Don Chisciotte della Mancia

Pretty good but overlong adaptation upon the best literary work ever written that stands in a unique position between medieval chivalric romance and the modern novel and considered to be the most faithful of all the major film versions of Cervantes' novel . Splendid film follows the adventures of a nameless Hidalgo who reads so many chivalric romances that he loses his sanity and decides to set out to revive chivalry , undo wrongs , and bring justice to the world , under the name Don Quixote (Rafael Rivelles) . To these ends, ¨Alonso Quixano¨ dons an old suit of armour , renames himself "Don Quixote", names his exhausted horse "Rocinante", and designates Aldonza Lorenzo , a neighboring farm girl , as his lady love , renaming her Dulcinea del Toboso . Quijote , nearing fifty and some years of age , recruits a simple farmer , Sancho Panza (Juan Calvo) , as his squire, who often employs an unique , earthy wit in dealing with Don Quixote's rhetorical orations on antiquated knighthood . Adapted from the work of Miguel de Cervantes , we then follow Don Quixote on their adventures , his squire Sancho Panza and an old horse named Rocinante , undertaking several feats when he frees a group of galley slaves or attacks wildmills or in Insula de Barataria . On their journeys , they rescue dames in distress in honorable acts and fight giants among other perils , with Don longing to be with the love of his life , lady Dulcinea , and Sancho waiting to be rewarded with an island where he's about to become a governor .

This is the amazing and fun story of a Hidalgo , fanatic for chivalry novels , decides to go on imaginary adventures along with his friend , the simple farmer Sancho Panza , who becomes his squire . This enduring romantic adventure deals with the enthusiast , passionate knight Don Quixote and it is paced in enjoyable as well as deliberate rhythm . The film is quite amusing with emphasis on spectacle and following faithfully the immortal novel , being scripted by Antonio Abad Ojuel providing a literary synthesis along with director Rafael Gil himself . Based on the classic novel written by Miguel De Cervantes , Don Quixote is considered one of the most influential works of literature from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish literary canon and deemed to be one of the greatest novels in literature history . At the film occurs several known episodes , such as : when ¨the knight of sad countenance¨ arrives at an inn , which he believes to be a castle , as he calls the prostitutes he meets "ladies" ; Don Quixote next "frees" a group of chained prisoners ; destruction of Don Quixote's library , this gives occasion for many comments on books Cervantes liked and disliked ; Don Quixote's attack on windmills that he believes to be ferocious giants ; when Quijote and Sancho encounter a group of friars accompanying ladies in a carriage and he free them , as Don Quixote takes the friars to be enchanters who hold the lady captive , knocks a friar from his horse , and is immediately challenged by an armed Basque traveling with the company ; Don Quixote attacks a rider and takes the ¨Helmet of Mambrino¨ and when is wounded he attempts to cure himself thanks to ¨balsam of Fierabrás¨and a lot of adventures .

This series was perfectly interpreted , including marvelous production design , gorgeous photography by Alfredo Fraile, evocative soundtrack by Ernesto Halffter and anything else . Such was filmmaker Rafel Gil's attention to detail that it was shot on actual historical location , inns , villages from La Mancha and usual carton/stone settings from CIFESA . Masterful interpretation by the great Rafael Rivelles as the famous Quijote who loses his sanity and believing to be a knight named Don Quixote de La Mancha, and his fellow squire Sancho , Quixote's best friend , magnificently performed by Juan Calvo . Support cast is frankly awesome , giving top-notch acting and formed by prestigious secondaries , such as: Fernando Rey as Bachiller Sansón Carrasco , Manolo Morán , Sara Montiel , Nani Fernández, José María Seoane , Juan Espantaleón , María Asquerino, Francisco Bernal, Carmen de Lucio, Eduardo Fajardo, Julia Lajos, Félix Fernández, Julia Caba Alba, José Prada, Arturo Marín, Guillermo Marin , Milagros Leal , Cándida Losada, Francisco Rabal, Antonio Riquelme ,Santiago Rivero, Rafael Romero Marchent, Angel Álvarez , Conrado San Martín , Manuel Requena , among others . This stunning version of Cervantes' famous novel was lavishly produced by Compañía Industrial Film Español S. A. (CIFESA)/Juan Manuel Rada and stunningly directed by Rafael Gil.

¨Don Quijote de la Mancha (1947)¨ results to be another of uncountable versions dealing with the unforgettable novel ¨Don Quijote De La Mancha¨ by Miguel Cervantes y Saavedra and in which Quixote and Sancho take on numerous dangers and adventures . Other recounting about this notorious story are as follows : ¨Don Quixote¨ (1933) by G. W. Pabst with Feodor Chaliapin Sr. ; ¨Don Quijote De La Mancha¨ by Rafael Gil with Rafael Rivelles , Juan Calvo and Sara Montiel ; ¨Orson Welles's Don Quijote¨ with Akim Tamiroff ; ¨Don Quijote Cabalga De Nuevo¨ by Roberto Gabaldon with Cantinflas , Fernando Fernan Gomez , Maria Fernanda D'Ocon ; ¨Man of Mancha¨ by Arthur Hiller with Peter O'Toole , James Coco , Sofia Loren and for American TV : ¨Don Quijote¨ by Peter Yates with John Lightgow and Bob Hoskins ; latterly : ¨Don Quixote: The Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha¨ (2015) by Dave Dorsey . And Don Quijote TV series by Manuel Gutierrez Aragón with Alfredo Landa , Aitana Sanchez Gijón, Fernando Rey , this was last of four Don Quixote films featuring Fernando Rey in some capacity . In Don Quijote ¨(1948) by Rafael Gil , Fernando played Sansón Carrasco , Fernando would later be in Don Quijote Von der Mancha (1965) , El Quijote de Miguel de Cervantes (1991), and supply new narration for the final scene in Don Quijote de Orson Welles (1991) . Being followed by ¨El Caballero Don Quijote¨ also by Manuel Gutierrez Aragón with Juan Luis Galiardo and Carlos Iglesias . And for cartoon movie was made ¨Don Quijote De La Mancha¨ by Cruz Delgado and ¨Donkey Xote¨ (2007) by Jose Pozo.

I saw this film at a special library screening several years ago. The print was rather worn out, and the music reproduction was horrible at first,but it improved some afterwards. This is by far the most literally faithful of all the film versions of the Cervantes novel I have ever seen. (The 1992 color Spanish TV miniseries,entitled "El Quijote", with Fernando Rey in the role, is even more faithful, but stops at the end of Part I of the book.) It is clear that Spain truly reveres its greatest novel, since they chose to place as many as possible of its episodes on film as they could in 134 minutes, and in the exact order in which they occur in the book. But you'd think they would have gone to more trouble to insure that the details in this film were memorable. Rafael Rivelles and Juan Calvo look exactly like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, even without makeup (I have seen them before), but they just don't bring enough acting ability and/or personality to these roles. They are competent, certainly not bad, but completely unmemorable, as is everyone else (the one exception is the young beardless Fernando Rey,who plays Sanson Carrasco as if he were full of himself (maybe this was intentional). The photography is good,but not outstanding, and after the windmill sequences in Chaliapin's 1933 version and in the 1972 "Man of La Mancha", the one in this film just falls flat.

Nonetheless, this movie version of "Don Quixote" made a great impact in Spain when first released, and remains interesting.

Update in 2011: I have since seen the film again on YouTube (it isn't available on video in the U.S., and unfortunately, it's not on YouTube anymore). I found that all of my criticisms have withstood the many years since I first saw it.