El mal

This movie is great. Yes, it is a low budget film but the concept is clear. Economy is this movie's middle name. It's shot in a somewhat, unforgiving documentary style. The story is plausible in the real world. You're curious to see how Glenn Ford's character ends his journey. So much could go wrong, how far can he go before he loses all his marbles in a foreign environment? A different culture has the potential to react in ways one doesn't expect. What would you do as a viewer if you were in his shoes with his medical condition? Sure, this small film could be more polished in sound design, cinematography, etc. See it for yourself not for how much the production cost but how well an original story was executed by a great actor. A great movie like "Rage" aka "El Mal" doesn't need excessive millions of dollars. You're taken along for an intense ride at a fraction of the cost to make a "blockbuster." Enjoy.

With the making of Rage, the Mexican film industry decided to do what the British have done for years. Get a Hollywood name for the lead and set the film in London with a British cast. That extra bounce of a name from the movie capital is good for box office.

In this case they got two. Glenn Ford as a dissolute doctor and Stella Stevens as a working girl are in Mexico at a construction site, each practicing their own trade when Ford is bitten by a rabid dog.

It's a simple story, they are out in the wilds and Ford has to reach civilization and fast before the case becomes incurable. With Stevens's help he sets out on the journey always as a medical professional looking out for the telltale signs of his condition going beyond the point of medical help.

I saw Rage in theater back when it was released and after some showings on television it seems to have disappeared. Peter Ford's biography of his dad tells little about it.

Ford and Stevens turn in some fine performances. Maybe this will be unearthed and put out on DVD soon.

Mr. Ford never got the recognition he deserved for the consistent quality of his acting. 'Rage' also seems to have been forgotten in the shuffle, but is actually a very enjoyable film. The story is simple: a lush doctor is bitten by a rabid dog and has only a limited time to find the antidote before the diseases manifests itself. Doesn't sound like much of a story, but with a little help from Stella Stevens, who puts in a good performance as 'fallen woman', the plot moves along nicely. Some local flavor of the Mexican countryside is thrown in and all in all, a very enjoyable flic.

I saw this strange dark film on late night TV when I was a kid and it made an impression on me - certain intense scenes stayed with me - the rickety bridge crossings, the local man getting rabies and being brought in by ropes by the townspeople, Ford's dog mad from rabies, etc. I just saw it again and I really enjoyed it. It is well done, obviously on a low budget as part of an American/Mexican production. Ford is quite good as a depressed, drunk doctor at a rural Mexican mining town who gets bit by a dog and gets rabies - he then has to try and drive through harsh desert to make it into the next town in time to get the serum he needs to survive. Stella Stevens is a "dance hall girl" who is brought in with a troupe of gals to entertain the workers. Stevens is so damn hot in this flick - at the height of her Swinging Sixties sexiness. If you liked this film and the genre - try George Kennedy in the equally good A Cry In The Wilderness - a 1974 TV film about a man with rabies.

I enjoyed this movie a great deal; it has an interesting development of characters set within a construction camp for a major highway in rural New Mexico. Early in the film a local herder is brought in dying of rabies; the veterinarian becomes involved in a search for the source of the disease and whether it is part of an epidemic. A major side plot in the movie is the relationship between the veterinarian and a construction camp prostitute. There is a great deal of character development, and the lady's occupation is so subtly portrayed that it is an acceptable moview for older children. There is a great deal of empathy for the hard lives lived in a construction camp and its surrounding rural poverty.

Unlike most movies set in a rural atmosphere, the country people and blue collar workers are not cartoon buffoons or evil, violent troglodytes. This sensitive portrayal contrasts markedly with the brutal louts recently portrayed in a certain movie about commercial fishermen lost at sea, the Perfect Storm.