.1. The “Dark Period” of Spanish cinema

What has been called here “Dark Period” of Spanish cinema wuold constitute the historical root of many audiovisual evils in different areas and with different faces, that our country has continued to suffer, as will be seen later. Strange and coincidentally, there seemed to be no scientifically established prior periodization, that drew its intrinsic characteristics and its chronological limits. And what is more shocking still is that the period immediately following has its own scientific dimension, mainly because it is an historical moment so important and well known, and commonly called “political transition”. About a scientific periodization of so turbulent and decisive stage, is very important in the film industry itself, the text of Julio Perez Perucha and Vicente Ponce (2011, pp 223-268.) Some instructions to avoid methodological shipwrecks and track democratic Transition in the Spanish cinema.
Since the late 50s, the gradual collapse of the studio system in the Spanish film occurs. Support policies to cinematography by the state become paramount for the survival of some indigenous film industry. In 1962, with the liberal airs subsequent to the end of autarchy and the Stabilization Plan of Navarro Rubio of 1957, will come a second time as Director General of Cinematography an auditor colonel of the Legal Army Corps, José María García Escudero, great cinephile, which also it had the purpose of fulfilling the film regeneration program of the Salamanca Talks, where the majority of the anti-Franco left of the PCE converged, and national catholic sectors addicts to the military regime. García Escudero will launch, starting in 1962, a battery of protectionist measures granting automatic aid and loans from the state to Spanish film productions. But the systematic squandering of the budget of the Fund for the Protection of Cinematography, together with the Matesa scandal, will put an end in 1969 to such policies, and will lead to an era of crisis of Spanish cinema, which, although it has evolved historically, politically socially and economically, it may be said, however, that it has extended its aftermath until today.
The essential features of this period are as follows:

1. Severe economic crisis of our cinema, simultaneous to the prevalence and decline of low-budget co-productions.
2. Intensification of censorshipl repression starting from Sanchez Bella appointment as Minister of Information and Tourism.
3. Instability of film policies and the administrative existence of the General Directorate of Cinematography itself.
4. Practical Disappearance of New Spanish Cinema (whose will is the collective film The Challenges (1968), and difficulties of integrating their pupils in the last Franco cinematic apparatus.
5. Serious political conflicts of the Official School of Cinematography, sharpened starting from the practice of Antonio Drove The witchhunt, of 1967, and the International Film School Meeting of Sitges, in the same year and worsened during the studied period until the death of this institution.
6. Radicalization and subsequent sinking of the ASDREC, the directors’ union founded by filmmakers of the PCE to infiltrate the verticality.
7. Dominance, and growing decline, of the misnamed subgenre films.
8. Competition, already considerable, of the television, especially since 1969.
9. Decline of movie theaters by the diversification of the f leisure offers and the more selective character of the viewers.

This so-called “Dark Period” of our cinema is therefore extended from the end of the film policies inherited from Garcia Escudero in 1969, until 1975, the year that marks the end point of this stage, for three main reasons: the death in practice of international co-productions that have characterized this period; the enactment in February of the new and more permissive Code of Censorship by the Minister of Information and Tourism Pío Cabanillas, a regulation that will make the censorial repression no longer be so all-embracing and decisive; and finally, the disappearance of General Franco in November.
The aftermath of the 1969-1975 crisis era have extended until today, and so it results bitterly surprising that there is no historiography of this period, and, of course, no monograph on it. The above can be seen in some of the cases listed: the permanent economic crisis of Spanish cinema has continued, with occasional intervals of some relative prosperity, from 1969 to today; the instability of film policies has also been painfully apparent; the enormous difficulties of integration or professional continuity of most filmmakers also continue; as also the perennial decline of showrooms.
Even the branch of Image (today Audiovisual Communication), of the Faculty of Information Sciences from the Complutense, and with it the university audiovisual teaching, arising from the calculated collapse of the previous Official School of Cinematography by the then Minister of Information and Tourism, Sanchez Bella, and the last director of that institution, Juan Julio Baena. It is also a time of disappearance of specialist film publications, in which practically only a group of critics, linked in the so-called Marta Hernandez Collective, cares to undertake a rigorous and systematic analysis of the situation of Spanish cinema since the crisis 1969. His verdict on the newly founded university audiovisual teaching could not be bleaker:

