DwightFry

This is one of a series of zarzuela adaptations made for Spanish television in the late sixties, and the first of the bunch I have seen. I guess it's representative of the lot in being amusing and watchable but coming across as phony, since they cast screen actors and dubbed singing voices over them instead of using singing stage actors-singers, and it's also one of those screen productions in which a character sits in front of a piano, starts singing while pretending to play it, and out of nowhere comes a full orchestra that includes everything... except for a piano. If that kind of stuff is okay with you and you're musically inclined, you could do worse than watching this one.

However, there's a gigantic missed opportunity here: the potentially funniest and most memorable character is Toribio Clarinetti the street musician turned fake prince, and the cast includes the great José Sacristán, which if cast in that role would have easily stolen the picture and created something truly memorable with it. Unfortunately Sacristán is wasted in the comparatively dull role of the innkeeper while Toribio is played by one Antonio Martelo that I wasn't familiar with before and while he's not terrible he doesn't do much in the role either, plus he looks too old for the part. Since they're both non-singing characters, they could have easily switched roles for the viewer's benefit.

This is the only filming of this particular zarzuela so if one likes the genre it may be interesting, and also Rosanna Yanni looks gorgeous as the courtesan. Though a version with real singing actors would have been much preferable, for my tastes at least. 5/10.

Fate demanded that this short film dealing with the death of Fidel Castro would have its first public screening just three days before Castro's actual death. Of course, it makes the short become instantly outdated in a way because of the circumstances of his real death being quite different, but one way or the other I thought it was very clever in its premise, funny and tragic at the same time.

However, I must advise you to do your best at not looking at the short's promotional poster seen here on IMDb without watching the film first. Are you familiar with that infamous video cover of "Planet of the Apes" that has the twist ending in plain sight? Well, the poster here is exactly the same case. So much as to make watching the short redundant and unnecessary, as it's all spoiled there. It would be like putting the Skywalker family tree in the first release poster for "The Empire Strikes Back".

It you bend the poster bullet, the short itself is more than recommended, regardless of what one thinks of Fidel Castro. Also I think it's Eduardo Casanova's best work yet, the couple shorts by him I've seen before, including the controversial "Eat my Sh*t", left me quite cold for being way too over the top kitschy for my tastes, kind of Almodóvar up to 11. This one is kinda kitschy too, but less over the top and I think it works better. It's on YouTube at the moment of this posting, and it has no spoken dialogue so you can watch it regardless of your language. Just, you know, avoid looking at the poster until afterwards.