Los liantes

A funny and silly comedy about a duo of sympathetic rogue men , professionally directed by the prolific Mariano Ozores. Bemusing story with embarrassing moments and fun acting by likable comedians : Esteso and Pajares . Spain, in the early eighties, Fidel (Fernando Esteso) , Amador (Andres Pajares) and Eduardo (Antonio Ozores) form a peculiar team of botcher swindlers . One day they find a very superstitious man (Emiliano Redondo) who believes that there is "the elephant man", a ¨lucky charm man¨played by Pajares . It deals with a sympathetic pair of unlucky cons who carry out their scams and fakes by deceiving unwary people . In this flick there is humor , amusment and guffaws . As they live without working quite well by using thousands of tricks and traps . Both of them join during the roulette game and scheme to win an amount of money , at whatever cost . But then things go wrong .

Fernando Esteso and Antonio Ozores are two cool Spanish actors , usually playing a duo of unfortunate , roguish swindlers as well as bungling people . This film perfectly reflects the mood and the reality of Spain in the immediate Post-Franco era. We cannot avoid talking about the importance in Spanish society of this picture in similar style to the really successful ¨Los Bingueros¨. I do appreciate it having been faithfully captured in this film. Made of an incredible mix of humor, "caspa" and diverting set pieces . I cringe when I watch thi s, and only some of the humour still holds up. The story is very simple and silly , but anyone who is Spanish and loves roulette and gambling will realize that the important things are to laugh with the movement and hilarious gags of colored actors playing roguish scammers who deceive unwary people into believing that they have a man of good luck, and as they scheme the scam of their lives , they're amusingly played by a phenomental trio : Pajares , Esteso and Antonio Ozores. Pajares and Esteso usually made a hit couple in a lot of films and achieved much success in the 80s . And ¨Los Liantes¨ was one of their greatest hits . The movies they played were funny and with many support's actors . The films were in short budget and lackluster but including comedy and lots of fun . Those contained many nude girls , laughs and slapstick , being mostly directed by Mariano Ozores , a craftsman filmmaker and writer , in fact he wrote the disconcerting screenplay , he recently won a Goya Award (2016) to his long and fruitful career . The latter , made with these two famous comedians , -Fernando and Andres Pajares- several films , as they had various years partnership between the two comedian leads , as ¨Los Bingueros" could kick "Star Wars: Empire strikes again" out of the number one of the ticket-sellers list in Spain in 1979 . And including other flicks as ¨Agitese Antes Usarla¨ , ¨Al Este Del Oeste¨, ¨Los Liantes¨, ¨Los Energeticos¨, ¨La Lola Lleva Al Huerto¨ , ¨El Currante¨, El Hijo Del Cura¨... This ¨Los Liantes¨ is a charming as well as embarrassing comedy that contains crazy events , nudism , amusing scenes and absurd situations . There are some nice jokes in the film and the cast , playing eccentric characters , make a cosy fit . It takes a simple concept , a duo of shameless friends executing twisted set-ups , scams , petty thefts and tricks in similar style to classical films of Commedia all'Italiana of the Fifties . It is a nutty Spanish comedy that offers no intellectual stimulus whatsoever , though it has some fun and hilarious moments . Humor is sometimes cheesy and gross-out with numerous naughty and picaresque situations such as frauds , sex jokes , jealousy , and erotic scenes . The film attempts to give laughs and it works here and there , resulting in an amusing though middling film . My feelings are extremely mixed but I must admit there are some brief and no very enjoyable laughters ; however , it also packs uneven comedy , piggy humor , and some political themes . ¨Los Liantes¨ partially reflects the mood and the reality of Post-Francoist Spain, dealing with politic juncture in ordinary style to other films from this period . It gives a silly but ironical Spain and Madrid outlook and describes some ¨Timos¨or ¨Fakes¨ carried out by the peculiar protagonists . Supporting cast is plenty of familiar faces such as : Emiliano Redondo , Alfonso del Real, Antonio Gamero , Emilio Forner , Adrián Ortega and addition , Antonio Ozores who often appears in films directed by his brother Mariano Ozores . Including several ¨Destape¨ or nudist actresses, such as : Adriana Vega , Loreta Tovar , Marcia Bell who often to show their splendid bodies .

An entertaining but so-so Spanish comedy film and with its ups and downs . Los Liantes (1981) is a mediocre picture , being regularly directed by Mariano Ozores with his habitual trademarks and had much success in the Spanish box office . Mariano's family origin is into show business , being son of Mariano Ozores Sr and brother of José Luis Ozores and Antonio Ozores . Furthermore , uncle of Adriana Ozores and Emma Ozores . He has a prolific career , and many actors and technicians worked and ate thanks to the huge success of his films . Ozores is a writer and director , especially in comedy genre such as : Disparate Nacional , Tahiti's Girl , Brujas Magicas , Los Presuntos , Cuatro Mujeres Y Un Lío , Tío ¿De Verdad Vienen De París? , Alcalde Por Elección , Ellas Los Prefieren... Locas , El Apolítico , Jenaro El De Los 14 , Manolo La Nuit , El Abuelo Tiene plan , La Llamaban La Madrina , La Graduada , Venta Por Pisos and many others . Being his ordinary actors , the followings : Alfredo Landa , Lina Morgan , Paco Martínez Soria , Antonio Ozores , Jose Luis Ozores , Juanito Navarro and , of course , Fernando Esteso and Andrés Pajares . If you want to have fun do not think more and tries to see this movie.

The film centers on three con artists and the jobs they orchestrate to take advantage of foreigners at a beach town. Made during the "destape" or "uncovered" era of Spanish film production, there are surprisingly few full frontal nude women. It is also surprising to see Pajares nearly nude in one scene since most of the films of this era featured nude women having sex with fully clothed men.

Not the best out of the string of movies churned out by the four man team (Pajares, Esteso and Ozores x 2) but it does has some laugh out loud moments and is a very good reflection of the attitudes of the day.

The movie starts out strong with a slew of gags and phrases that were imitated by fans all over Spain for many years. However; when the story begins to focus on fleecing a superstitious millionaire the comedy winds down, relying more heavily on wacky interpretation than comedic dialogue or situations. Well worth watching if only for the scene in the camper van - that I won't describe in detail so as not to spoil it.