When E.O.C. disappears, nothing moves in the film industry. Upon the liquidation of New Spanish Cinema operation, the need for school fizzles as an ideological and technical crucible of the men who made it possible. Freed, once again, from the committed ideological task of N.C.E., the industry itself is sufficient to produce its workforce. To cover a bureaucratic record and save face after liquidating the E.O.C., the branch of Image of the Faculty of Information Sciences is created, as a substitute and successor that would channel and will temper the cultural concerns of young lovers of cinema “art”. The illusion that things i “continue as they are” is thus created But nothing further. Any link between the new school institution and the rest of the cinematographic apparatus (the industry in particular is lost, the students of the Image branch are left in the faculty, totally helpless and marginalized from the production process and movement of labor in the film industry, the General Direction ignores them, what previously -in EOC- were considerable budgets dependent on a buoyant Ministry of Information and Tourism, for a few privileged students now are miserable budgets, dependent on a non-buoyant Ministry of Education for countless legions of students. What pretends to be a factory of labor, is no longer a factory, only of illusions. As in vulgar terms it was said a few years ago, “there are no exits.” (Hernandez, 1976, p. 133).

As can be seen, there was also a crisis in the audiovisual pedagogy, especially with regard to the integration of teaching with professional structures of the sector. This crisis (in various forms) has also been extended to the present time. It can be concluded, in this regard, and as anticipated above, that this period is the root of many of our audiovisual ills today, so it is especially necessary to promote its study.
In parallel with the growing economic decline of the film industry a strength, also growing, of the television medium, arises.
In 1969, the I Foessa Report quantified that 62% of households already have television. The audience of 1970 was estimated by TVE around 15 million viewers daily. The legal disappearance of the luxury tax from having a receiver in 1965 had favored an enormous increase in sales of equipment (Rueda Laffond, 2005, p. 55). Added to this is television consumption through television clubs (promoted from 1964 by the Ministry of Information and Tourism, apparently in imitation of an initiative of the Third Reich, in 1942) and, especially, of tenements and bars (Op. cit., pp. 57 and 59). It is precisely since 1969 that consumption of television receivers could affect the number of cinemas immediately. Thus, from 1965 to 1968 inclusive, the park remains at 7,207 rooms, and in 1969 amounted to 7.233: but, since 1970, it will be gradually descending to the 5,076 of 1975. The dramatic decline will continue after ... (Bone Heap 1991, pp. 9-21).
With all this it will come about upon a new situation in the Spanish audiovisual, characterized essentially over the period 1969-1975, by the following features:

1. Concern the film industry by the strong competition of TVE and, above all, for its programming of abundant films.
2. Framework Agreements with TVE since 1969.
3. Refuge of multiple professionals (especially of the shipwrecked New Spanish Cinema and the underground) in TVE.
4. Promotion of prestigious telefilms (and shot in photochemical support) for export to international festivals and to revalidate a quality image of TVE.
5. Notorious importance of Techniscope as super panoramic and spectacular format (sort of cheap version of “bigger than life” of the US in 50), and primarily aimed at TV competition through commercial genre films of low budget. Super panoramic system of Italian patent, 1: 2’35 (spherical shooting and filming and anamorphic printing), facilitated a considerable saving of negative surface (ideal for a time of deep crisis), since it employed only two perforations per band. It had enough weight at the time: from a total of 147 thrillers of the Period, 35 (approximately 24%) were filmed under this procedure. Of these, the overwhelming majority (27, ie 77%) are Spanish-Italian co-productions, which explains the disappearance of this technical system with the fall of international co-productions in our country since 1975.

5.2. Methodological research problems of the period and of the from 1969 to 1975

Before the death during the “Dark Period”, of most specialized film publications of genuinely rigorous nature, and the majority lack of interest of historians for the bulk of the films of this stage, there are three main contemporary sources to document: the already mentioned compendium book of the Marta Hernandez Collective (The Spanish cinematographic apparatus, Madrid, Akal, 1976); the film magazine Cinema in Seven Days, an especially frivolous publication that expired in 1973; and the ABC newspaper. The second source will publish starting from 1970, series of articles of the critics Ruiz Butron (1970) and Vizcaino Casas (1970 and 1971) as well as the producer José Pedro Villanueva (1970, 1972 and 1973), highly involved in the situation crisis of indigenous filmmaking, and that because of their critical load and testimonial value, merit consideration. Also worthy of mention is From blue to green: the Spanish cinema during the Franco regime, of the now defunct Domènec Font (1976) -in which he namedperiods of a phase 1970-1975 naming it “of disintegration and new forms of engagement” - the interesting book of José María Otero (2006) TVE: film school, referring to the history of TVE relations with cinema, especially in the legal, labor and economic areas; and the legislative monograph by Antonio Vallés Copeiro del Villar (1996), History of the policy of promoting Spanish cinema.
Other important documentary sources of the era, such as the ASDREC newsletters unfortunately have not been collected entirely by the film archives of our country, which deprives us of a valuable tool for understanding the evolution of the Spanish cinema of the period in its economic, labor and union issues.
There are no filmographies of the Spanish thriller since the mid-60s until today. As for case studies, there are two exceptions: the first would be the articles of Antonio Jose Navarro (2006) (The cinema noir and the Spanish thriller (1950-1975). History of a misunderstanding, pp 335-355), Jesus Palacios (2006) (Neither rebels nor causes: youth rebellion in the Spanish cinema of the 90, pp 369-383.), and Ruben Lardín (2006) (Less is nothing. an approach to the last Spanish cinema noir, pp 389-401 ), published in the collective book Euronoir, black series with European flavor, published by the T & B publishing house in collaboration with the International Film Festival of Las Palmas. The other exception is also the responsibility of the same publisher: the very recent volume of Jose Antonio Luque (2014) entitled The Spanish cinema noir, aims to be the most complete view of all the detective films produced in our country, in a kind of encyclopedia of Spanish detective films.
However, there still does not exist as such, a systematic and comprehensive filmography of the entire criminal thematic cinema produced in Spain between 1969 and 1975, in what has been called here the “Dark Period.”
As for dating, the starting problems were clear: there were not, or were not found, yearbooks of Uniespaña 1973, 1974 and 1975. The chronology of Spanish cinema made by Cebollada is, with all respect, a cluster of mistakes. Also, IMDB, though estimable in many respects, also contains various errors and omissions, as the files are made either by professionals or anonymous amateurs. Often, the technical specifications of little-known films or filmographies of little valued media professionals, are not complete. In this sense, and with respect to films qualified for commercial distribution in Spain, the most reliable database for the establishment of a filmography of this type of data is still the Spanish Film Library.
Some of the films viewed in triacetate cellulose support were in a state of advanced deterioration due to acetic degradation syndrome or vinegar syndrome. The contraction of the copies produced by the loss of plasticizer of the support caused some of them to break often along the joints of acetone when passing through the drums of a Moviola. Also, some films have only been able to be watched in working copies used in his day to check the color correction and sound mixing. In these copies, the screen aspect ratio constantly varied, so it was difficult to deduce it from the material itself. However, others, those filmed in Techniscope, are easy cataloged in this regard, because they are anamorphic exploitation copies , which in the Cinematheque must be viewed on a special Steinheim moviola, provided with an anastigmatic lens or desanamorphizing.
Another methodological problem encountered in the study of this stage concerns the insertion of Spanish cinema since the 60’ in the European panorama of international co-productions. This will imply that different categories belonging to national currents of crime thriller in other European countries will enter the Spanish cinema, with special force in the “Dark Period” where, especially between 1969 and 1973, will join our film the Italian giallo and the poliziesco, the French polar, and the Krimi of the Federal Republic of Germany. It was necessary to characterize each of these filmic currents and provide a short synopsis of their evolution to make understandable further study, since most of them are concepts unknown today to most of the public and even researchers.
Other notable methodological problems have been the absence of a technological historiography of Spanish cinema, as well as technological documentation in film archives, which has hampered the characterization of the period in its technical and technological aspects.
Also the crisis of the policy of film genres has been a problem, since it has hindered the elaborate cataloging.
Finally, another research problem has rested in that the Film Library does not have any copies of several of these films, six of them specifically or such copies have not been cataloged or are not available. Some of these titles carry great importance and interest in historiographical terms, it would be very interesting to try to recover them for film archives.

5.2.1. Movies to recover

5.2.1.1. The Beauties /The beauties of the forest (1969)

Spanish-French co-production directed by a former standard-bearer of French poetic realism of the 30s, the important but forgotten today Pierre Chenal. We have only been able to find documentation on this unknown film on three sources: the first would be the bulky Exhumed Movies fanzine, published twice a year from Andalusia and dedicated to the damned cinema. The group of fans who makes is providing a great service to all who practice the cinematographic archeology. In the # 3, January, 2013, there is an article entitled “The beauties of the forest” and signed by Montse Gómez (pp. 116-129). In it, cast and technical data, graphic material, a historical contextualization of the film and its ins and outs and the circumstances under which transited, biographies of the director and actors, and excerpts from the press, distribution programs are included, and promotional phrases of the time. It states, among other things, that it was severely censored by the Franco administration, and did not get the license to show it until 1973, possible reasons why the Spanish Film Library does not seem to have it. It is also claimed that the film contains orgiastic and lesbianism scenes in its international version (released on DVD in Greece), but that such scenes do not exist in the Spanish version. The second source would be the Cinema Guide of Carlos Aguilar (2006, p.162), which states that it was shown very late in Spain, and that it “represents the decline of the estimable Pierre Chenal.” Finally, there is only one comment about this film on IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064078/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), which states that it is logical that its director signed it with a pseudonym, since, according to what it textually says, “has fallen really low with this soft semiporno film”

5.2.1.2. Jack the Ripper of London (1971), of Jose Luis Madrid

It does not seem to have been cataloged by the Spanish film library, but it has more information on it than the rest of the films reviewed here, quite possibly by the abundant international cohort of moviegoers fans of its protagonist, Jacinto Molina / Paul Naschy. In the films produced by Adolfo Camilo Diaz and Luis Vigil (. 1997, p 242) for Memoirs of a werewolf, Autobiography of Paul Naschy, it is said of the film:

Modernization of the myth of the enigmatic Ripper, with a well-contrived plot deftly resolved by Madrid, which comes to disorient the viewer completely. The surprising outcome is very well developed. Anthological scene of Naschy huge drinking bout. Entirely shot in London, he achieves an excellent climax. Awards: IV International Horror and Science Fiction Films of Sitges. Paul Naschy special mention for his great work for the fantasy film.

Freixas and Bassa (2006, p 288) considered it “infamous.” Neither the canonical Aguilar (2006, p 745.) distills greater sympathy for the film: “Arduous Mediterranean contribution to the filmography of the famous Ripper of Whitechapel, dating from a moment of industrial vitality of the terror genre.”. The page of fans reviews Filmaffinity (http://www.filmaffinity.com/es/reviews/1/944054.html) dedicated to him, however, a good review, punctuated with a 6 out of 10 and headed for the title “A good Spanish police film”. This review, inter alia, points the following:

Entertaining and serious revisitation of good Jack, which through a contrived good script, gives us false clues throughout the film (we never see the face of the murderer, only close-ups of a hand wielding a dagger, while he sinks it into the body of his victims), due to which, and following the investigation carried out by a methodical London inspector, together with the behavior of the trapeze artist and some other disturbing character, keeps you pending about who can be the murderer, solving the enigma in a magnificent form at the end. (...) It seems that it was well received in the fourth festival of Sitges, where Paul Naschy also earned a special mention for his contribution to fantasy films. Absolutely recommended.

Both the argument and the fuzzy notes on his narrative, seem to confirm that this is one of the films of José Luis Madrid attached to Krimi or criminal film of West German ancestry set in London, , notwithstanding in this case, that it is a Spanish-Italian co-production. It was written by the screenwriter at that time specialist in spaghetti-westerns, and, as evidenced by the fragment of the film posted in Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCEetFxeOG8), it took advantage, as the films of the disparagingly called spaghetti-gangster of 1968-1969, sets of previous Spanish-Italian westerns. This also seems to disprove with firmness the assertion of Camilo Diaz and Vigil that the film was shot “entirely in London.”
In IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067260/) another fan devotes it a review with a low approval (5 out of 10): he says that it can be seen that several scenes were filmed in London, and is quite likely that there were a version with nudes for the international market. Practice, of course, quite common in the “Dark Period” until 1973, when in the compostelan Cinema Yago the “wrong” copy of The Melancholics of Rafael Moreno Alba was projected, and this caused the final administrative ban on the practice of the double version.

5.2.1.3. The closed door (1972), of José Giovanni

Also conducted as an international co-production regime, it offers the interesting distinction of being directed by one of the great names of French polar and European thriller, José Giovanni. It is a sick mysterious film that almost nobody seems to have seen in our country. However, we have been able to find five Spanish comments on it. The first is a critical review of an anonymous author, written for the Cinema in 7 Days magazine (604, 11/04/72, p. 22). It relates Giovanni to European currents of neo-noir:

After Jean-Pierre Melville we did not know any other European renovator of those magnificent examples of black American cinema, which made many glories of mediocre writers or rose from the darkness of the unknown to memorable novelists, as D. Hammett.
Both filmmakers are related in their conception of detective films and their way of treating the “heroes.” Melville and Giovanni are the poets of the loneliness of the marginalized man.

Moreover, write-up assessments made here are quite vague, and are limited to the subject (the fatalistic and tragic adventures of a lone gangster) and praise of sobriety of the protagonists: Jean-Claude Bouillon and Nicoletta, and the secondary Spanish José Bódalo and José María Caffarel, common in international co-productions, especially the second one for his knowledge of languages.
The second is a review of Donald (1972) for ABC of Madrid (11.04.72, p. 15), in which it is said that this is a film with scarce means, mediocre actors –according to the judgment of the critic- and a meritorious achievement. Otherwise, this text is not a documentary contribution of greater relevance.
The third is an article by A.C. (Initials of Antonio Colón, 1974) for ABC of Sevilla (7/11/74, p. 49), in which he talks about the plot of the film: a lone robber chased and besieged by the police. Colón negatively points out the lack of originality of the plot, but praises the ability of the filmmaker.
The fourth belongs to the specialist Antonio Llorens (1998, p. 124), who also gives signals of not having seen it:

Title of distribution in Spain of a Un aller simple, film by José Giovanni in an Spanish-Italian-French co-production and filmed in Rome Studies that disappeared in 1970, adapting a novel by Henry Edward Helseth, The chair for Martin Rome, which had It has been the subject of a version around 1948 by Robert Siodmak, entitled in the United States Cry of the city, and in Spain, A marked life.

The fifth and last comment was made by Carlos Aguilar (2006) in his Film Guide (p. 1157). In the same way, it seems not to have seen it: “Probably the least known of all films that make up the filmography of former novelist Jose Giovanni, a thriller barely exhibited somewhere and it is very difficult to find any data.” There are two comments in English in the IMDB database (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067632/reviews?ref_=tt_urv). In the first of these, it is stated that the outcome of this film is to some extent a draft of a well-known and representative of its author as Two men in the city (Deux hommes dans la ville, 1973) work.

5.2.1.4. Either you kill him ... or I kill him (1973), by Butch Lion

The signature of the director is actually a pseudonym shared by two co-directors, Dieter Geissler and Roberto Leoni. It was a Spanish-Italian-German co-production, co-written by the German actor Peter Berling and the Spanish producer Jose Antonio Sainz de Vicuña. Apparently, it was a police-musical, comedy starring the gospel band Les Humphries, highly acclaimed in the Federal Republic of Germany. At first glance, this is a film without interest. only two comments were found on it. The first, written by Aguilar (2006, p 825.) in his Film guide: “Strange German-Spanish co-production (sic) designed to exploit on screen the ephemeral popularity of the musical group The Humphries, with a history of rivalry between two bands of gangsters, one exclusively female.”. The other comment belongs to a blog called the Videoclub of the 80’ (http://elvideoclubdelos80.blogspot.com.es/2009/11/lo-matas-tu-o-lo- mato-yo_28.html). In it, it says that the film is a chaotic monstrosity where the cast mates of the gallant protagonist (Mark Damon) were Cris Huerta and Tin Long blatantly paraphrasing Bud Spencer and Bruce Lee. It should had been an exploitation film without pretense other than those of rapid commercial capitalization.

5.2.1.5. Infamy (1974) by Giovanni d’Eramo

Unknown thriller or Spanish-Italian erotic giallo starring Marisa Mell. It has been released on DVD in the United States with the title Death will have your eyes. It was mentioned in number 2 of the fanzine Exhumed Movies, an issue not in my possession and is now absolutely exhausted and untraceable.
Another appears in the book’s Thirst for more (2014), of the film historian John D. Sanderson, a monograph on the international career of Paco Rabal. He says it was an international co-production initially driven by Espartaco Santoni, and in which was later involved Benito Perojo. The film paraphrased, according to Sanderson, the classic Desperate Hours (Desperate Hours, 1955), of William Wyler. The comment of the historian is, however, unmerciful: “The film is hardly bearable, with nonexistent production values and a repeat of twists in the plot that make it easily predictable.”
In the film blog of Kendra Steiner Editions (https://kendrasteinereditions.wordpress.com/2013/12/18/death-will-have-your-eyes-aka-la-moglie-giovane-directed-by-giovanni-deramo- italy-spain-1974/) there is nonetheless a comment in it fairly benevolent on the English film “the writing is intelligent, and the film is full of little touches that rises it above the criminal melodrama that it essentiallyis.”
There is another comment on the web, specifically in the 10K Bullets site (http://10kbullets.com/reviews/d/death-will-have-your-eyes/). It claims that the film is visually pedestrian compared to the achievements of Bava, Argento or Sergio Martino, and that the weight of the narrative falls on the shoulders of the protagonists: the already touted Marisa Mell, along with Helga Liné and Farley Granger.
The remaining reference to the film belongs to the already canonical Aguilar (2006, 723 p.): “Especially damned movie, which proposes a most rarefied and claustrophobic detective intrigue. In principle it was going to be called Death will come and will take your eyes practically was not even distributed, despite having a trio of protagonists not despicable ...”

5.2.1.6. The Achilles heel (1974), of Leon Klimovsky

Film apparently irrelevant, of which almost no references exists, and if any they are very vague. It is a film that, again, no one seems to have seen, a title whose documentary existence borders on the ghostly. It was born in the shadow of the Against the Empire of the Drug (The French Connection, 1973), of Friedkin. His only commentator is Aguilar (2006, p 1.353.):
Spanish police film of low-budget and lower ambitions, typical subproduct of a very particular stage of Spanish cinema. A policeman named Achilles faces an adventurer known as Hector by a matter of drug trafficking. The intended title for a hypothetical distribution abroad was The French Disconnection.
There are no comments on this movie on the Internet, not even on IMDB, where even the technical specifications are incomplete.

6. CONCLUSIONS

Several conclusions of interest are drawn:

1. The need to further study the “Dark Period” of Spanish cinema since the end of García Escudero policies in 1969 to 1975 inclusive.
2. The existence of serious methodological problems facing the investigation of a recent historical period film as it is 1969-1975.
3. The need to restore or recover filmic funds from our recent past, specifically of the thriller from 1969 to 1975.
4. The need to recover valid sources for research of Spanish cinema from 1969 to 1975, such as the magazine Cinema in 7 Days in the final period (1970-1973) or the book of Marta Hernandez (1976) The apparatus of Spanish cinema.
5. The need to enhance the wealth of sources about the “Dark Period” and the Spanish police film from 1969 to 1975, sources many of them in the hands of fans, by the lack of scientific research on these films and materials. However, attention should be given to such sources from fans, because they may contain important clues for research, or materials or objectively valuable data for a proper scientific inquiry.
6. A more general conclusion would be that of the different and wide gaps that remain to be filled in the area of the recent Spanish film history.

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